Sour Cream Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I am not a morning person, despite popular belief.

I am not one of those weird cartoon characters that jumps out of bed with a creepy smile on my face who shout out, "GOOD MORRRRRRRRRNING WORLDDDDDD" at the top of their lungs, arms open wide as they are ready to embrace the day and save some chipmunks from an evil grasshopper or something.

In fact, until I get breakfast in me, I don't like to be talked to. Or touched. Or asked how I am this fine morning. Actually, don't even look at me. I am not into that, either. I might as well come with a "Warning: Reserve All Social Interactions Until Fed" sign plastered on my face, 'cause if you so much as say more than a mumbled "good morning" to me, you are getting the stink-eye.

It's not that I wake up in a bad mood... it's just that before my brain is able to compute, my tolerance level for anything more than a simple "hello" ranges from "I am tired and slightly annoyed that I am tired but I'll be polite and say hi back" to "I swear if you say one more word to me I am going to throw this bowl of cereal in your face". There is really no in between, so it's best to just keep your distance if you want to live out the rest of your day.

Yet... I love getting up early. What's up with that?

Well... I can tell you what's up with that. There is one sole, glorious ppurpose for getting up so early in the morning...

Breakfast.

 

 As I look at this coffee cake bread sitting on my counter right now in the kitchen, all I can think is... Oh death, where is your sting? 'Cause seriously at least in Heaven I will be able to devour this and not feel guilty. There's one thing to look forward to in the afterlife. Infinite amounts of coffee cake and streusal topping. Yeah... That's the good stuff.

If I could be any breakfast in the entire world, I'd be any shape or form of coffee cake. I love it so much I would marry it if it was a legal and respectable thing in this society.... but I don't think my boyfriend would appreciate that much. Not to mention it'd be a pretty short-term marriage considering I would eat all of it.

Whatever. I'm not good at commitment anyway.

This coffee cake is excellent. Studded with cinnamon chips for an extra pow and a thick layer of streusal on top... it hits the spot in every which way is guaranteed to make you atleast a little bit giddy about waking up in the morning. Or, y'know, at all. Not only that but it makes two hefty loaves which just makes everyone happy in the end. The sour cream inside keeps it deliciously moist, lending the sweetness of the bread and topping a slightly tangy companion. Not only that but this streusal is DELICIOUS and I actually doubled what I was going to make because, uh, duh, it's streusal topping... you don't skimp on that nonsense. 

Overall, an A+ beauty that would be perfect for any special morning breakfast or if you just really need some coffee cake like right now.

And trust me... You probably need it right now.

 

Sour Cream Cinnamon Coffee Cake

 

SERVING SIZE: 2 LOAVES or 24 MUFFINS    PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES     COOK TIME: 20-45 MINUTES

 

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups of white all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups full-fat sour cream

1 bag Hershey's Cinnamon Chips (about 2 1/2 cups)

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

 

STREUSAL:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cold

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 8x8 loaf pans with foil and non-stick spray, or coat a 24 cavity muffin pan with non-stick spray.

 

2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder & salt in a bowl.

 

3. Prepare the streusal first. Whisk together the 2 cups brown sugar & 1 cup flour & 1 tablespoon cinnamon together in a large bowl. With a pastry cutter or your fingers, combine the cold butter with the mixture until it resembles large, delicious lumps of buttery cinnamony sugary goodness. It doesn't have to be perfect, but make sure that it is mixed thoroughly. 

 

4. With a stand-mixer or hand mixer, combine granulated sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes on medium high speed. Put speed on low and add the eggs one egg at a time, adding only when each one is fully incorporated. Add in the vanilla.

5. Keep the speed on low and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then add the flour mix and sour cream in alternating additions. This means you will go by: about 1 cup flour mixture, about 1/2 cup of sour cream, then 1 cup flour mixture, then 1/2 cup of sour cream. You want to start and end with the flour. Make sure to fully incorporate each addition completely before adding the next.

6. Fold in the cinnamon chips and walnuts.

5. Pour batter evenly between two loaf pans or fill muffin pans about 2/3 full. Go crazy with the streusal here, making sure it covers the batter as completely as possible. No skimping allowed.

7. Bake both loaves for 30-45 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway for even baking. If muffins, bake for about 20-25. Cake is done when a toothpick comes out of the middle clean. Let coffee cake cool in pan for about 10 minutes before removing onto a wire wrack and letting cool completely. If you can wait that long, that is. :)

White Chocolate & Strawberry Snack Cake

I am a pretty picky person, though I do try at least everything once. I'm also a perfectionist, and tend to get OCD about certain things. Many of those things revolve around baking, and the rest of them around writing. And it's all stupid stuff, you know? Like, if a piece of my cake chips off in the pan -- it's like, the entire cake is ruined. Or, God forbid, I fall into the trap of run-on sentences or detail overkill while writing a chapter of my book. I am constantly re-doing things, trying to make them better even though everyone says they're fine. No one ever notices the slightly browner-than-desired edges of a cookie, or the way I just couldn't seem to portray a certain emotion or character adequately in my book. Of course, I can't be OCD about things that actually matter. Like taking the time out to scoop the flour loosely into the cup instead of just dunking my hand in there and getting a few more ounces of flour than I need. Or, you know, instead of re-writing an entire chapter just fix the small errors I made and work around them. I tend to be an all-in or nothing person, which sucks when you have hobbies that require both patience and the practice of trial and error. This type of attitude often gets me into trouble at work when I'm suppose to be organizing an entire aisle and, in my frustration from the lack of recovery, end up throwing everything on the floor and sorting it for an hour or two, screaming in indignation about the laziness of the night crew and shaking my fist to the vaulted ceilings.

