Custard-Filled Coffee Cake

Years ago I used to find a delicious custard-filled coffee cake at Wegman's Grocery stores.

If you've never been in a Wegman's, you've missed the chance to shop at the world's best grocery store. They're amazing.... It's a home-grown company by the Rochester-based Wegman family and they've set the bar high for groceries.... Harris Teeter is similar.... And while we're spoiled with some of the best grocery stores in the world... and the prevalence of them!!!... Wegman's is a cut above that doesn't act like a cut above.

Know what I mean?

Gratuitous Kitty Picture!!!!! So cute!

Wegman's is well-stocked, well-managed, beautiful and inviting... they're scrupulous about cleanliness and courtesy. They're almost always well-staffed, and you can't beat their seasonal displays because they're stunning and idea-filled like a Pinterest page come alive!

They've expanded down the East Coast now. We passed them in Virginia... In Maryland... In North Carolina.... and I'm not bragging on them because they're from Rochester... but because they saw a gap and filled it... they saw a need and filled it... and they believe in treating employees and customers like they're honored guests.

BUT.... they don't have this coffee cake anymore.

So Morgan and MacKenzie and I took on the challenge!

It was a split crumb cake, with a custard filling, and the original custard filling didn't taste like the chemical waste fillings that prevail today. Now today's kids won't even notice, because they've become accustomed to the taste, and that's an unfortunate fact, but for the rest of us, who know what custard really tastes like... well, let's make the real thing!

Custard Filling

2 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Melt butter. Remove from heat. Mix sugar and corn starch. Add to melted butter. Stir well.

Blend in two cups of milk and two egg yolks.

Stir and heat until thick and bubbly.

Add two teaspoons vanilla. Blend well. Cover top with plastic wrap to avoid "skin" (Unless you're like me and you want to eat the skin!!!) (By the way, it's not really skin. Umm... gross!)


Coffee Cake:

This recipe is from one on epicurious.... 

But I only used the cake recipe. And I've never used it before, so we'll see....

I used my traditional Streusel Topping, but I wanted it not too cinnamony because of the filling...

Cute girl alert!!!!

So I did this: 

Two cups flour
Two cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter (softened)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I grated a half-one so in that area is good!)

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter and vanilla until mixture looks like meal. Sprinkle on top of cake but (here's a curious thing, epicurious!) their recipe suggested balling up the topping into clumps. So I did that with some of it (Super Helper MacKenzie had already sprinkled some on at my urging)...

So this will be interesting topping!

Spread cake batter in buttered 13 x 9 pan, bake at 350 for nearly an hour or long enough to edit 20 pages of manuscript.... depending on how bad your manuscript is! :)

Use toothpick test to check for doneness.... a few moist crumbs are great...

Gooey stuff on toothpick is not great.

And in a week when I don't have time for nonsense, either my computer, or Chrome/Google and Yahoo are out to get me.

My Chrome browser is doing weird things so I'm working in Mozilla Firefox right now. It's way slower... but it's not crashing and sending black squares dancing across my pages, which makes it a current favorite!

Yahoo won't let me post to a group I started....

And my Internet is 2008 SLOW.... so what's going on?

I have no idea.

But with three projects due on Monday, I'm not messing around, risking a crash.

I'm shuddering at the very thought!!! EEEEEEEEK!

 I'm hoping to post final pictures.... but you know I might forget.

But I'll try not to!!!!

Bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne loves to play in a clean kitchen, but since that's not often available she uses her own and makes do... With over 40 novels and novellas to her credit, Ruthy relaxes by playing with desserts and sometimes practical food... but she really loves her desserts. And coffee. And chocolate... and wouldn't this cake go well with some of that coffee???

Ruthy's latest book, a soul-stirring tale of healing hearts and caring communities.... America at its very best.  "REFUGE OF THE HEART" available for Kindle at $3.25.... A great book. A great price.

CAKE UPDATE....

I killed the pudding/cream. Me, who has made that recipe hundreds of times, decided to double it mid-stream and when I added the sugar/cornstarch to the already heating pudding mix, it FOAMED ALL OVER!!!! It grew exponentially and I had to grab another pan, put it in that pan, and it still foamed.!

I ended up with NO PUDDING and a pot of foamy nonsense, but a great science experiment!

And the cake turned out all right... but not great. The topping was great. But we cut the sides away. Buttering the pan made the sides and bottom too dark....

So was it a TOTAL FAIL???

Not totally.

But nothing I'd do again.... at least with these Ruthy-born mistakes mixed in!