As I write this column, we are still sheltering in place. And thinking about Easter. Maybe you are, too. Instead of our annual Easter brunch and egg hunt, we’ll be celebrating on a smaller scale. 

Yet there’s still much to feel blessed about. Just take a walk outside. Check out the beautiful wild violets and blooming forsythia. (They both make lovely jellies.) Trees are bursting with buds and blooms. 

Reconnect. You know, friends and family are still there, and now’s the time for catch up. 

I worked several hours in my herb garden and was happy to see my mom’s heirloom peppermint pushing through the soil. Mother Nature is doing her part and we will do ours.

How about baking a coffee cake? While you’re boiling eggs to color, boil extra. Add deviled eggs to your Easter menu. Both recipes use easy to find ingredients.

Coffee cake with pecan cinnamon streusel

America’s Test Kitchen always comes up with genius ideas, like adding a little water to streusel topping and sprinkling it on the edges first to make it adhere better. 

This uses the food processor for both cake and topping. It’s baked in a  9” springform pan re and freezes well. Here’s my slight adaptation from their recipe.

Ingredients

Streusel

1 cup pecans or other nuts, toasted (if you’re out, omit and then when cake cools, drizzle a powdered sugar glaze over streusel)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar 

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

1 teaspoon water

Cake

1-2/3 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg plus 1 large yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. 

Grease and flour 9” springform pan and place on baking sheet.

Streusel

Process nuts and sugar in food processor until finely ground. Add flour and cinnamon and pulse to combine. Add melted butter and water and pulse until mixture begins to form clumps. Remove and set aside.

Cake

Process flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, soda and salt until combined.

Add butter and pulse until very small but visible pieces of butter remain. 

Add milk, egg, yolk and vanilla. Pulse until dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape sides.
Pulse until mixture is well combined — some small pieces of butter will remain.

Pour into pan and smooth top.

Starting at edges of pan, sprinkle streusel evenly over batter.

Bake until center is firm and skewer inserted into it comes out clean, 45-50 minutes or so.

Place on wire rack, cool 15 minutes, then remove ring and cool completely. 

Transfer cake to platter, cut into wedges and serve.

No springform pan?

Use a 9” cake pan and leave in pan to serve.

Simple deviled eggs

No real recipe, but for every 6 eggs, mix yolks with 1/4 cup mayonnaise and a squirt of mustard. Add more mayonnaise if necessary. Season to taste.  (Sorry about the photo here – I can’t seem to rotate it correctly).