Okay friends. Election Day is in a few days and I’m terrified. I voted last weekend (California makes it easy always, but made it particularly easy this year, click here for my voting selfie/my rant about voter suppression), and so now on Election Day all I’ll be able to do will be wait and keep myself busy. I’m planning to do at least one or two elaborate cooking projects and to go on at least one long walk. I have a cake recipe for you at the end of this newsletter (I would never falsely advertise!), but another thing that can occupy you for a few minutes in the next few days is to vote for the Goodreads Choice Awards. I’m thrilled that Party of Two is a nominee, along with so many other books I’ve loved this year. You can vote for it here!
Here is a small heartwarming thing for you this week: The Oakland Zoo rescued a few injured mountain lion cubs during the Northern California fires this fall, and they’re all healing well, and following their progress has made me so so happy. That link above has their story, and the zoo’s Instagram has lots of updates about them.
I recently broke out of my reading slump — yay! — and here are two books I read over the past few weeks that I loved. First, a memoir, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong: this book is short, I read it in one sitting, and it made me laugh and tear up and empathize and think and wonder, and I was sad when it was over. And second, a romance: In a Holidaze, by Christina Lauren, which just filled me with the coziest, happiest, swooniest feelings for the whole time I read it and for days after I finished, and don’t we all need that right now?
Okay here is your cake, by your and my go to for reliable, delicious recipes, Ina Garten. I had the tab for this cake open for literal months, and I finally made it the other day, and am of course angry at myself for waiting this long. It’s coffee cake, yes, but please don’t let yourself think that means you need to have it for breakfast: this cake works for any time of day. It’s great at room temperature, but please do yourself the favor of having at least one slice when it’s still warm, because oh wow is it excellent warm. It calls for you to make it in a tube pan, which I did, but I also think it would work well in a bundt pan (you might just have to tinker with the cooking time and where to put the streusel; there are some tips in the comments of the recipe) and I think it would be fantastic in a 9 x 13 inch pan too, or even as muffins! Also, if you’re a person who tends to use weights, and not volume measures when you bake, like I am, you can use this handy King Arthur Flour chart to translate volume measurements to weights. I always do this now!
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
Cake:
12 tablespoons, or 1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 extra large eggs, room temperature (for some reason, Ina always calls for extra large eggs in her recipes, if you just have large, it’s fine, maybe use a tiny bit more sour cream or butter but mostly don’t worry about it)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Streusel:
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed (Ina called for light, but I used dark and really liked it here)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced (see note!)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
For the glaze: (optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Cream the butter and sugar with a hand mixer or in your stand mixer until it’s light and pale, about 4-5 minutes; if you’re using a stand mixer, make sure to stop the mixer and stir manually every minute or so (preferably with a silicone spatula). Add the eggs one at a time, stop to stir, then add the sour cream and vanilla, and stir again. In a separate bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Turn the mixer or beater on low, and add the flour mixture until just combined, and stir again to make sure it’s all mixed.
For the streusel: put the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl, and mix with your fingers until it’s crumbly. Ina has you mix in the nuts afterwards, and that probably works better, but I accidentally threw the walnuts in along with everything else, and it was still good, so do it whichever way that works for you.
Scoop about half of the batter into your prepared pan, and spread it out evenly (it’s a thick batter, so a small silicone spatula or offset knife works best for this). Sprinkle with about half of the streusel, and then scoop the rest of the batter on top, spread it out, and put the rest of the streusel on top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a tester comes out clean (mine took just about exactly 50 minutes).
Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, in the pan. And okay, Ina says “carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate” but I stared at that instruction like how is that even possible, so I will tell you what I did — I put a plate on top of the cake pan, held the cake pan on the bottom with an oven mitt and the plate on the top without, and flipped the cake over, and it miraculously (almost) all came out, and then I put another plate on top of the cake and flipped it over again to make it streusel side up, and surprisingly streusel didn’t fly everywhere in my kitchen, so if I can do this, you can.
I didn’t bother with the glaze, but Ina tells you to whisk the powdered sugar together with the maple syrup to make a thick but runny glaze (adding a few drops of water, if necessary), and then drizzle the glaze over the cake with a small spoon.
Note: The cake part of this recipe uses one and a half sticks of butter, but between the three tablespoons of butter used in the streusel, and the butter you use to grease the pan, it just about uses up two sticks, which is excellent. (That is, unless you have that baker’s spray to grease your pan, which is the butter/flour combo spray and works better than anything else, but I always find it very hard to find)
Have a good weekend, all. Comfort yourself however you can.
Jasmine
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