Monday, February 22, 2016

Good Morning: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

A few weeks ago I attended a family weekend filled with games, walks, and of course, great food.
I know my host loves breakfast sweets and I had some sour cream in my fridge, it was time to make this sour cream coffee cake.  Warning: it is full of butter and sugar and sour cream, yum !!
This coffee cake is rich and dense and freezes beautifully, which is a good thing because it makes a huge bundt cake.


Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter at room temperature
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cinnamon Walnut Topping

Stir together all three ingredients in a small bowl.

3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon


1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9 inch non-stick tube pan.

2) Make the cinnamon walnut topping and set aside.


3) In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4) In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream and baking soda. Don't worry if it foams up, that is normal.


5) (Don't do this yet !!)***The original recipe has you beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla all together with an electric mixer.
Which is what I did...
The batter did not get "light and fluffy" as the recipe claimed it would even after more than 5 minutes.

***Instead I would recommend creaming the butter and sugar first for 5 minutes, then adding the eggs and vanilla and beating until that is fluffy.

6) With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream mixture in two additions. Mix until just moistened.

7) Spread a third of the batter into the pan, then sprinkle on a third of the topping. Repeat ending with the topping.

8) Bake for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Complete cooling on a rack.
I didn't get any photos of this beauty sliced, my bad...
I highly recommend making this coffee cake ahead of time, as I mentioned at the beginning, it freezes beautifully and is delightful toasted for breakfast, brunch or with afternoon tea.

You could also add grated orange zest to the batter or use pecans instead of walnuts.






Sunday, February 14, 2016

Chocolate Cupcakes and more...

I recently made these  chocolate cupcakes for my sister-in-law and a house full of game playing family. They were such a hit, she suggested I post about them again.

If you haven't already come up with a chocolate dessert for tonight, these are very easy and tasty.
You can frost them with a simple chocolate ganache or get fancy like I did in the photo above.
 (Don't tell anyone, but they are dairy free and vegan.)

Or if you have the time and the inclination here are a bunch of other chocolate desserts you can try.

This flourless chocolate cake is dense, decadent and requires only six common ingredients.



Or these super easy brownies that I discovered last year.

Hope you get your chocolate in some form today !!
Happy Valentine's Day !!