TWD: Cinnamon Squares

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Cinnamon Squares, chosen by Tracey, of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She's been a TWD member for a little over a year, and I bet she was super-excited for it to be her turn to pick the recipe. She said she chose this recipe because the picture in the book always caught her attention. It is a nice picture...as Dorie says, the cake looks "homey." I'd agree with that. Some of the pictures in Dorie's book make me think, "I could never make anything that looks like that!" But when I saw this recipe, I thought, "I can totally make something that looks like that!" and I think I came pretty close.
First and foremost, if you like cinnamon, you will love this recipe. I kind of prefer cinnamon to be a highlight ingredient in recipes, rather than the standout. This was honestly a little much for me, which was good...I need to lay off the sweets for awhile!

The recipe was really very simple to make. Dry ingredients, wet ingredients, mix together, spoon into pan, bake. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Except that you add melted butter after adding the rest of the wet ingredients to the dry. I was scared. It looked like a lot of butter to get absorbed into the mixture, but it worked! The batter was really silky! I put half of the batter in, sprinkled it with the cinnamon/sugar/coffee/chocolate mixture, and added the rest of the batter. My swirl isn't as pronounced as the one in the picture (or on other blogs I've seen), but it turned out pretty good.

The frosting is also super simple...butter and chocolate. It was a nice addition to the super-cinnamon cake. Here's something I can't figure out, though. How in the world does Dorie decide on portion sizes for her recipes? This was made in a 9x9 pan (to her specifications) and was supposed to make 9 servings. Those are nice size slices of cake. But she suggests that you should get 50-some tiny little bars from the spectacularly delicious Caramel Crunch Bars. It just doesn't make sense to me! David had two slices of Cinnamon Square cake, I had half of a slice (and had reached my cinnamon quota for the day), and the rest went to work with David. He said it was long gone before lunch. I guess the ladies there like cinnamon!
Overall, it was a good recipe, but it reminded me more of a breakfast cake, or as Chet would say, a tea cake. When I make it again, I think I'll go for more of a crumb topping, like you'd find on a crumb cake. Then it will be breakfast-worthy! Just add a big ol' cup of coffee, and you're set!