Attention all citizens and former citizens of Cairo, Illinois. I recently had posted a request for a long-loved Cairo, Illinois recipe from the 60s (or perhaps earlier?). The recipe I am in dire need of is the "original butter top coffee cake" from Eddie's Pastries in Cairo.
In my previous post, I had a kind person offer one recipe and another suggest a St. Louis Gooey Buttercake option. Unfortunately, I have tried every recipe offered on the web and each time my husband tells me it is still not the right recipe.
Also, it is nothing like a Gooey Buttercake or even a coffee cake. It is supposedly a legend of its own. After years of trying to bless my husband with the cake of his childhood, I am pleading with someone from Cairo, Illinois, to please offer the original recipe, and not one already on the web.
After one year of unemployment, my husband's birthday is quickly approaching and this may be the only gift I can offer him. I also know that a lady sells these cakes in Illinois, but I do not live close, nor could I afford such luxury at this time.
I would like to surprise him with "THE" recipe that I can make him each year for his birthday. Please help if you can. After such a hard year, this would be a wonderful gift to a husband whom I dearly love. Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate your help.
By Marla from MO
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Me again. I think I found it. The original cake has powdered suger on top but this looks like the real thing. I hope it is. Please let me know.
www.thehungrymouse.com/
this recipe was held a close secret by the family. I have it only because my grandfather did some work for Eddie and part of the payment for the work was the recipe...but my grandfather was sworn to secrecy.
A women by the name Sonya Lowe makes and sells them . I just had her make my family 4 for Labor Day. They are most definitely the original coffee cake. I grew up around the corner from the bakery. I am one of the Cairo triplets that lived on 34th. They are AMAZING.. took me way back in time.
This comes from my Aunt Mary who was born and raised in Cairo.
1 pkg yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons shortening
Grease a 9 x 13 pan, can be a little larger
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Heat milk and melt shortening in hot milk. Cool.
Beat egg, add salt and sugar and mix
Add milk mixture. Add yeast and mix.
Add flour a cup at a time or less. After all the flour has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl. Cover with wax paper and let rise for two hours or overnight until doubled.
Place on a floured board and knead 200 strokes; roll dough in pan
Put topping (below) on dough and let rise in warm place.
Bake at 350 degrees on the middle shelf for 15 minutes. Watch carefully, the topping will become medium brown.
Topping:
3/4 cup margarine
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 Tablespoons flour
3 eggs
Cream margarine until light and fluffy. Add sugar, as your beating, add eggs one at a time. Add milk, flour, and vanilla. Continue to beat until the topping becomes very light and fluffy. Spread over the dough and let rise.
That's the exact recipe. I had everything BUT THE NOTES.
My grandma Jessie worked at Eddies many years making coffee cake, I still have her hand written receipe, although it is different than what people are printing here. Sure miss her
It would be wonderful if you could share your grandma's recipe with us. :)
I am from Southern IL and ate eddies cakes every weekend. This is as close as I can find to the real thing.
Cake ingredients:
2 cakes of yeast
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand. Mix oil, sugar, salt, boiling water and eggs until well blended. (add boiling water a little at a time)
Add disolved yeast to mixture. Gradually add flour. Dough will b sticky. Put bowl in fridge and let rise overnite lightly covered. Divide dough into 2 (at least) 13 by 9 pans pat out thin and let rise for 30 minutes.
Goo: (double this)
1 lb powdered sugar, 2 sticks of butter, 2 large eggs, 6 tablespoons Coffeemate, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt.
Mix butter, eggs, creamer, vanilla, and salt until well blended. Gradually add powdered sugar and blend until smooth.
Spread goo on top of dough and bake at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes. Top will be light brown Do not ove rbake. This is awesome.
This is the recipe. I searched for 30 years and found a newspaper clipping from the Cairo Citizen when Mr. Eddie retired. He posted the recipe as his retirement gift to the community. I made it and it was not right. Then I realized that it was a commercial bakery recipe and needed translated to a residential recipe.
Ok, I bet this will help (I hope).
Go to www.hungrybrowser.com
This man has a website that's called something like 'Phaedrus finder of lost recipes' and he found a recipe for a cookie my husband's aunt made, but he only remembered like the shape and what their family called them, plus 1-2 ingredients.
his email is: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com, but go to the site first because you might find your recipe there already!
Good luck and happy birthday to your husband!
