Don't bug me, I'm eating

Most of the time, when I bake, unless it's for a specific reason, I take the goodies to work to be fed to the guinea pigs  stagehands at the theatre.  But once in a while, I take pity on the Hubster and his coworkers and I bake something and send it to work with him.

I really wanted to make a coffee cake, and it seemed like a good thing to send to work with the Hubster.  This recipe was super simple, and the results were fantastic.  It comes out nice and moist and fluffy.  The cake itself is not very sweet, but it provides a nice balance to the brown sugar and cinnamon swirls. See:

mmm....swirly goodness.

The only thing I changed about this recipe was the nuts.  I don't really like pecans, but I do love walnuts.  So, I used walnuts instead of pecans.  Oh, and I added a little bit of the nuts to the swirl ingredients.  I'm not sure why I did it, but it was good.  So I guess that's two things that I changed.

Since I feel it is necessary to taste test everything I make, I just had to cut a slice and eat it, you know, for research purposes.  I shared this piece with the Hubster, so that he could properly represent the cake to his coworkers.  It's a good thing I ate a few bites before he got to it, because otherwise, I may not have even gotten a taste.  I tried to talk to him while he was "sampling", and I pretty much only got grunts in response. 

Oh, and one more thing -- when you cut the cake, a fair amount of the streusel topping will fall off.  Do not throw this away -- it's delicious!! I may or may not have mixed it into some oatmeal the next day.  Don't judge.  You would do it too.

You can find the original recipe that I used here. 

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Streusel
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 TB ground cinnamon
2 TB cold unsalted butter
1 cup pecans, chopped

Cake
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1 TB vanilla
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 TB baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 1 inch cubes

For streusel:
Process the flour, granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of the dark brown sugar, and the cinnamon in a food processor. Transfer 1 1/4 cups of this mixture to a small bowl and stir in the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar; set aside. Add the butter and pecans to the remaining dry ingredients in the food processor bowl. Process the mixture until the nuts and butter have been broken down into small pieces, about ten pulses. Set aside.

For the cake:
Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Combine the eggs, 1 cup of the sour cream, and the vanilla in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt at low speed, about 30 seconds. Add the butter and remaining 1/2 cup sour cream and mix at low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat 30 seconds.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Decrease the mixer speed to medium low and slowly incorporate the egg mixture in 3 additions, beating for 20 seconds after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute.
Add 2 cups of the batter to the prepared pan. With an offset spatula or rubber spatula, smooth out the surface of the batter. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup of the streusel filling. Drop 2 cups o the batter over the struesel, spread evenly, and then add the remaining struesel filling. Top with the remaining batter and then the streusel topping (with butter and nuts).

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool cake for 30 minutes, then invert and remove from tube pan.. Cool or 2 more hours, then serve.