This week, we have a very special visitor staying with us: my 92 year old G-ma Rose. We’re so excited to have her here and we plan to put her to work making her famous meatballs, pizzelles and doing the ironing (she’s a master with an iron). But for now, she seems to be enjoying playing with Lillian.
In addition to our special guest, this morning we also had a little play date here at the house. My knitting group friend Cassie dropped by with her 19-month old son Oliver. Taking full advantage of G-ma being here to hold the baby I decided to make a coffee cake. Since I’ve not been to the store yet this week, we had to make due with what was in the pantry and fridge.
Luckily, we always have apples and sour cream around. And so a yummy traditional coffee cake it was. Moist, cinnamon-y cake studded with thinly sliced apples and topped with a buttery, crumbly brown sugar crust. You could also add nuts to the topping but since little Oliver is extremely allergic, we prepared it without (and nobody missed them).
Since I had the indulgence of time thanks to G-ma playing with Lillian, I arranged half of the apples in a pretty pattern on top of the batter before I sprinkled on the topping. This created a lovely, golden crust on the cake. But if you’re short on time, this would be just as delicious if you roughly chopped the apples and folded them into the batter. Either way its a tasty cake. Might be nice to have one on-hand for Easter weekend.
Apple and Sour Cream Coffee Cake
12 servings
1 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup lite sour cream
2 cups apples (about 3 medium) cored, peeled and thinly sliced
Topping
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon flour
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×9 inch baking pan. In a small bowl combine flours, baking powder and soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk to blend then set aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and cream until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth and bright yellow. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream, ending with sour cream.
Spread half of the batter in the baking pan and top with one third of the apples, then the rest of the batter. Arrange the remaining apple slices on top of the batter and set baking pan aside while you make the topping.
In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients and use a wire whisk or pastry blender to cut butter into pea-sized pieces. When mixture is combined, sprinkle evenly over the apples on the coffee cake.
Place cake in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool slightly before serving.
