It’s International Coffee Day!!!! Of course, every day is Coffee Day in my house. None of you who know me are surprised by this. To celebrate, here’s a recipe for coffee cake that not only goes down well with coffee, but is real coffee cake.

Total Time: 50 Min.
Prep Time: 20 Min.
Cook Time: 30 Min.
24 servings

Treat your morning coffee to something special with our Cinnamon Coffee Cake. This Cinnamon Coffee Cake is a moist cake topped off with a cinnamon crust.

What You Need
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1-1/3 cups brewed MAXWELL HOUSE Decaffeinated Coffee, cooled
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup BAKER’S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut
1/2 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnuts

Let’s Make It
1 – Heat oven to 350°F.
2 – Beat cake mix with coffee, oil and eggs in large bowl with mixer until blended; pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.
3 – Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Stir in coconut and nuts; sprinkle over cake batter.
4 – Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool 10 min. Remove cakes from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

Kitchen Tips
Tip 1 – Make Ahead: Bake and cool coffee cakes as directed. Enjoy one of the coffee cakes now and freeze the other one for later use. Wrap tightly before freezing.

Tip 2 – Easy Cleanup: For easy cleanup, line the pans with foil and spray with cooking spray before filling with batter and baking as directed.

My Tips: I use REAL coffee–NOT decaffienated because that’s how I roll. Don’t like coconut? leave it out. Want some fruit that’s not coconut, add raisins. Substitute sliced almonds or pecans for walnuts.

CLICK HERE for all the nutritional details from My Food and Family. Just as I love coffee, I have two characters who rae just as enamored–Hannah Jackson McIntire and Sade Marquis. They each star in a series, as most of you know. But for those of you who might not be as familiar, here are the books where you can first make their acquaintances. Both books are available lots of different places and in both digital and paperback. Just click on the covers or titles to find links to all the stores. Hannah’s book, MOONSTRUCK: SECRETS, starts with this conversation with the man destined to be her mate, Ian “Mac” McIntire:

“I need coffee.”
“Damn. Listening to you, I’d think you were actually human.”
“I AM human, furball.”

And then there’s Sade, FBI agent extraordinaire, who is finishing her third cup of coffee before her partner, werewolf Caleb Jones, walks into Déja Vu, the bar-restaurant Sade calls home when she’s in New Orleans. The reason for the meet and the three cups of coffee? Her morning musings start like this:

This was only Day One of what was shaping up to be a bloody weird week and the gods had been drinking again. Too bad Sade Marquis didn’t have that option. She was on duty. Dammit. Not to mention it was only ten in the morning. However, if things got any stranger, she might change her mind.

In THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC, Sade is in New Orleans dealing with preternatural murder.

And now it’s time to celebrate International Coffee Day with another cup of cafe au lait, and yes, I acquired the taste while I was in New Orleans, where it just happens that the idea of Sade first began to take shape, and then new words on the current WIP. Because it’s time y’all had something new to read. Right?