Relax with this sweet spice bread at tea time

I try to keep our volunteers well-fed. If they are going to donate all those hours to the Steve Barnes campaign, the least I can do is feed them, right?
The other day, I decided it was a day for sweets...OK, so I wanted the sweets, but I can share.
Cinnamon Bread is an absolutely delicious bread that is really a cake. It tastes a bit like that childhood favorite - cinnamon toast, but it's soft with a mild crunch on top.
This isn't a sandwich bread, but it tastes great with tea or coffee...and is delicious all by itself.
Cinnamon has been used in cooking since ancient times. he first time any particular spice was mentioned int thte Bible was in the Old Testament is of cinnamon where Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon and cassia in the holy anointing oil. Cinnamon is native to Sri Lanka. It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 B.C. The mysterious spice was expensive and sometimes used as a currency.  It was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome, but historians claim the emperor Nero burned a year's worth of the city's supply at his wife Poppaea Sabina's funeral.
Today, it's much more affordable (often what you're buying is cinnamon flavored powder, which tastes the same, but which has none of the health benefits of real cinnamon)...and this recipe does not call for much of the strong spice.

Cinnamon Bread

2 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of buttermilk (put a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice in a cup of milk and let it curdle for 5 minutes and it's the same as buttermilk when you're baking)
1/4 cup of oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 teaspoons margarine or butter

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees . Grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
• Put the flour, one cup of the sugar, the baking powder, the baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon, the salt, the buttermilk, the oil, the eggs and the vanilla into large mixing bowl. Beat for 3 minutes. Pour into the  loaf pan. Smooth the top.
• Combine 2 tablespoons of the sugar, one teaspoon of the cinnamon and the butter, mixing until it's crumbly. Sprinkle this topping over the batter. Using a knife, cut in a light swirling motion to give a marbled effect.
• Bake for about 50 minutes.

Vegetarian.