Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe
Easy Coffee or Tea Cake With Brown Sugar and Pecan Filling
Oct 26, 2009
Coffee cakes are easy-to-make, delicious cakes that usually contain ingredients like nuts and fruit rather than chocolate or caramel. These desserts are traditionally eaten with tea or coffee. Many coffee cakes include a crumbly brown sugar and nut streusel topping or swirl, and this recipe is no exception. The inclusion of sour cream in this recipe makes the cake particularly moist, but yogurt can also be substituted to reduce the fat content with no loss of moistness or quality of the finished cake. This cake is excellent with or without frosting.
This recipe is reprinted with permission from Dolores L. Markey, author of Cooking With The Clergy, a compilation of Bishop family recipes in honor of Barbara and George Bishop. (Other recipes from this collection include Bishop's Raisin Cookies and Barbara Bishop's Sweet Potato Casserole.)
Sour Cream Coffee Cake Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 and a half sticks of unsalted butter (6 ounces)
- 1 and a half cups of white sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 and a half teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 pint sour cream (may be replaced with plain or vanilla yogurt)
For the brown sugar streusel filling:
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Lightly grease and flour a large bundt pan or a 9 x 13 inch pan.
- Cream together the 1 and a half sticks of unsalted butter and 1 and a half cups of white sugar. This step is easier if the butter has been slightly pre-softened. However, do not melt the butter! Creaming together the softened butter and the sugar creates tiny air spaces in the batter, which give the cake an extra "lift" as it bakes, according to Russ Parsons, author of How to Read a French Fry And Other Tales of Kitchen Science (Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
- Add the 3 eggs one at a time, beating the batter after each addition.
- Add the 1 tsp vanilla.
- Add the baking soda and baking powder and stir to combine.
- Add the 3 cups of flour a little bit at a time, alternating with the sour cream, until all of the flour and sour cream have been added. Stir only until combined; overstirring may make the cake tough.
- Prepare the filling by combining the brown sugar, cinammon, and chopped pecans in a separate bowl.
- Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar filling on the batter, and then top with the remaining batter.
- Sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar streusal filling on top of the batter (this will form a nice crumbly bottom for the coffee cake).
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes.
- Allow the cake to cool thoroughly before attempting to remove it from the pan (approximately 1 hour).
- Enjoy!
