One Bowl Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkle Cake

This cake was born because of Tamar from my office. She is a lovely young woman who surprised me one day by informing me she is a fan of my blog. This delighted me, of course (and she proved it by quoting my last post) but when I asked how many things she’s made, she looked at me with sad eyes and said, there’s so much I want to but a bunch of your recipes start with, “take two bowls”. I laughed and sympathized with her at the same time. She is a young working mother with young kids just as I was so many years ago, and sometimes the thought of one more bowl to wash just does you in.

So, I promised her I would create a recipe that was a one bowl recipe, bim bam boom done. The only thing you can’t count against me, Tamar, is the mixing of cinnamon and sugar in a cup on the side. It’s not a bowl so it don’t count! But seriously, you sometimes want a super fast and easy cake that is still scrumptious and I believe you will agree this is one.

Either mix this by hand or in a mixer. So start with your dry ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

First stir the cinnamon and sugar together in a cup measure. Set aside. Prepare a 9 x 13 pan by lining with parchment paper. If you want it to sit properly in the pan, snip the corners of the parchment paper with a scissors so they fold into each other. Set aside.

Now I make this even quicker by using self raising (rising) flour with baking powder and salt built right in. No worries, you don’t have any, I will tell you how to make it. Add the sugar and mix with the flour mixture. The liquid ingredients go right into the bowl with the dry. Eggs, oil, vanilla, orange juice, and cup of juice or non-dairy (or dairy) creamer or soy milk. Mix all together till smooth.

As you see this is pourable but not too thin. Good. Onward.

Take your prepared pan and pour about half the batter into it, letting it settle into the corners (or use a spatula to help you).

Take that cinnamon sugar you set aside and sprinkle half over the batter like so:

Now take the remaining batter and sorta drizzle it over the cinnamon sugar. No big if it isn’t precise, you just wanna get a cover so to speak for the filling.

See it’s peeking out a bit. That’s fine. Then take the rest of the cinnamon sugar and sprinkle over the top of that. Done.

Pop into the hot oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, check after 35 to see if done with a wooden toothpick which should come out with a crumb or two clinging. Let cool on a wire rack and serve in generous squares. This is an excellent cake really any time, the cinnamon sugar topping gives it a slight crunch.

One Bowl Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkle Cake

Topping:

2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar

Cake:

2 1/2 cups self raising (rising) flour (OR 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour with 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt)
1 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon orange juice
3/4 cup oil
1 cup non-dairy creamer OR soy milk OR milk OR orange juice (if you use orange juice you don’t need the extra teaspoon of oj)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

For the topping, in a cup, mix together the sugar and cinnamon, set aside. then take a 9 x 13 pan and line with parchment paper. Set aside.

Take one bowl, (you can use a mixer or do by hand) and put the self raising flour or flour mixture in the bowl with the sugar and stir together. Add in the eggs, vanilla, orange juice, oil and one cup liquid of your (above) choice. I like half soy milk, half non dairy creamer. Mix all the cake ingredients together till smooth.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar over it as evenly as you can. Use the remaining batter to more or less cover the sugar mixture and sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar over it. Pop into the hot oven and bake 35-45 minutes or till wooden toothpick comes out with a few clinging crumbs and top is a nice golden cinnamony color. Cool on a wire rack.