Sour Cream Coffee Cake

(1 small cake)

A few days ago while waiting in the doctor's office I was flipping through some magazines. One of them was showcasing various lovely looking layer cakes.

Needless to say, I've had cake on the brain since then. I wasn't prepared to make a layer cake which struck me as too time intensive for this weekend, so I settled on this delicious, moist coffee cake instead.



Streusel
1/2 cup pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts, lightly toasted and chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp unbleached flour
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
2 tbsp butter

Combine everything except the butter into a bowl. When the dry ingredients are well combined, coarsely cut in the butter. Set aside.

Cake
1  cup cake flour
1 cup unbleached flour
2 tsp lemon zest, minced
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cardamon

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp rum or milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Prepare a 6 cup tube cake pan with butter and flour. Set aside

Combine the flours, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamon in a bowl. Stir to combine well. Set aside.

In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy; scrape down the sides.  Beat in 1 egg at a time (followed by the yolk) until they are just mixed in, then stir in the sour cream and rum.

Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture and stir to combine. Add the remaining flour mixture; about half of what's left and stir until combined..  followed by the last bit, and gently stir that in.  The batter will be on the thick side.

Alternate the batter and streusel by placing a third of the batter into the pan, then sprinkling 1/2 of the streusel over that.. then repeat, ending with the last third of the batter on top.

Bake for about 35-50 minutes or until done. I begin to watch the cake carefully after 35 minutes, and try to remove it the moment the cake tester comes out clean to ensure it's moist.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the cake pan for about 5-10 minutes, then invert the cake onto a cake rack and allow to cool.

Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tsp rum or milk
(1/2 tsp vanilla (in place of some of the milk)  if using milk)

Add enough rum or (milk and vanilla) to the powdered sugar until you have a somewhat runny glaze. Drizzle over the top of the cooled cake.