After a while, it gets rough to keep feeding everybody. Sure, it’s nice the first day, but as house guests linger on, keeping up the hosting duties can be a real drag. That’s when it’s nice to make a really quick coffee cake for breakfast. Not for them, you understand. They can have Cheerios. This cake is for you!

I like having a warm, fresh cinnamon-laden treat first thing in the morning. I mean, who doesn’t? That’s why cinnamon rolls are popular. But this is a much simpler option, and all those flavors are still there.

This winter break, we’re having a staycation. Luckily, the D.C. area is full of activities, but these days are pretty exhausting. We wake up, chase the kids, drive them around, chase them some more, and eat at irregular intervals. It’s lots of fun.

I’d be lying if I said I weren’t more than a little jealous of anyone who went anywhere this week. People jet to Florida, or ski resorts, or indoor water parks. We considered all three options before we realized that, once again, our kids are a little too young this year to justify all the expense. If we’re going to shell out thousands of dollars for a few days, shouldn’t they not just be able to remember it, but also be able to do whatever activities are available?

Let’s just say that I can’t picture my youngest, who is a tiny person, being happy at a ski resort. She’d probably just cry a lot, and then I’d start crying too. Nope, a staycation is a much better idea. Plus, that means I can bake a lot and send you even more recipes!

For example, I’ve got fondue coming your way this week along with another video about the perfect fondue dipping plate, which includes these champagne brownies for New Year’s. Stay tuned! But first things first. Coffee cake.

This gets mixed up in about two minutes flat and baked in less than half an hour. The cake itself isn’t very sweet, which is perfect for coffee cake. The cinnamon in the middle and on top gives you all the sweetness you need, and I like to use brown sugar instead of regular in my cinnamon-sugar topping. It’s just a better flavor, and it caramelizes a bit more in the oven.

If you’re dealing with company this week, eat cake. If you’re having a busy staycation, eat cake. If you’re at work, eat lots and lots of cake. That’s about all the advice I have for you. Next time I see you, there will be fondue!

Cinnamon is one of those dark horses. I forget about it for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. And then without warning, I eat a dessert with cinnamon, and wham! I can’t stop.

When I tried Hannah Max cinnamon sugar cookie chips for the first time to decide how to bake with them, I had to slap my own hand to stop it from reaching back into the bag. The cinnamon sugar flavor is more addictive than I expected. It’s always fun when life runs contrary to expectation in a good way!

That’s how I got married, actually. When I started dating Kenny, I didn’t really expect it to last for very long. See, he was super cute and a lot of fun, but I’d known him since college when he was a bit rough around the edges and perpetually playing ping-pong. It’s pretty much all he ever did.

So imagine my surprise when on our first date, we actually had a serious conversation. And he was kinder than I’d ever realized, ready to start the next stage of his life with marriage and kids and all that. In other words, he had grown up. I hadn’t expected that at all. In my mind, he was still playing ping-pong with stale rolls from the dining hall because he couldn’t find the ball.

Pleasant surprises are the best kind. They sneak up on you and make you wonder if you really do know as much as you think you know.

Cinnamon desserts are in that place for me. I bake them with almost an internal shrug, thinking that somebody will really like it, but not me. After I’ve managed to mainline several helpings of whatever it is, I’ll finally admit that I really love cinnamon more than I expected to.

This cake is ridiculously good. It’s almost a blondie because of a higher brown sugar content to a lower flour ratio. The inclusion of eggs and baking powder makes it rise to cake-like proportions, however, and the cinnamon sugar topping is made of cookie chips.

I cannot say enough about this topping. Some of it floats on the top while the rest of it sinks into the batter at various points, giving the cake a through-and-through cookie chip quotient. With the (sorry if you hate this word) moist cake base balancing the crunchy cookie chips, it’s hard to imagine breakfast getting any better.

If you don’t think much about cinnamon, you’ll have to rethink your internal musings. Cinnamon sugar cookie chips are too addictive to ignore, and put into this cake, they take on a whole new amazing form. Maybe cookie chips on coffee cake isn’t what you’d expect, but it’s a glorious surprise. And those are the best kind!

A product for this post was provided by Hannah Max Cookie Chips. All opinions are my own.

But then, whoever made that comparison obviously never had a baked donut. And they also never had a donut cake. No, that’s not a cake made of donuts.

Before we progress any further, I need to take a minute to vent about keeping a straight face. In my line of work, I see kids do a lot of things that, well, make me want to react. They sing. They make presentations. They share their innermost feelings. And I’m really glad they do all of that, and I never want them to stop.

But see, my face is a problem. I happen to have a very expressive face, but it’s expressive in a way that nobody can read accurately. Like, whenever I’m deep in thought, people think I’m really upset. When I’m trying to work something out, people read that as super angry. And whenever I’m amused, my face reads as snide.

Honestly, it sucks. People have never read the tone of my thoughts quite correctly, and so I’ve had to cultivate a very bland poker face over the years. My friends get to see my real face, and so do my family. But my students? Heck no. They have no idea.

And in a weird way, this donut cake is the same. It has to pretend to be a simple coffee cake, unassuming, with a lovely cinnamon topping. But really? If you put this batter into donut pans, it tastes just like a cinnamon cake donut. It’s all about the way something gets presented.

See, while I have a hard time controlling my facial expressions, I can totally control what I do with batter. As you can see, this cake is light and fluffy and absolutely perfect for breakfast. And the topping is cinnamon heaven.

In fact, though I haven’t called it one, this is a poke cake of sorts. In order to get the topping to really stick, you accomplish the effect by poking holes all over the cake with a fork, pouring in melted butter, and then adding the cinnamon-sugar topping. The good flavors just get everywhere.

Maybe we regret eating that donut. Or letting our faces betray feelings that are real or just perceived. But folks, remember this one: we never have to regret cake. Especially donut cake.