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03/15/2002 Archived Entry: "Sour Cream Coffee Cake"

This is the recipe that my listener, Ed Clinton, brought into the studio for Joan Hamburg and me. Joan had some trouble baking it. Hers came out with dense, uncooked spots. I think the trouble is that Ed’s mixing directions were not clear and precise. (I am not allowed to cast aspersions on Joan’s cooking ability.) He got the recipe from the internet. If you listen to my radio program, you know that being a good cook or baker, as Ed obviously is (I loved his spaghetti sauce, too), does not qualify one to be a good recipe writer. I have been doing this – writing recipes -- for nearly 33 years and I still struggle with directions so that people who don’t have the vaguest can still have a successful result.

When I saw the recipe it looked familiar. It is nearly identical to the sour cream coffee cake recipe I have in What To Cook When You Think There’s Nothing in the House to Eat. It is in that book because, after all, all the ingredients in the cake are typical pantry items. Well, maybe not everyone has a container of sour cream in their refrigerator. But they should. It can be stored for a frighteningly long time. The only difference between this cake and the one in my book is that this cake has 25 percent less flour. I like it better. It’s lighter. (The flavoring is different, too. In “What To Cook …” the cake is made with chocolate chips. This one is swirled with cinnamon and sugar.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
(Russian Pound Cake)
Makes 1 9- or 10-inch tube cake

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks), at room temperature if mixing by hand,
malleable if using a machine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pint sour cream (2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9- or 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom – sometimes called an angel food pan or sponge cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until its color looks lightened and it is fluffy. Do this either in a stand-up mixer with the paddle on medium speed, or by hand with a wooden spoon.

Add the 2 cups of sugar, a tablespoon or so at a time, and continue to cream until light and fluffy.

If mixing by hand, beat the eggs together, then add a little at a time, beating well between additions. If mixing with a machine, add the eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in the vanilla.

In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Beat 1/3 of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture just until well blended. Then beat in 1/2 of the sour cream. Beat in another 1/3 of the flour mixture, then the remaining sour cream, and finally the last 1/3 of flour. Be careful not to overbeat. In each step, beat until just mixed.

Pour the batter into the greased and floured tube pan.

In a small bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture on top of the batter and swirl into the batter with a table knife. Swirl in deeply if you want the cinnamon to be near the bottom. You probably will leave some cinnamon mixture on the surface of the cake. That’s good. It will make a nice crust.

Bake in the preheated 350-degree oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan. Test by inserting a long toothpick or wooden skewer into the center. If it comes out dry, the cake is finished.

Cool in pan, on a rack, for about 20 minutes, then remove the outside of the cake pan. Cool thoroughly before slicing or removing from the tube base of the pan.