Its topping makes it tops

Moist and ultra-buttery, a coffee cake cut into ample squares or thick fingers is a luscious addition to the breakfast or break the fast table at Yom Kippur, equally welcome at a celebratory meal or as a treat for weekend guests.

The engaging flavor of cinnamon is softly front and center in the sour-cream-enriched cake batter and in the pebbly construction of the streusel topping. The mellow quality of ground cinnamon is enlivened by butter and sour cream. Vanilla extract touches the crumbly surface of the cake and seasons the batter, dovetailing nicely with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Three eggs, along with the sour cream, help to define and establish the ``crumb" of the cake while contributing to its mellow texture. The cake keeps well, too.

The cake and topping fill a 9-by-13-inch baking pan handsomely, offering one grand cake to cut into stocky pieces and serve with other breakfast dishes. The firm-but-tender streusel crumble rippling over the silky cake creates a wonderful sweet, a cake that has a certain deliciously dependable, heirloomlike quality. -- LISA YOCKELSON