Cinnamon & walnut coffee cake

1 9\" cake

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1½ cup Unsifted cake flour
1½ teaspoon Baking powder
½ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon Ground cardamom
8 tablespoons Unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup Sugar
¼ cup Ground walnuts
1 tablespoon Ground cinnamon
¼ cup Firmly packed light brown
¼ cup Firmly-packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons Pure vanilla extract
2 Extra-large eggs
1 cup Sour cream blended with 3/4 ts baking soda
¼ cup Chopped walnuts sugar
¼ cup Sugar

Directions

CAKE BATTER

CINNAMON-SUGAR-WALNUT "SAND

Preheat oven to 350xF. Lightly butter and flour a 9"x9"x2" baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and cardamom.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter on moderate speed for 3-5 minutes. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar, and beat for 3 minutes. Blend in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at at time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. On low speed, alternately add the sifted mixture in 3 additions with the sour cream in 2 additions, befinning and ending with the sifted mixture. Stir in the walnuts.

Stir together all the ingredients for the cinnamon-sugar-walnut "sand."

Spoon half the batter into the baking pan. Sprinkle over about ⅓ of the "sand." Spoon over the remaining batter. Sprinkle the remaining "sand" on top of the batter. Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes, or until a wooden pick withdraws from the center of the cake without any clinging particles of unbaked batter.

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack. If serving warm, cut squares of the warm cake directly from the pan. Otherwise, after 5 minutes of cooling, invert the cake onto another cooling rack, then invert again to cool right-side-up.

NOTE: This simple recipe, a fairly standard sour-cream batter, has been in my file for a long time. The batter is silky smooth and can handle many other additions, such as sliced ripe fruit (peaches, nectarines, plums) or berries (raspberries, blueberries). A sandy mixture of granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and ground walnuts becomes both a filling and a topping for the cake. It is at its most agreeable best when eaten slightly warm, for that is when the full aroma of the nuts and cinnamon comes forth.

Oer serving: 294 calories, 4 g protein, 38 g carbohydrates, 15 g fat, 8 g saturated fat, 65 mg cholesterol, 222 mg sodium.

Source: Lisa Yockelson, "Nuts to Crack," The Washington Post FOOD Section, 9/14/94. Typed by Linda Howard.

From: Linda Howard Date: 09-16-94

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