SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKEfeatured

High school was where my diet could largely go unchecked by my mother. Gone were the healthy, balanced packed lunches or the one option cafeteria food. In high school, if you managed to have money in your pocket, the possibilities for food were endless and awesome. Nachos for lunch? Don’t mind if I do. Pizza dipped in ranch dressing 5 days a week. Totally. Every once in a while I’d want to be healthy so I would opt to get the iceberg lettuce salad with shredded carrots and one tomato, but let’s not get crazy, that was few and far between. It was also in high school when I discovered Hostess crumb donuts. Game changer. Forget the waxy chocolate option or the chalky white powered sugar choice, once I tried the crumb donuts, there was no going back. It was worth the extra 75 cents it tacked onto my nacho/pizza/soft pretzel/hamburger lunch. Those donuts were magic.

And even now, all these years later, every time I eat coffee cake, I think about those donuts and how many I must have eaten in high school. And then I think about my high school metabolism and a little piece inside of me cries… but then I just eat some coffee cake and remember that I don’t have acne or braces or a spiral perm so I’m totally cool having to spend the extra time on the tredmill working off that coffee cake.

According to sources, this is hands down one of the top 5 things I’ve ever made. It’s that good. And if you happen to eat the entire cake and feel the need to be healthy, just make yourself an iceberg lettuce salad with shredded carrots and one tomato drowned in generic ranch dressing. Problem solved.

Recipe: Sour Cream Coffee Cake adapted from the Baked Cookbook |  Soundtrack: Cake

• TOPPING
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
• CINNAMON, CHOCOLATE SWIRL
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 heaping tsp cinnamon
• SOUR CREAM CAKE
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, soft, but still cool, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 16oz sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• VANILLA GLAZE
• 6 tbsp butter, softened to room temp
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 tbsp milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
To Make the Crumb Topping:
Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse for 5 seconds to mix. Add the butter and pulse until combined. The mixture will look like course sand. Cover and put in the refrigerator.

To Make the Chocolate, Cinnamon Swirl:
In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa and cinnamon. Set aside.

To Make the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9×13 pan (or one 9- 10 inch deep round cake pan).

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl. Set aside.

In your mixer, cream the butter until smooth and ribbon like. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is smooth and starts to look fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Scrape down the bowl and beat again for 30 seconds. Add the sour cream and vanilla. Beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and then beating just until each addition is incorporated. Do not overmix.

Pour one third of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Batter is pretty thick you will need to spread it out evenly using a spatula.

Sprinkle half of the cinnamon, chocolate mixture over the batter covering the entire surface. Spoon half of the remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with the remaining cinnamon mixture, then the remaining batter. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour. I am neurotic so I start checking around 40 minutes. Insert a knife or a toothpick. When it comes out clean, it’s done. I ever so slightly under cook it so it’s really moist and not at all dry.

While the cake is cooking, make the glaze. In your mixer, beat the butter until it’s smooth. Add in the remaining ingredients. If the glaze feels a little thick, add more milk, and if it’s not thick enough, add more powdered sugar. If you dip a spoon into the glaze, when you lift it up, the glaze should slowly run off of the spoon.

While the cake is hot, using a spoon, drizzle the glaze generously over the cake.

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