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

Blueberry White Chip Muffins

I had grand plans to break away from my recent pumpkin streak for the November craft party. I knew I still wanted to make something sweet, and when I saw that zucchini was on sale at my local grocery store, I decided I would find a zucchini recipe. I found two chocolate zucchini cake recipes that I fell in love with and settled on that.

But when I had some time to shred the zucchini, I discovered the worst: my zucchini was moldy! So I quickly scratched that plan and went to work finding something else.

I am SO glad I ended up making these muffins. They are AMAZING. I reduced the amount of white chocolate chips *in* the muffins slightly and omitted the white chocolate drizzle (I was lazy thought they'd be great without that extra sweetness). I also didn't have any lemon peel, but I added a few drops of orange extract for a citrus-y presence. I used frozen blueberries, too.

My husband, who isn't the biggest sweets-eater in the world, at first told me to take all of the muffins to craft party. I insisted on leaving two for his breakfast, and when I called him later in the day, he asked me to bring home all of the leftovers. Apparently they won more than just me over :)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 (12-ounce) package white chocolate chips - divided use
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Streusel Topping, (see below)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Paper line 18 muffin cups.

2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Stir in milk, egg, butter and lemon peel. Stir in 1 1/2 cups (I used about 1 1/4) morsels and blueberries. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling almost full. Sprinkle with Streusel Topping (recipe below).


3. Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool slightly.


4. Place remaining morsels in small, heavy-duty plastic bag. Microwave on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 30 seconds; knead. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, kneading until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to drizzle over muffins. Serve warm.

5. For Streusel Topping: Combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon in small bowl. Cut in 3 tablespoons butter or margarine with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Makes 18 muffins.

Source: Favorite Brand Name 3 Books in 1: Cookies, Bars, Muffins