Fabulous Friday Food - Cinnamon Coffee Cake
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Sorry I'm a day late here with the FFF. Read on and you'll see why.
***
I often tell my college girl and her friends, "Take a good look at these people because you'll be friends with them for the rest of your life."
They kind of laugh, nervously. They're probably wondering if they really DO want to be friends with these people in 30 years. But they do. They really do.
This weekend, my roommate from college (hey, Jen!) is staying at my house. She brought her daughter for a college visit, which makes me very happy because that means that if her daughter comes here we'll have another girl to look out for (yea!) AND Jen might come visit a little more often (yea! again). This weekend, though, we'll probably drive our kids nuts as we reminisce about all the antics Jen dragged me into when we lived together.
She really was a trouble maker, that one.
Aaaaanyway.
It's going to be a fun weekend, and in anticipation of Jen and Ellen's arrival, I've done a little cooking. Yesterday I made some Italian Beef (forgot to take pictures--sorry!), some Sausage Breakfast Cups (recipe next week!), and a coffee cake that is heavenly.
I'm a sucker for sour cream. How about you? Pretty much anything with sour cream in it is amazing in my book. So when I saw that this recipe called for not one, but TWO cups of sour cream--an entire pint!--I knew I couldn't go wrong. (Besides, my mom has made this coffee cake for me, so I've already tasted it and I know it's amazing.)
The best thing about this coffee cake, though, is that, like wine and women, it gets better with age. The longer it sits, the more moist it becomes. So bake it a day or two ahead of time--if you can resist it that long.
Here we go.
Ingredients are pretty basic: butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, soda, salt, sour cream, cinnamon (duh!), and nuts (walnuts or pecans, whatever you like).
May I give you a little baking tip here? Set out your butter and eggs at least a half an hour, if not an hour ahead of time. Your cake will turn out so much better if you use room temperature butter and eggs. I didn't believe it until recently, but trust me, it's just better. Everything seems to mix together easier.
This is so easy. Just cream together the butter and 2 cups of sugar until they are light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.
Now, if you don't worry about things like raw eggs (I don't--I eat raw cookie dough all the time), take a little taste of the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla mixture. Call me crazy, but that's one of my favorite combinations in the world.
(Don't tell anyone at the Food Network. They'll never hire me.)
Moving along.
Sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream. Like this.
Flour.
Sour cream.
Somewhere I read that you should always start and end with the flour, so that's what I did. Can anyone set me straight on that? Is that right?
Once that's mixed together, combine the cinnamon, nuts, and 3/4 cup sugar. I just used the same bowl as the flour--easier to clean up. And I'm all about the easy clean up.
Put about half the batter into a 10 inch tube pan. Yes, a tube pan. I know it's not as pretty as a bundt pan, but there's just too much batter to use a bundt pan. Sorry, I tried it and it didn't work.
Sprinkle the cinnamon/nut/sugar mixture over the top. If you want to be really fancy, you could do this in 2 or 3 layers, but I'm lazy, so I just put it in the middle.
Then put the rest of the batter on top.
Another baking tip for you. Do you have trouble spreading the top layer because the cinnamon and nuts keep wanting to come through the bits of batter? Use a spreader, like the kind you use for frosting, and spread it very gently. I think it works better.
Bake the cake at 350 for 60-65 minutes. Check it with a toothpick to make sure it's done. Cool for about a half an hour before you remove it from the pan, otherwise you'll have a cakey, gooey mess on your hands.
So there--delicious coffee cake to share with your very own college roommate. Why not call her up and invite her for the weekend?
Here's the printable version if you want it.
Now share. What are YOU doing this weekend?
***
I often tell my college girl and her friends, "Take a good look at these people because you'll be friends with them for the rest of your life."
They kind of laugh, nervously. They're probably wondering if they really DO want to be friends with these people in 30 years. But they do. They really do.
This weekend, my roommate from college (hey, Jen!) is staying at my house. She brought her daughter for a college visit, which makes me very happy because that means that if her daughter comes here we'll have another girl to look out for (yea!) AND Jen might come visit a little more often (yea! again). This weekend, though, we'll probably drive our kids nuts as we reminisce about all the antics Jen dragged me into when we lived together.
She really was a trouble maker, that one.
Aaaaanyway.
It's going to be a fun weekend, and in anticipation of Jen and Ellen's arrival, I've done a little cooking. Yesterday I made some Italian Beef (forgot to take pictures--sorry!), some Sausage Breakfast Cups (recipe next week!), and a coffee cake that is heavenly.
I'm a sucker for sour cream. How about you? Pretty much anything with sour cream in it is amazing in my book. So when I saw that this recipe called for not one, but TWO cups of sour cream--an entire pint!--I knew I couldn't go wrong. (Besides, my mom has made this coffee cake for me, so I've already tasted it and I know it's amazing.)
The best thing about this coffee cake, though, is that, like wine and women, it gets better with age. The longer it sits, the more moist it becomes. So bake it a day or two ahead of time--if you can resist it that long.
Here we go.
Ingredients are pretty basic: butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, soda, salt, sour cream, cinnamon (duh!), and nuts (walnuts or pecans, whatever you like).
May I give you a little baking tip here? Set out your butter and eggs at least a half an hour, if not an hour ahead of time. Your cake will turn out so much better if you use room temperature butter and eggs. I didn't believe it until recently, but trust me, it's just better. Everything seems to mix together easier.
This is so easy. Just cream together the butter and 2 cups of sugar until they are light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla.
Now, if you don't worry about things like raw eggs (I don't--I eat raw cookie dough all the time), take a little taste of the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla mixture. Call me crazy, but that's one of my favorite combinations in the world.
(Don't tell anyone at the Food Network. They'll never hire me.)
Moving along.
Sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream. Like this.
Flour.
Sour cream.
Somewhere I read that you should always start and end with the flour, so that's what I did. Can anyone set me straight on that? Is that right?
Once that's mixed together, combine the cinnamon, nuts, and 3/4 cup sugar. I just used the same bowl as the flour--easier to clean up. And I'm all about the easy clean up.
Put about half the batter into a 10 inch tube pan. Yes, a tube pan. I know it's not as pretty as a bundt pan, but there's just too much batter to use a bundt pan. Sorry, I tried it and it didn't work.
Sprinkle the cinnamon/nut/sugar mixture over the top. If you want to be really fancy, you could do this in 2 or 3 layers, but I'm lazy, so I just put it in the middle.
Then put the rest of the batter on top.
Another baking tip for you. Do you have trouble spreading the top layer because the cinnamon and nuts keep wanting to come through the bits of batter? Use a spreader, like the kind you use for frosting, and spread it very gently. I think it works better.
Bake the cake at 350 for 60-65 minutes. Check it with a toothpick to make sure it's done. Cool for about a half an hour before you remove it from the pan, otherwise you'll have a cakey, gooey mess on your hands.
So there--delicious coffee cake to share with your very own college roommate. Why not call her up and invite her for the weekend?
Here's the printable version if you want it.
Now share. What are YOU doing this weekend?
