Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

I love having coffee cakes in the freezer when I have company because I hate to get up and fix breakfast in the morning.  So I just set it out the night before and it is ready to go the next morning, with a little bacon or sausage and some fruit.  I freeze almost everything and no one would ever know.  Makes life so much easier.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
For Caramel topping:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
(to toast pecans, place in single layer on cookie sheet and bake in 350 oven for 10 minutes, stirring once)

For streusel:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 stick butter, cut into pieces
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt

For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
2 eggs
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, coat a 9 inch round, 2 inch deep cake pan with cooking spray. ( you could use a springform pan)  Stir together the caramel topping ingredients except for the pecans.  Spread over bottom of pan.  Sprinkle pecans over the top.  

Process the streusel ingredients in a food processor pulsing until mixture is sandy but without clumps, set aside.

Whisk the dry cake ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.  

Whisk the wet ingredients together, and set aside.  

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl only until combined.  Alternately add flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture.  Blend only enough to incorporate the dry ingredients into the batter.  

Spread half the batter over the caramel in the cake pan, then sprinkle with half of the streusel.  Carefully spread remaining batter over the streusel in cake pan, top with the remaining streusel.

Bake coffee cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  About 50-60 minutes.  Cool cake for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides to loosen cake. Invert cake onto a serving plate while hot.  Let cool slightly before serving.  

(if frozen, thaw completely, then spray a piece of foil with cooking spray and place over cake.  Put in the oven on 250 degrees for 15 minutes.)