Coffee Cake with Streusel topping

Its funny that this cake is called Coffee Cake as there is not a pinch of Coffee in the cake :-)
While going through the recipe of this cake I read it almost twice to make sure I wasn't missing out the Coffee among the ingredients, but no, it definitely has no coffee. Well apparently coffee cakes are cakes that are intended to be eaten while having coffee and they usually have a cumbly or streusel based topping.
(Source: Wikipedia)

This cake was a result of a boooooring Sunday!! I had nothing to do, had no plans of going out anywhere and was feeling lazy to the core. And around 9pm that night I was simply frustrated of my laziness and was digging into my fridge to check for that last piece of chocolate when I thought why not bake a cake!! :-)

I immediately checked my pantry and fridge for basic cake ingredients and that was there. All I needed was a simple recipe. I checked my favorite baking website www.joyofbaking.com for any easy cake recipe and that's when I found this Coffee Cake and luckily I had all the ingredients mentioned including Sour cream.

I must admit its the first time I used Sour cream in my cake and it came out really well. The cake tasted like a delicious butter pound cake.
For the streusel topping you can use dried fruits, nuts or chocolate chips , I used all 3  :-)
The cake was soft yet dense and the streusel topping was sweet and crunchy and compensates the need or want to have any frosting.


Coffee Cake Recipe
Recipe source: JoyofBaking
You'll need
For cake:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Butter - 10 tbsp (at room temperature)
Eggs - 3
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sour cream or Yoghurt - 2/3 cup
For streusel topping:
Walnuts - 1 cup chopped
Slivered Almonds - a handfull
Raisins - 1/2 cup (optional)
Chocolate chips - 1 cup
Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
All purpose flour - 1tbsp

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350*F
2. Grease a 9 inch cake pan with butter and keep aside ( I used a Round cake pan)
3. Roast the walnuts in oven for 8-10 minutes.
4. In a bowl mix together all the streusel topping ingredients (Walnuts, Chocolate chips, Brownsugar, Cinnamon powder, All purpose flour) and keep aside.
5. Sift together the dry ingredients (All purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt).
6. In a separate bowl using an electric mixer beat the butter until smooth for 2mins.
7. Add the sugar and continue to beat for 4-5 minutes until very smooth.
8. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating the mixture.
9. Finally add the vanilla extract.
10. Start adding the dry ingredients little at a time and add sour cream in between and finish off with dry ingredients and beat on low until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
11. Now add half the cake batter into the cake pan smoothing it out evenly, sprinkle half the streusel topping mix on the top.
12. Add the remaining cake batter and again after evenly smoothing it out add the remaining streusel topping all over the top.
13. Bake for about 40-50 mins until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (Mine was done in 45 mins)
14. Let the cake cool for sometime and then remove the cake from the pan.

Suggestion: If using raisins in the streusel topping add it in the initial layering in the middle of the cake as the raisins when placed on top may burn during baking.

All in all it was a really good cake . Manish is usually not much of a 'cake' person, though he doesn't mind it once in a while, but for this cake we were literally fighting for the last crumb!
Also adding some of the streusel mixture in between the cake gives a nice bite now and then.
I definitely had it more times than I had my coffee ;-)

Enjoy your cake !!

I'm sending this post to Bake Fest #1 Event hosted by Vardhini of Zesty Palette.

Sending this post to Bake with your Heart event hosted by Khushi.

-Manju