Conference Cakes

As long as I can remember we have always had Coffee (Conference) Cakes on General Conference weekend. It is a tradition that my mother had when she was younger, and she shared this tradition with us. I have always gone to her house, or my grandmothers house for these cakes, never have I had to make them. My mothers' mother is Danish, and this is something that they have always done. We make these Saturday night and then eat them Sunday morning.

I have never made this recipe before, and for a while my mom didn't even know where hers was, until I ran across the original recipe on my cousins blog! SCORE!!! I still had to call my mom a few times for tips and pointers. Here is the recipe:

2 C. Scalded milk

1/2 C. Butter

3/4 C. Sugar

2 tsp. Yeast

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. salt

5-6 C. Flour

1/4 C. melted butter

1/2 C. Sugar for sprinkling

1/4 C. brown Sugar for belly buttons

You scald the milk and then add the cube of butter and the sugar. Mix. Allow the milk mixture to cool enough before adding the yeast. Once cooled to WARM, add the yeast and let sit for 15 minutes. (This way you can tell if the yeast activated because it will foam up). Then add the beaten eggs, and salt and mix well. Slowly add flour, one cup at a time, until the mixture becomes glossy. It should still be sticky, but it shouldn't stick to your fingers a whole lot. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let raise overnight on counter.

This is what it should look like the next morning before rolling them out. Roll out the dough mixture on a floured surface until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Then brush on melted butter with pasty brush or fingers, sprinkle with Sugar. Then cut them with a pastry or pizza cutter into pieces.(About the size of your hand) Then transfer the cut pieces onto a greased cookie sheet. You can put a little ball of brown sugar in the middle, and then drizzle with melted butter to create the belly buttons.

This is what they look like before they go into the oven. The cakes with brown sugar are the ones with the belly buttons. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. I cook mine about 11 minutes, which leaves them barely golden brown.

The after product. They are served with a side of Real Whipping Cream for dipping. This batch made about 20 cakes, and they were fairly large in size. Most of my family will eat 3-5 cakes a person!!!!

My mom always served our coffee cakes with scrambled eggs topped with Cheese and hot chocolate and juice. They are so delicious!! If you try them let me know what you thought of them!!