This is a cake I would wake up to periodically as a kid. It will send hypnotic aroma waves through the whole house, waking everyone up...As far as the process of making this cake goes, I really like to begin by making the topping. Combining the flavors that will top the cake provides motive to hurry and bake the cake and get to the eating part!
Ingredients
Topping:
- 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
Coffee Cake:
- 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, plus additional for greasing the pan
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream
- Zest of 1 lemon
Directions
For the topping: Prepare a baking sheet fitted with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the nuts, flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Stir to blend. Stir in the butter. The topping should form sandy clumps. Sprinkle the topping onto the baking sheet to break it up into smaller clumps. Refrigerate.
For the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use butter to thoroughly grease the bottom and sides of a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, "cream" the butter and sugar together until light yellow and smooth, 5 to 8 minutes. Alternatively, this can be done with an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs, one by one, and beat until thoroughly integrated.
Remove the topping from the refrigerator so it has a few minutes to come to room temperature before baking. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the sour cream until smooth. Turn the mixer on low and alternate adding some of the flour mixture with some of the sour cream. Add the lemon zest. When all has been mixed, give the sides and the bottom of the bowl a scrape and blend to make sure the batter is thoroughly integrated.
Transfer the batter to the greased baking pan and "tap" it lightly on the sides so it falls evenly in the pan and removes any air bubbles. Liberally sprinkle the cake with all of the topping. Take care to cover the whole top. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 22 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.
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By Gillian k.
on April 29, 2012
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I Made this cake today, came out light and and moist. I used 3/4 tsp. salt and baked the Cake for 50mins.very delicious.
By knomz
on March 27, 2012
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I agree with all the comments that were made so far. It's a great cake, but it's light and fluffy, not dense like on the show. The topping also didn't stick - was kind of rolling away! I baked it in a glass pie dish. I was also creaming the four tablespoons of butter with the cup of sugar for 15 minutes and it wasn't getting fluffy at all! I freaked out and added another 4 tablespoons of butter... still not very fluffy! So I added the eggs and continued creaming... only then did it finally get creamy. The rest of the ingredients I followed to the letter, but that first part was a bit strange. I wonder if it would have been more dense if I had not added more butter or creamed after adding eggs? I also did have to bake it for 50 minutes.
It's a delicious recipe, but so many tweaks and pitfalls that I couldn't possibly give it 5 stars!
By ecchoong_8006338
toronto
on March 15, 2012
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The cake was okay. It really did not look anything like the Alex's cake in the show. Like other reviewers my cake was light and fluffy unlike the dense custard like texture she had on tv. Where did the recipe go wrong? Hopefully Alex will catch this and rectify the problem. And to the reviewers who said the cake was too salty it's because you guys used regular table salt instead of the kosher salt that is listed. Table salt is more compact and dense compared to kosher salt based on its physical structure. So if you don't have kosher salt use 1/2 the amount of table salt if you don't then your dish will taste very salty!!!! And where the recipe says to use unsalted butter use it. If it tells you to use butter use salted butter.
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