This is not your quiet, little every day coffee cake. This is a coffee cake with attitude. The cake is rich with sour cream and enhanced with the brilliant, tart flavour of cranberries. There is the important streusel crumb topping. Lavish with butter and sugars, and a swirl of vanilla. Together they present a coffee cake that is a fabulous. .A coffee cake both tart and sweet. Deeply flavoured. Rich in texture. A cake to make again and again.
Make the vanilla crumb first. Better still mix it up ahead of time if you are making this cake for breakfast. I often make a double batch of this crumb. This topping is excellent for any type of fruit crumble and will store in a plastic bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Have your butter nice and soft and cream it well with sugar before adding the eggs. You add the flour alternatively with the sour cream and then half the cranberries. The rest of the berries are sprinkled over the top of the cake when it is in the pan. If you are using frozen cranberries thaw them first. Finish the cake batter with the vanilla crumbs.
Generously flour and butter your pan. You can bake this in a deep 9-inch square cake pan, or a 9-inch spring form pan. I prefer to use a spring form pan. It makes for better presentation of your cake. If you use a spring form pan set it on a cookie sheet or something that will catch any moisture from the cake. The cake will keep well for a couple of days – if it lasts that long.
| THE COFFEE CAKE OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON . . . CRANBERRY ORANGE WITH STREUSEL CRUMB TOPPING | Print |
- VANILLA CRUMB
- makes 2 cups
- 1 cup(120g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (42.5g) packed brown sugar
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup(68g) unsalted butter
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- THE CAKE
- 1 generous tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature for the cake pan
- 1¾ cups (219g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup (68g) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- zest of a large orange
- 2 large eggs (105g)
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup (123g) sour cram
- 2 cups )200g) cranberries fresh or frozen. If frozen thaw before using.
- VANILLA CRUMB
- Combine the flour, sugars, salt and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low-speed until the texture of coarse crumbs. Drizzle the vanilla over the mixture and mix briefly. Empty into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Generously butter a 9 inch square baking pan or a 9 inch spring form pan.
- Sift the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt together in a medium sized bowl.
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream the butter well. Add the sugar and orange and cream for about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
- Add the vanilla.
- Stir in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the sour cream in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. With each addition of the flour and sour cream mix until just a few wisps of the flour and sour cream are visible. DO NOT OVER MIX. By the time you add the last portion of flour these wisps will be combined.
- Fold in one cup of cranberries using a heavy wooden spoon. The cake mixture will be quite stiff.
- Spread the mixture into your prepared cake pan. Smooth the top with a soft spatula.
- Distribute the remaining one cup of cranberries over the cake.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping over the cranberries
- Bake for about one hour or until lightly golden and firm on top - especially the center of the cake. About ten minutes before finished baking time check your cake using a thin wooden skewer. Insert it into the center of the cake. It should come out dry..
- Cool the cake on a rack for 30 minutes, then remove the side of the top of the spring form pan.
- Store wrapped in plastic wrap. The cake will keep at room temperature for 2 - 3 days.
