Recipes from Aunt Shirley -- Night Before Coffee Cake

I was served this delicious Coffee Cake during a multi-generational family breakfast this past summer during the River/Road Trip. We built in a rest-day in Logan, Utah on our way back south, and stayed over at Aunt Ruby's house. Aunt Ruby made the famous family Wedding Breakfast Casserole (see forthcoming 12/27/10 entry), and Aunt Shirley brought this treat. She was concerned that she didn't get the center quite cooked through, but we all didn't mind too much.

Night Before Coffee Cake [from someone named Annette]

Mix [in one bowl]:
2 cups flour (white)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon soda (baking)
1 teaspoon b.p. (baking powder)

Cream [in another bowl]:
1 cup sugar (white)
1/2 cup b. sugar (brown)
2/3 cup shortening

add 2 beaten eggs

Add [creamed mixture] alternately [to] dry ingredients & [add] 1 cup buttermilk

Pour in 9 x 13 pan

[Top with topping]

Topping:
1/2 cup b. sugar (brown)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup dates
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Refrigerate over night

Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes*.

*watch cooking time. Test out the center for firmness with a knife. If gooey, cook for 5-10 minutes and test again. Repeat as needed.

Here's Uncle Gordon serving up the cake. Certain family members ate theirs with a side of melon, but I like mine uncontaminated by health food.

Also, the large tablecloth pictured here? My mother's grandmother (Great-grandma Bertha) made that -- Grandma Ollie, Aunt Ruby, Aunt Dorothy, and Aunt Shirley's mom. By hand. One tiny cross-stitch at a time. In essence there were four generations represented at that breakfast -- with that tablecloth being one, all the way down to me. That's over 100 years of history around one table.

I'm finally getting smarter about documenting the original recipe cards and asking more questions when I have queries about abbreviations.

I forsee a few problem with making this recipe:

1) I can barely get up in enough time to get ready and get out the door for a 8:00 ish train. Building in more time in the morning so I can get up, put this in my oven which is already notoriously slow, and then give it enough time to cool is not something of which I can conceive right now.

Plus
2) How I will transport a hot 9x13 dish through my crazy 1 hour commute, without
a) ruining it,
b) getting burned,
c) devouring it myself, or
d) getting mugged by my fellow commuters and/or the train conductors.

Dilemmas to be sure. Maybe I just make one up for me and the neighbors. I doubt they'll turn away baked goods.