Herman Starter
1 package active dry yeast
2 C. lukewarm water
2 C. flour
In a large glass jar or crockery pot, dissolve the yeast in
the lukewarm water. If water is too hot it will kill the
yeast. Add flour and beat until smooth. Cover and let set at
room temperature for 48 hours. Makes 2 cups of starter. Use 1
cup to start feeding Herman and find a good house or friend
for the second cup.
Care and feeding of starter: Keep Herman in a large covered
container in the refrigerator. Stir once a day. On the first
and fifth days feed with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup milk and 1 cup
flour. On the 10th day use Herman to prepare cake. By that
time Herman will have grown to 4 cups. Use 2 cups for baking,
1 cup of starting another 10-day cycle yourself and 1 cup for
a friend.
Herman Coffeecake
2 C. Herman starter (on left)
1 C. sugar
2/3 C. oil
2 C. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 to 1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 to 1 t. nutmeg
1/2 to 1 t. ginger
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 C. nuts
1 C. raisins, dates or apricots
Combine all ingredients and pour into a well-greased and floured 13
x 9-inch baking pan. Top with streusel.
1 T. flour
1/2 to 1 C. brown sugar
1 to 2 T. cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 C. melted butter
2/3 C. nuts, optional
Mix ingredients and top coffee cake batter in baking pan. Bake 35 to
50 minutes in 350°F. oven.
Glaze:
1/2 C. butter
2/3 to 1 C. brown sugar
1/2 to 1 C. milk
Put ingredients in saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Pour over baked
coffee cake when it emerges from the oven.
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This sounds like the recipe you were asking for. Hope it helps.
Found this recipe in my moms cookbook she passed to me.. not sure its the same but its a good one and you make it and set in refrigerator over night it yummy. Hope you find what you are looking for if you do please give me recipe it sounds wonderful!
Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking pan. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar, and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Beat in the egg until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Spread evenly into the prepared baking pan.
In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup brown sugar, walnuts, and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Sprinkle over the batter. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Lady Elegant 301's looks to be either the recipe or close to it. I grew up on these coffeecakes, they are delicious and I have never had anything like it since moving from southern IL. I do know that the recipe has margarine, no butter in it.
Hi Marla,
I grew up in Jackson Missouri and always visited my grandmother in Cairo where my dad was also raised. I grew up eating this buttertop as a family favorite and I spent most of my adult life trying to get the recipe. This is the closest I have found but because I remember it so fondly, theres a few things that are different. So I will provide you the link to the best recipe I could find but also give you my tips for how to make it come out as close to perfect as I have been able to get.
www.cairogate.com/
For the cake: you must refrigerate the batter! 6 hours is good. This recipe needs two 12 x 17 pans that are 2 or deeper or it will run over in your oven. Remember it was a bakery. You roll out the cold dough nice and thin and put it in the pan (butter crisco will help it hold shape). Stretch it over the sides so you dont have fat edges. Use a sharp knife to cut it off along the inside edge of the pan so the thickness is consistent in the pan. you DO NOT want fat edges. Cover it with saran wrap and put it in a warm place so it can rise while you make the topping.
For the topping: your margarine should be an 8 ounce tub of whipped margarine. Take it from the refrigerator and put it in the microwave on defrost setting for just one minute. Then follow the rest of these directions.
Baking: Put your pans on a higher rack of your oven but the temperature should be 325 and it should cook for 15 minutes. The topping should not get golden brown but stay close to the white color. It is not supposed to taste like cooked marshmallow. it is supposed to be runny.
I will be happy to provide you with a picture if you want to email me. If anybody else that ate this in their life and knows what it taste like and looks like, and finds a recipe closer than this let me know.
Enjoy....
Franciska Wild-Davey
You will find many versions of Eddie's Pastries Butter top coffee cake, unfortunately none are the original as the family has not shared the guarded secret and from what I understand, never intends to share it. Their choice, our loss. They were awesome!!!
Original recipe will never be available, it is a guarded family secret. Their right, Our loss! They were delicious
Did you find it Marla? I did. Mr. Eddie posted it in the Cairo citizen when he retired. I spent years looking, like you, and I found it! Contact me directly
My name is Jeff Harrell, Sam Harrell's grandson. I was born in Cairo and would love the recipe for the nuttertop coffee cake
Will you please email me a copy, I would be eternally grateful
Hello I would love to get a copy of the recipe it is my father's favorite and would love to surprise him.
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