Cinnamon Bread (Quick Bread)

A friend of mine had posted the other day that she was attempting yeast dough for the first time.  I had forwarded her some tips, and then it made me WANT homemade bread.  Unfortunately there was not enough yeast in my cupboard, so I decided to make a quick bread.  I found a new recipe I wanted to try and it looked easy AND good.  Of course as I went along, I realized I was missing some of the important ingredients (like, oh, baking powder)...so I learned along the way how to substitute for ingredients you may not have known HAD substitutions!!  I will share those after the recipe.

Recipe:

2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

Filling/Topping:
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 Tbs butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350; grease and flour one 9" loaf pan
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, cinnamon and salt.
In separate bowl/measuring glass, stir together buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.  Stir liquids into dry mixture.
In small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.  Using a fork, incorporate butter until mixture is crumbly.
Pour half of batter into prepared loaf pan.  Sprinkle with half the filling/topping mixture.  Pour remaining batter on top, and sprinkle with the rest of topping mixture.
Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool 5 minutes, remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Now here is what I ended up having to use in place of some of the ingredients:  out of baking powder?  Did you know you could use a mixture of cream of tartar & baking soda as a substitute?!  It's true!  For every tsp called for, use 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar.
I was also out of buttermilk.  And milk.  Many of you may know that if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 Tbs lemon juice + enough milk to = 1 cup for every cup in a recipe.  Well, that is not helpful when there's no milk in the house either!!  So I grabbed what dairy I had -- heavy cream!  Yup, that's what I put in my bread (I'm not going to win any lo-fat, lo-cal, healthy bread awards).

I hope this encourages you...just because you don't have the EXACT ingredients called for in any recipe, doesn't mean you can't still make it!  Especially if you discover you're missing something in the middle of making your recipe (I know, my mother would be chagrined if she knew I hadn't lined up all my ingredients before starting to ensure I wouldn't run into this exact problem!).  There is almost always something you can use as a substitute!!!  :)  And sometimes -- just sometimes -- you'll come up with something even better than the original!!  Happy baking, my friends!