Baked Sunday Mornings: Toffee Coffee Cake Surprise

This week’s Baked Sunday Mornings challenge is for Toffee Coffee Cake Surprise from Baked Occasions.  I was lucky enough to be one of 21 home testers of the recipes in this book – and this is one of the recipes I tested.  I love Bundt cakes & I love toffee.  The only thing that could make this combination better is homemade toffee!  It sounds complicated, I know, but I was really surprised how easy toffee is to make.  The recipe makes more toffee than you need to make the cake, so you’ll have some left over to snack on – and that’s a good thing.  The cake has a brown sugar, caramel-ly flavor and the yummy filling makes it just perfect.

Baked Occasions celebrates all kinds of occasions throughout the year.  Now, Groundhog Day isn’t much of a holiday…unless you’re a student or alumnus of the University of Dallas like I am!  We used to get up at 4 am, trudge out through the woods to where a huge bonfire would burn for 24 hours while we told stories, carried on traditions, and toasted Punxsutawney Phil!  Back in the day, many students and staff would stave off the early February chill by imbibing ale.  (That was when the drinking age was 18 in Texas.)  Nowadays, it looks like alumni have taken the tradition to other cities across the U.S. even being recognized by “The History Channel.”  Since, LA isn’t on the list of cities where alumni gather, I am just going to content myself with a piece of this cake and raise a glass of milk to Phil and UD.