Vintage ‘Grape-Nut’ Coffeecake

I don’t know if you recall Post Grape-Nuts cereal? It was one of the first ready-to-eat cereal products ever made available to the public. Developed by C.W. Post in 1897, Grape-Nuts was so named because of the glucose, which he called ‘grape sugar’, that formed during the baking process. This, combined with the nutty flavor of the cereal, is said to have inspired its name. Originally the cereal came out of the oven as a rigid sheet. He then broke it into pieces and ran them through a coffee grinder to produce the ‘nut’ sized nuggets.

In addition to being the first wide spread product to use a coupon ( Posts’ penny-off coupon  was a game changer at that time), Grape-Nuts was also there for several famous moments in world history.

The cereal was made of wheat and malted barley. A unique muffin recipe I had used during some of my commercial food service years, made use of this particular cereal. It gave the muffins such a wholesome, nutty taste and was always enjoyed by customers.

Somewhere, in the late 90’s the cereal became discontinued here in Canada for whatever reason. I suspect with the dozens of cereals available these days, grocers ran out of shelf space. Anyway, I got an idea to re-invent that great tasting muffin recipe into a coffeecake. I understand that ‘Kashi 7 Whole Grain Nugget Cereal’ would be a good replacement. When I read the ingredients of oats, wheat, rye, brown rice, triticale, barley, buckwheat and sesame  it sounded great or maybe even better.

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Vintage 'Grape-Nut' Coffeecake
Votes: 10
Rating: 4.1
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Rate this recipe!
Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American
Servings
Ingredients
Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American
Servings
Ingredients
Votes: 10
Rating: 4.1
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Butter a 12-cup bundt pan.
  2. In a large bowl, combine first 7 ingredients & allow to stand for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda & salt. When wet mixture is 'soaked', combine wet & dry ingredients, stirring ONLY until moistened.
  3. Spread 1/3 of batter in bundt pan. Place dollops of apricot preserve (about 1/4 cup) over batter; carefully spreading evenly. Repeat again then ending with the top layer being cake batter. Bake until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 45 minutes to an 1 hour. Remove from oven; cool slightly before removing from pan. If you wish, coffeecake can be dusted with powdered sugar or drizzled with a cream cheese glaze.
Glaze
  1. In a small bowl, whisk 60 grams of cream cheese with 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp butter & 1/2 tsp vanilla until drizzling consistency. If necessary, add a little milk. Drizzle over coffeecake.