Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake

Yield: 10 - 12 servings | Prep: 20mins. | Ready in: 2 1/2 hours 

What you need:

• ¾ cups sugar, divided
• ½ cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 8 ounces fat free cream cheese (block-style), softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups chopped apples
• Cooking spray

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch springform pan with cooking spray.
2. Beat 1 ½ cups sugar, margarine, vanilla and cream cheese at medium speed of mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
4. Combine ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Combine 2 tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar mixture and chopped apples. Stir apple mixture into batter.
5. Pour batter into the springform pan and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake pulls away from the sides of the pan.
7. Cool cake completely on wire rack. Cut using a serrated knife.

Baking tip:

You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.

Topping trim down:

Many coffee cake recipes include a heavy butter-laden streusel topping. Easily lighten up the topping with one of these suggestions:

• A sprinkling of crunchy turbinado sugar or cinnamon-sugar mixture or powdered sugar
• Citrus glaze consisting of only powdered sugar and lemon/lime/orange juice and rind
• Fresh berries mixed in fat free vanilla yogurt
• Reworked streusel topping consisting of oatmeal, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, and orange juice concentrate.

Adapted from Cooking Light.