Coffee Cake (muffins)

I don't really drink coffee however I still like to eat coffee cake with something like hot chocolate as a replacement for the coffee (it has a similar affect). I've eaten store bought coffee cake multiple but this time I decided to make it myself and see if it turned out worse, the same, or better than the store bought ones.

Ingredients

Topping:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, almonds, or pecans (optional)

Cake:

Nonstick cooking spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
(Zohn 214)

To make the topping, I had to, "combine light brown sugar, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, a salt with a silicone spatula...cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in walnuts and set aside" (Zohn 215). To make the cake, I mixed together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt then added into the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and the eggs (Zohn 215).

At this point, I had to pour the batter into a cake pan and add the topping (Zohn 215). This didn't quite work out as planned because I realized that I didn't have a cake pan on hand. I didn't really know what to do so instead, I decided to pour the batter into a muffin pan and then hoped it would turn out all right.

The recipe instructed me to bake it at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes (Zohn 215) however since the muffins were smaller, I shortened the baking to 25 minutes but kept a close eye on them. Surprisingly, they turned out pretty good considering I had to improvise a little. I would say that they measured up pretty well compared to the store bought coffee cake

Do you think that it's a good or bad idea to improvise when you're baking and why?

Zohn, Alexandra. Baking. New York: Penguin Group (USA), 2014. Print.