Coffee 'n' Nut Coffee Cake
In today’s installment of Cake for Breakfast, we welcome a coffee cake that really lives up to the name, because this tender thing is rich with coffee flavor. To add the extra breakfast-time element, it’s crowned in a maple glaze. (For all you fans of the musical The Book of Mormon, do not worry: This will not end in a spooky Mormon hell dream.)
The delicate-yet-feisty cake can be made with pecans or walnuts. I hope you enjoy it.
This recipe is a breakfast reimagining of my favorite layer cake, the coffee-pecan layer cake, I made with Joyce Vance.
Ingredients
8 oz/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz/1 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp instant espresso coffee, dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water
1/4 cup sour cream
8 oz/1 3/4 cups + 2 Tbs AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
3 oz/3/4 cup pecans, chopped fine (use a large knife; if you use a food processor, add 1 teaspoon sugar when chopping to prevent it from turning into a paste.)
For the filling:
3/4 cup pecans, chopped into small nuggets
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
For the glaze:
2 tablespoons butter, melted.
1 tablespoon espresso powder, mixed with 1 tablespoon boiling water
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons milk, if necessary to thin the glaze further
a pinch of salt
How to make the cake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.
Spray a 9-inch bundt pan with Baker’s Joy or butter and flour the pans. The more elaborate the design of your bundt cake pan, the more you need Baker’s Joy.
In a small bowl, mix the filling ingredients together (nuts, maple syrup, brown sugar) and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nuts. Set aside this mixture.
Using a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl—this is definitely a recipe that follows the “ABC” rule: Always Be Scraping.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between each addition until incorporated. Add the sour cream and espresso and blend.
Add the flour on low speed in three additions, scraping down the bowl in between. Once the flour is just incorporated (have you scraped down the bowl? you knew I wouldn’t stop nagging, right?), turn the mixer to medium high and blend for about 1 minute until the batter is lighter and creamy-looking.
Spread half the batter in the bundt pan. Sprinkle over the filling mixture evenly. Spread the remaining batter on top, smoothing it as you go.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until a tester comes out clean but for a few crumbs, and the cake bounces back if pressed with a finger.
Cool cake in a pan on cooling rack for ten minutes. Place another cooling rack, or plate, on top of the cake pan and swiftly invert the two so the cake is now right side up. Let the cake cool.
While the cake is cooling, mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Your confectioner’s sugar may seem lumpy for a while (unless you took the time to sieve it). Don’t worry. Keep beating and the lumps will dissolve. Pour the glaze over the cake.
Of course you can eat the cake now. If I told you it would be better in about 12 hours, would you listen?