Seriously. I'm not being sarcastic. There is a lot of screaming/yelling/ranting/raving/fist shaking that goes on during work. I don't even need an ear piece. My voice travels. It's one of the perks to being obnoxious and loud-mouthed.

...Probably something I should work on, but whatever. I could write a book on the woes of retail, except I'd probably never finish it because the list of reasons why retail is the kinder version of Hell-on-earth wouldn't end. It would just go on, and on, and on... Which begs the question, why in the world are the good things not like that? And why has someone not invented self-filling cookie jars? Do you realize how much happier we'd all be with self-filling cookie jars? Either Japan or Apple needs to get on that, stat. If they can make a girlfriend lap pillow they should totally be able to make a self-filling cookie jar. Really, if I have to wait until Heaven to get one of those I am going to be severely disappointed.

Back to the point of me being OCD, I tend not to post recipes I am not impressed with, or didn't come out the way I like. I enjoy making my own recipes by highly adapating others, and I find that usually it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get the flavor right. But I have to say, this little snacking cake turned out to be a bit of a surprise. When it first came out of the oven, it was wonderfully moist. The next day, however, the outside became crumbly and dry. Considering the cake had to be done by that day and it was far too late to make another trip to the store, I felt pretty angry and even wanted to just chuck it in the trash. I hate when things don't go how I plan them to be.

But then, I thought, I'm not gonna just throw it away. It might still be good. So when I sliced a piece, I noticed the inside, despite the outsides crunchy exterior, was still quite delicious and the insane amount of white chocolate with the combination of orange zest and a touch of strawberry jam managed to make it all come together into something beautiful. Funnily enough, that's often how life works. You screw up, you want to give up, but there's still that little hope that says maybe not all is lost. So you get back on your feet and keep trucking on, and every once in awhile you find out that something good came from your mistake. God is good like that, I think. And so, this cake is not a perfected recipe. It was born from a mistake, a mis-measurement of wet vs. dry, yet still manages to tingle the tastebuds. I'd definitely eat this with a strong cup of coffee or tea, and yes, I would dunk it. Just saying.

So here's the recipe. I went ahead and made notes on certain things I would change next time around. Definitely a recipe to revise, but still very good. I recommend eating this right out of the oven after it cools, or storing it with tight plastic wrap as soon as it comes to room temperature.

I guess I don't have to tell you that I also highly recommend eating it. All of it.   

White Chocolate & Strawberry Snack Cake

(adapted from this recipe)

 

SERVING SIZE: 8-10    PREP TIME: 10-15 MINUTES     COOK TIME: 40-45 MINUTES

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons white all-purpose flour, sifted and divided

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2-3 tablespoons orange zest

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted or browned

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond, orange or butter extract (I would go with almond next time)

1/4 cup milk (I would replace this with 1/2 cup of sour cream) 

2 cups of white chocolate chips (I would down this to 1 1/2 cups next time)

4-5 tablespoons of strawberry jam or preserves, warmed slightly.

Powdered sugar, sifted, for decoration (optional).

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a shallow 9in. cake pan.

2. Sift together the 1 1/2 cup of flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

3. With a stand-mixer or hand mixer, combine the sugar and the orange zest until the oils are released and sugar is fragrant (about 2 minutes on medium speed). Add the melted butter and mix for 5 minutes until sugar and butter seemed fluffed. Add the eggs one at a time on low speed, beating until just combined. Keeping speed on low, add half of the dry flour mixture to the bowl, beating until there is no trace of flour left. Add 1/4 cup of milk (or 1/2 cup of sour cream) and beat again until just combined. Make sure to scrap the sides of the bowl down before adding the remaining flour, beating for only a few more seconds until no traces remain.

4. Using the same bowl you kept the flour in beforehand, combine your white chocolate chips and remaining 2 tablespoons of flour together, tossing them together lightly to coat them. This will prevent the chips from sinking to the bottom of the cake during baking or the chocolate burning in the oven.

5. Fold in the white chocolate chips gently into the cake batter. The batter should be thick.

6. Pour the batter into the cake pan. Once you even out the batter, take spoonfuls (about 4-5 tablespoons) of warmed strawberry jam/preserves and drop them ontop of the batter. Using a butter knife, swirl the strawberry jam through the cake evenly. Be careful not to dig the knife deep enough to scrape the bottom of the pan.

7. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean with little crumbs. Cool in pan for about 5 minutes before taking out and continuing to cool for another 15-20 minutes on a wire wrack. Once cake is at room temperature, you may either serve with
powdered sugar sifted on top and coffee, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap.