I know that Mother’s Day has come and gone, but I just had to share this perfect everyday, great with tea or Coffee Cake.

One of the many things that I’ve learned through my Nana and her baking is that men love coffee cake. It’s a crazy notion, but you can go ahead and quote me on this. So with all my motherly advice aside for now, I’d been eying this recipe handed down from my Nana. Originally called Sour Cream Coffee Cake, it’s moist and satisfying and it’ll wrangle afternoon peckishness like the dickens.

Seeing that I have a habit of buying up anything organic or that I’d want to see in stock at my local grocery store just to send a message, I was the new owner of some soy yogurt. I’m good with tofu but I won’t be eating the “soygurt” à la carte again. However, as an equal replacement for the original sour cream in this recipe, I know I’d buy it again.

Although a nice bundt pan would be pretty, my Nana is of the depression generation so you can put it in what ever pan fits. I used a square 8×8 and it worked out really well, just could have been bigger since, even with all the birthdays lately, this is about the fastest I’ve seen cake go around here in a long time.

NANA’S COFFEE CAKE

1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup Margarine, softened
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Cup Soy Vanilla Yogurt, plain is o.k. in a pinch, just add 1 tsp vanilla
1/2 Cup Plain Soy Milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

TOPPING
1 Cup Walnuts, broken
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Toss the walnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.
Cream the sugar with the margarine, then add the baking powder and continue to mix until fluffy.
In a measuring cup, combine the yogurt, soy milk and baking soda.
Add half of the yogurt mixture to the creamed sugar, then half of the flour, mixing until each is combined, repeating with the remainder.
Lightly spray and dust an 8×8 cake or bundt pan with flour.
Add half of the cake batter to the pan. Add half of the walnut topping. Finish with the remaining batter, then evenly sprinkle over the last of the topping.
Bake in the center of the oven for 45 – 50 minutes.
Cool completely in the pan before turning it out to a serving plate.

This cake is super easy, really the toughest thing was prepping the pan. It’s a perfect balance of tart and sweet, elegant for tea and a perfect crumb for a picnic. Almost too perfect, I found myself snacking on it instead of lunch.

Every so often I come across a recipe that reminds me of my grandmother, creating memories of yeast and warm mittens. My Nana just recently celebrated her birthday so to find a cake that screams East Coast charm barely out of the 1930′s was so fitting to try. Plus, it’s red, sweet and a little bit tart, just like Valentine’s really is.

CRANBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

1 1/2 Cups Cranberries, frozen
2/3 Cup Walnuts, broken
1/3 Cup Demara Sugar, loosely packed1/2 Cup Margarine
2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
2 Cup All Purpose Flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
2 teaspoons Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Spray an 8″ square cake pan and line it with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, toss the cranberries, walnuts and demara sugar to combine.
Evenly layer the cranberry mixture to the bottom of the pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the margarine with the granulated sugar until very smooth.
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a measuring cup, combine the milk with the lemon juice.
Alternately add the flour and the milk mixtures to the creamed margarine until the batter is thick but smooth, adding the lemon zest with the last addition.
Dollop the batter over the cranberries, spreading carefully and evenly.
Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, or until the edges are golden and a cake tester is cleanly removed from the center of the cake.
Cool completely then invert on to a board to cut, if desired.
Dust with confectioners sugar.
Serve with love and tea.