Friday, February 18, 2011

Pecan-Sour Cream Coffee Cake:
Serve with a hot drink

Seconds after sampling a piece of Pecan-Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Orange Glaze (click for the recipe), my husband got up and made himself a cup of tea to drink with the rest of his serving.
   His actions demonstrated the serve-me-with-a-hot-liquid appeal of this absolutely scrumptious dessert, which doesn’t actually contain any coffee. (Of course, eating this cake with a cold drink is perfectly acceptable, too.)
   The cake is moist due to sour cream and maple syrup, is perfectly spiced thanks to a cinnamon streusel, and the orange glaze tops everything off perfectly.
   It’s the type of cake you’d serve on an afternoon when you take a break from life and put your feet up. It would also be absolutely wonderful as a brunch dessert.
   With this cake, the streusel isn’t a topping as is often the case. The streusel is sprinkled on most of the batter, then topped with a last bit of batter before baking, producing a lovely line of spice near the bottom of the cake.
   To produce the finely-ground pecans needed in the recipe, I used a small electric kitchen chopper.
   The cake keeps well for about three days at room temperature.
   The recipe, which was originally published in Cook’s Country magazine, appears in its entirety at the link above.
   The cake is easy to make.
   For the streusel, finely-group pecans, dark brown sugar, flour and cinnamon are combined.
   For the cake, eggs, sour cream, maple syrup and vanilla are whisked together in one bowl. In another bowl, flour, more pecans, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt are combined.
   Butter and the egg mixture are added to the flour mixture and combined with a hand-held mixer.
   Five cups of the batter are poured into a greased 12-cup Bundt pan. The streusel is sprinkled over, and the remaining batter spread over the streusel (this is a bit tricky and may require the use of a bread knife.)
   After the cake is cooled and taken out of the pan, a glaze of confectioner’s sugar (icing sugar), orange juice and grated orange zest (orange peel) are whisked together and drizzled over the top and sides of the cake.



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