I know you’re probably tired of hearing about the new coffee machine I got for Christmas, so I won’t talk about it again. That doesn’t mean it won’t inspire me to come up with things to bake to go with it! This week I came up with a great coffeecake made with buttermilk. I love the combo of just a little cocoa with dried cherries and the creaminess of the cake.

This is great served for breakfast, dessert or brunch, and along with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Oh, and of course a great cup of coffee.

I’ll try to do something that doesn’t have to do with coffee next week but I’m not making any promises.

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Streusel topping:

1 cup chopped pecans or your favorite chopped nuts

three-fourths cup packed brown sugar

one-fourth cup dried cherries, chopped (optional)

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

Cinnamon buttermilk cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbs cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

one-fourth tsp salt

1 and two-thirds cup granulated sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened to room temp

4 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

For topping:

In a small bowl, combine all Streusel topping ingredients and mix with s fork.

For Cake: preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bunt pan with cake release or grease with butter and flour.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar and butter and beat with an electric mixer on medium until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, beating just until combined.

Sprinkle a third of the mixture of the topping into prepared pan.

Pour half the batter over. Pour another third in the middle and top with remaining batter. Sprinkle over the last third of the topping on the bottom layer of batter.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Then turn cake pan over onto serving plate and gently lift pan to remove cake. Serve warm with a bit of whipped cream or cold vanilla bean ice cream and coffee.

Until next week, have fun in the kitchen, experiment and indulge your cravings.

Laura Clements is a food columnist for The Demopolis Times.