Rainbow Streusel Coffee Cake

What does one do when she has pregnancy cravings for M&Ms, a husband who has something personal against the bottom fourth of every cereal box he opens and the desire to bake something new?

Apparently, she makes Rainbow Streusel Coffee Cake.

I've never been one to crave chocolate. If you offer me vanilla ice cream and chocolate ice cream, I will take vanilla in an instant. If you offer me Skittles or offer me M&Ms, I will take Skittles in a heartbeat. But over the last few weeks of my pregnancy, M&Ms sounded realllllly good. And they were on sale a lot, and I had coupons when they were on sale, so I couldn't *not* buy them.

But once they are in the house, they are dangerous. So I try to find a way to get rid of most of them ASAP.

Enter my latest recipe search.

I've made the Peanut Butter M&M Bars several times. And I've made cookies with M&Ms mixed in. But I wanted to try something different, so I went to the M&Ms Web site and found some interesting and delicious ideas.

But did I mention I also wanted to bake with ingredients I had in the house? So a lot of those recipes were immediately eliminated from consideration.

When I found this streusel cake, I was a little thrown off by the idea of granola. Then I realized that my husband, who NEVER finishes a box of cereal (it is a pet peeve of mine, as I usually end up eating the end of all of his cereals in an effort to not waste the food), had some granola in the cupboard. And I figured I'd put it to good use in this recipe. It really doesn't overwhelm the cake, either - the streusel is buttery, chocolate-y and sweet, and the cake is dense and moist.

Ingredients

1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cups M&M’S® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies
1 cup granola cereal
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square cake pan.

In large bowl cream 1/3 cup butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla. In medium bowl combine 2 cups flour and baking powder; blend into creamed mixture. Do not over-mix. Spread batter into prepared pan.

In separate bowl combine granola, remaining 1/4 cup flour, brown sugar and remaining 3 tablespoons melted butter, to create streusel. Add M&M’S® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies and toss mix.

Sprinkle streusel evenly over batter.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Cool completely before removing side of pan. Store in tightly covered container.

Source: M&Ms Web site