Cinnamon flop cake recipe

This old-fashioned, but easy, Reddit-famous cinnamon flop cake recipe made a light and fluffy coffee cake.

Photo bybhofack2/Depositphotos.com

What is a cinnamon flop cake? Back in 2021, a Reddit recipe went viral for an old-fashioned cinnamon flop cake.

This Reddit post generated a lot of attention when a user on the subreddit/Baking, posted an old family recipe card for a "Cinnamon Flop."

The recipe even made its way to Today.com, where it was described as, "airy and light — a cross between coffee cake and angel food cake."

I couldn't resist a "cross between coffee cake and angel food cake," so I decided to test it for myself.

Shortening versus butter

This recipe, like many older recipes, calls for shortening. However, many modern cooks don't keep shortening on hand these days. If you don't have shortening or don't want to buy it, softened butter works well and adds flavor.

But note that using butter does change the texture. If you're looking for an authentic, fluffy flop cake, like the one the grandma from Reddit made, you'd want to use shortening in the batter here. You will still get the buttery flavor from the topping.

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Cinnamon Flop Cake Recipe

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Here is my take on the recipe, with just a few modifications. I added vanilla, replaced the shortening with butter, and upped the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

I also added an egg to give the batter a more cake-like texture, but this is optional.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1/2 cup shortening (or softened butter)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
• 1 egg (optional)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup milk

Topping:

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Generously grease an 8" square baking pan.
3. Cream the shortening or softened butter with the sugar until it is light and fluffy. (I used my Kitchen Aid to do this.
4. Add the egg and vanilla (if using) and mix well.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
6. Alternate adding the flour and milk to the batter mixing well each time.
7. Pour the batter evenly into the greased pan. It will be thick.
8. In another small bowl, mix the cinnamon and brown sugar.
9. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture evenly over the cake batter.
10. Place the pieces of butter evenly around the cake.
11. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean.)

Note: Watch carefully while baking because you don't want the topping to burn. You may want to cover it with foil halfway through baking.

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