Raspberry Streusel Coffee Cake

A friend recently came to my house bearing a jam packed gallon zip bag filled with fresh frozen raspberries from her garden. Wow!  That is such a nice gift to get.  I had to think on it... should I make jam, cake, what would be best?

We had a co-worker with her birthday last week, so I whomped this up on Sunday night to be ready to celebrate Monday.  
Woo hoo, it's so fun to have a surprise!  
Except she was sick... 
So while we couldn't celebrate her, however, we did make everyone else quite happy.

This recipe is very adaptable to other flavors and fruits, I might try thin sliced apples with some cinnamon, or blueberries, or heck, why not chocolate chips?  When it's coffee cake, it is always good! I adapted from this recipe from Smitten Kitchen where she originally made this with blueberries.  I mixed powdered sugar with a little cream and drizzled over the cooled coffee cake. In the morning, we had some yummy crunchy icing over the streusel, which was fantastically yummy.

Topping:

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold is fine

Pinch of salt

Cake:

2 cups (less 2 Tbsp) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

1 large egg

1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla)

1 pint fresh, or frozen, raspberries

1/2 cup half and half cream

Drizzle icing or powdered sugar over the top

Heat oven to 375°F. Butter a 9-inch round baking pan (with at least 2″ sides) and dust it lightly with flour; line it with a round of parchment paper.

Prepare the topping by mixing the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt, then cutting the butter in with a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and zest together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture until just combined, followed by 1/2 the milk; repeat with remaining dry ingredients and milk, finishing with the dry mixture. The batter will be very stiff, but don’t fret. Fold berries into cake batter until evenly distributed.

Scoop cake batter into prepared pan and smooth so that it is flat. If using walnuts, scatter them on top. Sprinkle with prepared streusel. Bake in heated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out batter-free. You can let the cake cool complete in the pan on a rack, or just cool it in the pan for 20 minutes before flipping it out onto a cooling rack, removing the parchment paper lining, and flipping it back onto a plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if using.

Do ahead: Cake keeps covered with plastic or foil at room temperature for three days. If longer, it might be best to keep it in the fridge. It gets more moist each day.

A little coffee cake is always a yummy thing to have when you're at work.

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