Coffee Cake! It’s amazing and I dare anyone to tell me that they don’t like it. But you know what coffee cake doesn’t have? COFFEE! Shocking. I know. Well actually it’s because there are two kinds of coffee cake. There’s British coffee cake which does in fact have coffee in it, and there is the American coffee cake which is just in actuality a variation of German Streuselkuchen. So let’s unpack that.
British coffee cake. This is more of a spongy cake that has buttercream frosting and actual coffee in it. While that all sounds AMAZING, that isn’t what we gringos picture when we think of coffee cake. American coffee cake is meant to be had with coffee or tea, hence the name, the most iconic coffee cake that I know of is the classic Entenmann’s coffee cake that was always in the grocery store growing up. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Entenmann’s coffee cake is more of a streusel cake, why? Because they were founded by the son of a German baker from Stuttgart in 1898!
My introduction to coffee cake, oddly enough, came through Seinfeld. There’s an early Seinfeld episode that attempts to use a Drake’s Coffee Cake as a form of bribery to silence a character from divulging a secret. Watching that episode as a child I had no clue what Coffee Cake was, but I knew I had to try it. Once I eventually did, I saw what all the hype was about. Coffee Cake is damn delicious! Coffee cake is an under utilized dessert, it has everything you want and it’s perfect after any meal or for breakfast if you’re so inclined.
This recipe is slightly involved but the end result is well worth it, I adapted it from Ina Garten’s recipe.
Recipe – Ina Garten’s Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the Streusel
Method
Step 1- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Step 2- Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
Step 3- Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream.
Step 4- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Step 5- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
Step 6- For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble.
Step 7- Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel.
Step 8 -Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- For the Streusel
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- Step 1- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 2- Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
- Step 3- Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream.
- Step 4- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Step 5- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.
- Step 6- For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble.
- Step 7- Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel.
- Step 8 -Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.
