Betty Crocker Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker’s baking classics, 112pp. by General Mills Random House, New York, 1979 Cooking on page 32

This collection of Gold Medal flour recipes was given to me as a wedding gift. Poor John and I may have eloped—we got married in a village in Jordan—but friends made sure we received a few pressies.

Our kids (especially Libby) had fun cooking out of this book when they were younger, and I guess that’s still the case.

Now all grown-up, Libby was home from Sydney for the weekend. She and Daniel were invited out for afternoon tea, so they made and took this as a contribution.

Sour cream coffee cake

Sour cream coffee cake

Ingredients 1 1/2 cups sugar 3/4 cup margarine or butter, softened 3 eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 3 cups Gold Medal all-purpose* or whole wheat flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups dairy sour cream Filling (see below) Glaze (see below)

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Filling Mix 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts and 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.

Light brown glaze Heat 1/4 cup margarine or butter in a 1 1/2-quart saucepan over medium heat until delicate brown. Stir in 2 cups powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until smooth and of desired consistency.

Method Heat oven to 350°. Grease tube pan, 10×4 inches, or 12-cup bundt cake pan or 2 baking pans, 9x5x3 inches. Beat sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla in large mixer bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 2 minutes. Beat in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt alternately with sour cream on low speed. Prepare filling.

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For tube or bundt pan, spread 1/3 of the batter (about 2 cups) in pan and sprinkle with 1/3 of the filling (about 6 tablespoons); repeat two times. For loaf pans, spread 1/4 of the batter (about 1 1/2 cups) in each pan and sprinkle each with 1/4 of the filling (about 5 tablespoons); repeat. (See Libby’s comment in the Verdict about distributing the filling.)

Bake until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool slightly; remove from pan(s). Cool 10 minutes; drizzle with light brown glaze.

Serves 14-16.

* If using self-rising flour, omit baking powder, baking soda and salt.

How it played out It’s wonderful to have Libby at home and taking charge in the kitchen. As a child, I was the family baker, but Lib’s definitely taken over the role in our house. She thinks nothing of whipping up a loaf of bread or a batch of cinnamon rolls.

She was going to make cinnamon rolls today, but ran out of time for the dough to rise and then bake. So I conned her and Daniel into making this page-32 recipe instead. I helped a bit too. I even loaned her the apron I was given for the birthday I celebrated in China.

We followed the recipe—using butter, walnuts and a new bundt pan—except that Lib and Daniel decided at the last minute to add 230 grams of milk chocolate chips to the filling mixture. They skipped the glaze too. I didn’t have enough icing (powdered/confectioner’s) sugar and they didn’t have quite enough time to make it.

Verdict A truly delicious cake that’s straightforward to make, and well worth doing for a crowd. The glaze would have been nice, but certainly not essential.

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Libby thought the filling/batter instructions were wrong. She reckons the assembly should not end with filling. She recommends using 1/3 of the batter, then 1/2 of filling, then 1/3 of batter, then 1/2 of filling and finishing with 1/3 of batter. The picture in the actual cookbook supports her theory.

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I rather like the crunch you get by having the filling on the bottom. I also love the addition of chocolate chips, and highly recommend adding them to the recipe. I think they give an even nicer touch than the glaze would give.

A quick comment about coffee cakes. In the USA, the term refers to cakes served with coffee or tea. In Australia, such cakes have coffee as an ingredient.

Plus, this is the second page-32 recipe Libby and Daniel have made for me. Their first effort was a German cake—the popular prinzregententorte, which is one of the most visited recipes on this blog. Thanks Lib and Daniel.