Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Coffee Cake

I've always been a fan of a good warm oatmeal raisin cookie. I'm a fan of the texture and I enjoy the spurts of chewy raisin. Another fan of oatmeal raisin in the house is my dad. Actaully, he is more of an oatmeal raisin enthusiast. It has always been his favorite cookie and guilty pleasure and he makes no secret of it. Since it's Fathers Day weekend, I thought it would be nice to bake this Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Coffee Cake for him. The plan was to bake this morning so that he would be able to eat it for breakfast (cake for breakfast again Grace?) however due to extenuating circumstances I put it together last night. My poor dad, by the time he woke up this morning more than half of it was gone. But thats what being a dad is about right? making sacrafices for your kids. Secretly, I think he had a few pieces in the middle of the night like every one else did. This cake is very simple and the buttermilk really adds to the moist texture. The raisins in the middle of the cake spread over the cinnamon topping mixture tastes fantastic! If you have a food processor I recommend using it for the topping so that it isn't too coarse. I used my hands and as you can see from the pictures that it is a little lumpy and didn't bake into the cake very well. It's still very delicious though and full of cinnamon and butter goodness!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Coffee Cake

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup quick cooking oats

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling-Topping

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2/3 cup raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Flour a 9 inch springform pan. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in 1/3 of the flour mixutre, followed by half of the buttermilk and the entire vanilla. Then, blend in half of the remaining flour, the rest of the buttermilk, and then the last of the flour. Set aside and prepare topping.

3. For the topping, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl and stir well. Rub butter into the mixture with your fingertips (with pulsing with a food processor) until the mixture resembles coarse sand.

4. Pour half of the batter into the prepared springform pan. Top with half of the topping mixture. Evenly sprinkle raisins in a single layer. Pour remaining batter on top and spread carefully to the sides of the pan. Sprinkle all remaining topping over the batter.

5. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool on wire rack until it is room temperature before running a knife around the edge and removing springform.