Easy Overnight Decadent Coffee Cake (Posted 364 Days Early)

Happy Mother's Day!

My gift to you is a recipe that you can leave on the front of the refrigerator for an entire year with bold red arrows pointing to it, and your words (in handwritten desperation), "Make this for me for Mother's Day, please!"

OK, that's not true. I'm not posting this ON Mother's Day because I'm thinking or planning a year ahead. The truth is that I've working so damn much that I've really done little else, including blogging, so I haven't gotten around to posting this delicious recipe. I also haven't blogged about Aleks' car dying an oily nasty death (good thing we're keeping Tom's god-awful, mossy truck), the beautiful paver steps Tom built in the front yard, and the fact that I've found Busch beer cans within 50 yards of this home, which would make my Bavarian mother turn in her grave -- and yes, I know Mr. Busch was a Bavarian... which actually makes it even worse!

So here it is in all its glory. (And I really feel that, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should say right up front that this is NOT diet food. Nope, not at all...)

Easy Overnight Decadent Coffee Cake (Follow this recipe exactly. Ha-ha. Not!)
About 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (actually, I "rollerpin" them in a sandwich bag)
About 15 frozen yeast dinner rolls
About 1/2 package (3.4 oz) butterscotch instant pudding mix
About 1/2 cup brown sugar
About 1/2 cup melted butter
About 2 t. cinnamon


"Chop" the nuts until they're just the right size for a coffee cake topping. As my mother would say, "Dass fuelt man." (One feels when it's right.)

Place the chopped nuts in the bottom of your greased bundt pan.

Place the frozen rolls over the nuts. I put down one row, then added a few more rolls on top of that.

Sprinkle the pudding mix evenly over the frozen rolls.


Melt the butter...

Add the brown sugar...

...and the cinnamon...

...and pour that gooey, luscious mixture over the rolls, trying to moisten the butterscotch powder.

Cover the whole thing with a towel and let sit overnight. (I put the pan in the bathroom. Why? I don't know; it's a tradition. Whenever we need yeast to rise, like on Thanksgiving, there's a towel-covered bundt pan in the bathroom. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving around here without a towel-covered bundt pan in the bathroom.)
Get up in the morning and shuffle into the bathroom. You will be greeted by this:

Before you have coffee (but after you pee), stick the pan in a pre-heated 350 degree over and set the timer to 25 minutes.

When the timer goes off, you'll be greeted by this:

Let cool slightly, then turn upside-down onto a plate and observe with all your senses!


Now of course YOU won't ever need to make this glorious coffee cake yourself because your children will make it for you. Next Mother's Day morning. I promise! But only if you leave hints all over the place for the next 364 days.

I didn't do that and I had to make my own damn coffee cake this morning!