Sour Cream Crumb Cake

I think we all try to find our sense of humor (sometimes it feels like it’s in my back pocket, I promise you) where we can. The other day I was struck by a NEED to bake a good coffee cake to start off my day on a positive note with a good cup of coffee. Ya know what I mean? There are days like that. K. So I prepared it and it sat like a jewel on the counter on a wire rack cooling and DH moseyed in to the kitchen. Baking again? he asked. Yup. Why? Cuz I felt like it. Huh, k what did you make. Sour cream crumb cake. He made a bit of a face and said he prefers non-dairy cakes since dairy are “too rich”. I didn’t get excited and said, fine, more for me. So, each morning I came downstairs for my caffeine hit with the crumb cake and suspicious amounts were missing. I’m just letting you know that this lasted 6 days, count ’em and did not get stale on me. (Live dangerously and don’t refrigerate it, keeps much better, although it does freeze well). So on the fifth day I finally said (when it was nearly gone) what happened to not wanting the dairy cake? He looked at me without a trace of embarrassment and said after I had a piece, I changed my mind. It’s really good. On the 6th day, btw, I came down to discover he had polished it off and somewhat outraged asked why he didn’t save me any. He looked at me a bit sheepishly and said, it was really good and I didn’t realize you wanted any. So I share this with you because my sense of humor came to the fore and I found myself giggling throughout the day at the scenario. Nu, nu, gotta get your giggles where you can. Bottom line, he loved it.

While you need 2 bowls because you mix up the topping separately, the cake batter can be hand mixed in one bowl so yay for that. Prepare your two 9 inch round cake tins by greasing and placing a parchment paper round on the bottom or if you don’t have parchment paper, just sprinkle some flour on the bottom of the tin so it doesn’t stick.

So gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C.

Start off by melting the butter (I do it in the microwave) and I melt the whole cup worth and then set aside the 1/4 cup of butter for the topping separately. K. Then in a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and cinnamon

and mix it up

On an aside, there’s a good reason to blend the dry ingredients together. It makes the spice (in this case cinnamon) and the leavening agents (baking powder and soda, and yes, you need both) be evenly distributed throughout the mixture so the cake will rise evenly and be spiced properly. A little info for your baking knowledge. Okey dokey, onward.

Now make a well in the dry ingredients (this just means you make an indentation in the middle) and take your cooled 3/4 cup of butter and the eggs, sour cream, milk and vanilla and pour right in.

Stir it up till fully combined but don’t be overenthusiastic or you toughen the cake. Good.

In that little bowl with the rest of the melted butter that you put aside, place the brown sugar and the flour and cinnamon for the topping

and mix it up till nice and crumbly.

Now put it all together. Pour the batter evenly between the two prepared pans, (btw, it may not really pour so well since the batter is quite thick so you may have to spoon it out) like so:

And now divide the crumb topping evenly between the two pans. It’s not a ginormous amount, just enough to nicely cover the tops of both pans of batter like this:

As you can see from the pic above, it’s covered but not thickly, that’s correct.

Now pop those babies into the preheated oven. Bake for about 32-35 minutes or till nicely browned and a wooden toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool on wire rack. This is important since if you cut into it too soon it will not cut well. It’s okay if it’s warm but not hot. Pair with your favorite drink and make your world a slightly better place to live in.

Sour Cream Crumb Cake

Cake:

2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups (350 grams) white sugar

3/4 cup butter,(170 grams) melted

2 tablespoons milk

2 large eggs

scant 1 cup (200 grams) sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:

4 tablespoons (57 grams) melted butter

1/2 cup (104 grams) packed brown sugar

1/2 cup (62.5 grams)all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F /180 C. Grease 2 9 inch round baking pans and if you have it, place a round of parchment paper on bottom of greased pans. If not, sprinkle a little flour on the bottom of the pan over the oil spray to prevent sticking.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, white sugar and salt till combined. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture (an indentation). Melt the full cup of butter and set aside 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons or 57 grams) of the butter to use in the topping. Cool the butter and pour the 3/4 cup into the well in the flour mixture. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Stir together till combined well. Batter is very thick.

Place half the batter in each of the prepared pans.

Take the 1/4 cup butter you’ve set aside and mix together with the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon together in a medium bowl till crumbly. Sprinkle half the topping over each cake batter in the pans.

Bake in the preheated oven in the 2 cake pans for 32-35 minutes or till wooden toothpick comes out clean.