Cherry Coffeecake. You will thank me. I promise.

I think it must be the time of year but I am really excited about all the baking I get to do. Coming across all kinds of fun recipes has been so exciting.

Sometimes I like to pull out my Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook just to browse and peruse and dream of the massive dinner party I will one day host where all 45 of my guests will sit around drinking wine and margaritas (I try to appeal to all walks of life) eating amazing food - the entrees and most appetizers will all have been prepared in one of my 12 crockpots. The desserts will have been baked all day long and the house is filled with pockets of amazing smells. My husband will be playing barkeep and I'll have hired servers to serve all the food and drink while nannies will be hired to care for the children. I might even throw the dogs a treat or two.

Woo. I get caught up easily.

Anyway. So last week I saw this recipe for a cherry coffeecake and it looked really amazing. I had all the ingredients except for the cherry pie filling. Kind of important. I added it to the dry-erase board and life went on. Until today.

Armed with cherry pie filling I grabbed my cookbook and jumped in. Because this was just for us, I allowed my kids to assist, which is rare, because I really have no patience. At 6:23 in the morning after being awoken at 5 by a tiny little girl who uses the line "I can't sleep" all to often, the idea of flour and sugar being strewn all over floors and counters, eggs being crushed between tiny fingers, usually is on my "Not this time but you can help next time" agenda. I was in a good mood this morning. Not sure why. Let's not question it.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
all-purpose flour (not sure why it refuses to say how much, but it does)
sugar (again, the book is wanting to be a mystery)
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 21- or 22-ounce can cherry pie filling

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 9" baking pan. In large bowl with fork, mix 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. To flour mixture, add 1/2 cup melted butter, milk, egg and vanilla.

3. With spoon, beat until well mixed then pour batter evenly into greased and floured baking pan. (the batter was insanely thick, FYI.)

4. In small bowl with form, combine 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and remaining two tablespoons butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

5. Sprinkle half of crumb mixture evenly over top of batter in pan.

6. Stir lemon extract into cherry-pie filling; then spread pie-filling mixture on crumb mixture in pan.

7. Sprinkle with rest of crumb mixture. (OK, this is where I steered and did my own thing. I followed the directions and realized A) it wasn't nearly enough and B) I can do better. So I added a handful of brown sugar to the mix then added at least two more tablespoons melted butter. Then I kept adding tiny amounts of flour until it was streusel-like, because I knew that's what I wanted.) Bake 1 hour until top is golden. Cut into squares.

This was just as amazing as it sounds. It really was. Even at the end of the day it is still amazing.

I gave half to our neighbors. And once again, my husband kindly said to me, " No more sweets."
"But I'm so good at it," I whined.
"I know. That's the problem, " he said.