1 cup sugar

1 cube butter @ room temp

1-1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs (separated)

½ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cinnamon/sugar mixture (1/4 cup sugar – 1/2 tsp cinnamon)

Separate egg yolks from egg whites – Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside.  Beat together sugar and butter.  Add egg yolks one at a time to butter/sugar mixture beating well after each addition.  Mix together vanilla and milk in a measuring cup and set aside. .  Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.  .  Alternate adding dry ingredients with vanilla/milk to creamed butter/sugar/egg yolk mixture.  Fold in egg whites last.

Put in flat 9” x 9” pan (spray pan with Pam first) – press nuts on top.  Cover with cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Bake in moderate over 325 – 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.

Sherri explained to me that her mother taught her this recipe when she was a teenager circa age seventeen.  Her mother made it every Christmas morning and served it with sparkling cider or champagne, sausage, and eggs.  Since the cake is sweet, Sherri informed me that “it represents the sweet gift God gave us by sending his son to die for our sins.”  It is very important to her as her mother made it for her family every Christmas morning and Sherri and her sisters continue the tradition.  She does not make it any other day of the year.

Sherri has since passed on the recipe to her daughters and son so that they too will eventually be able to make it for their families.  Sherri informed me that her mother taught her nearly every recipe she knows today.  It is very important to Sherri that she continue that tradition by passing on her mother’s recipes as well as her own down to her children.

I think it is very important for families to create their own identity through recipes and traditions such as preparing coffee cake every Christmas morning.