Oh So Tasty!

Walnut Coffee Cake!

I cannot stop talking about this fabulous coffee cake! I don’t know if it’s because I’m in love with all of it’s ingredients (walnuts, cinnamon, sugar..etc), or because it actually IS awesome! It was a modified recipe taken from the cookbook: Cooking With Friends. It doesn’t look so tempting (of course, it’s a coffee cake. It is supposed to look plain and colorless), but once you smell it, you know you gotta have a bite, and once you have a bite.. you know you gotta finish the whole thing. But to tell you the truth, I am kind of offended when someone takes a bite and goes “This is delicious!” and then doesn’t finish it off. I mean, what the hell? If it’s delicious, then eat the whole goddamn piece! Erm. Sorry. Luckily, my picky brother asked for another piece. Anyway, it’s a true coffee cake. It’s something sweet you have with coffee in the morning. A great way to start your day.

I’ll be making this more often, even though the preparation took me a bit over one hour. (I’m very slow at preparing batter and such stuff, especially for the first time because I follow directions very carefully and care for every detail). But the tastes definitely deserves it!

Now, enough talk. Let’s make this cake!

Makes 12 servings
300 calories per serving

You’ll need:

for the walnut topping:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans, if you prefer)
1/2 cup PACKED light brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter (unsalted, softened)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

for the coffee cake:
1 stick butter (unsalted, softened)
1 cup PACKED light brown sugar
2 eggs (large)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 190 C.

- Grease your cake pan with butter, generously. I used a 7”×11” pan, you can use a 9” square pan as well. (Yes, I used a ruler.)

- Make the topping: mix the softened butter with the brown sugar with a fork (or your fingers) until the butter is in tiny pieces and coated well, then add in the rest of the ingredients. Set aside.

- Make the cake: Cream the butter and sugar until light and slightly fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat until it’s smooth. Get another bowl, add in the flour, baking powder, and salt, and then mix. Grab your milk. Add the dry ingredients and milk alternately to the batter.

(full view the picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yasmine__/3370399082/sizes/o/ )

- Pour (I’m not sure if this is the right verb, since you cannot pour it, but anyway) the batter into the pan and smooth it out, till it becomes even… almost. Sprinkle the topping you made on it EVENLY.

- Bake it for 25 minutes (less or more, depending on your oven) until the cake tester (I used a toothpick) comes out clean.

- Take the cake out. Let it cool off, and then… OM NOM NOM!

Oh, and did I mention that this recipe tastes WAY better the next day? Oh yummy.

I had it with cinnamon flavored coffee.

Oh, and here’s something extra (for fun), my niece:

Happy Cooking!