Sour Cream Coffee Cake

So, I am a super slacker in the blog department. I guess I can "blame" it on being pregnant, but just haven't had time or energy. At any rate, when I first saw this recipe, I first thought it was going to be like a pecan ring that you buy at a bakery and then realized this was definitely more cake and less pastry. But I wanted to give it a whirl anyhow, as it's nice to have a good coffee cake recipe.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Topping & Middle Layer

1 cup pecans, toasted
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

Cake

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream

Directions

1. For the Topping/Middle Layer: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coarsely chop 1/3 cup pecans; toast in oven on baking sheet for 2 minutes (shake pecans after 1st minute). Process remaining 2/3 cup pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cocoa powder in food processor until pecans are finely ground, about ten 1-second pulses; set aside.

2. For the Cake: Spray Baker's Joy (with flour) on 10-inch tube (Angel Food) pan. Using a sifter, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl twice with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium-low speed and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down beater and sides of bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated, about 15 seconds. Reduce low speed; add one-third flour mixture, followed by half of sour cream, mixing until just incorporated after each addition, about 10 seconds. Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining sour cream. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix at low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour.

3. Transfer 1/2 of batter to prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle evenly with half of streusel mixture. Spread remaining batter over streusel; sprinkle top of batter with coarsely chopped pecans, pressing gently into batter to adhere. Sprinkle remaining streusel over coarsely chopped pecans.

4. Bake until top is golden and just firm, and long skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 45 minutes. Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes. Invert cake onto rimmed baking sheet (cake will be streusel-side down); remove tube pan, place wire rack on top of cake, and reinvert cake streusel-side up. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Cut into pieces and serve.

Review: Hubby and I tried this about an hour after we took it out of the pan. It was just slightly warm and really moist. I was very happy with the way it came out and would definitely make it again. I made a couple of minor adjustments based on what I had in the house. I freeze butter so that I always have it when I'm going to bake (and usually buy it on sale), so I used Land O'Lakes Light Butter and melted it when defrosting in the micro. I also used Breakstone's Light Sour Cream. There was supposed to be 2 extra Tablespoons of sugar, which I missed and think it tasted fine without it, so left it out of the recipe. I had leftover brown sugar with cinnamon and cocoa powder from a KAF recipe I did, so used that and added additional dark brown sugar. I recommend this cake and think there is more you can do with it - like add frozen blueberries in the middle and maybe make more of a crumb topping. Enjoy!