A Cake for Incredible Friends

Very rarely are people blessed with the kind of friends I am honored to have. I must say, I am a horrible long-distance friend. I do not return calls, I rarely return emails, and I am incredibly poor at initiating contact at all. That said, it amazes me that people make any effort to keep in touch with me at all. It is not that I do not think of my friends whom I do not get to see, but only that I find it extremely difficult to sit down, and write or call them. It follows along the lines of my journal. And, seeing how this blog is my attempt to change my journaling habits, I also feel the desire to change my correspondence habits.

Today is a great day to call those friends you haven't talked to in so long, all those mornings you've been thinking "Oh! I need to call Karen!" or "I miss talking to Brendan". Invite them over for coffee, and welcome them in with this wonderful Sour Cream Coffee Cake. It is a perfect opportunity to thank those friends who have always meant so much, and because they are so wonderful and forgiving, never get angry with you for being so poor at keeping in touch.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Streusel:
1/4 C sugar
3 T dark brown sugar
1/2 C butter
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Cake:
2 C flour
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. freshly grated cinnamon
Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 C sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 C sour cream
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter, and dust with flour, a 9 x 13 pan.

Using a fork, mix the ingredients for the streusal until they are well combined and reach a crumbly consistency. Set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

Beat together remaining 3/4 cup butter and remaining cup sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in sour cream and vanilla until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mix until just combined.

Sprinkle half of the streusel mixture evenly in bottom of pan. Spoon batter over streusel and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle remaining streusel over the batter. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until fork inserted into middle of cake comes out clean.

Cool cake in pan for one hour. Run a knife around the edges and invert onto cooling rack.


Serve warm with coffee and enjoy those long hours of catching up with an old friend.