Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Cake Slice Bakers Present: Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake



This is my first cake for the Cake Slice Bakers. We are currently baking from a new book, Southern Cakes, by Nancie McDermott. There are so many great cakes in this book, and I'm excited to try my hand at some of them. This was my first coffee cake ever and it was delicious.
The recipe calls for raisins, but I omitted them. I love raisins in cookies, but not cakes. Overall, I thought this was a wonderful recipe for coffee cake. The cake was moist and the recipe produced a lot of yummy crumb topping. I did have a little trouble spreading the second layer of cake batter over the filling, but it worked out great in the end. I halved the recipe, successfully, and ended up with about 9 large pieces of cake. My husband was out of town, so I shared the cake with my mom. My mom loved it and took some to work, where it received rave reviews. If I was going to make a coffee cake, this would be one I would go back to. I might even add in some chocolate chips next time. You can never go wrong with chocolate :D

Cinnamon Pecan Coffee Cake - adapted from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

For the Cake:

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs

For the Cinnamon Raisin Filling:

  • 1½ cups light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1½ cups raisins
  • 1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
  • ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch pan.

To make the filling, combine the light brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl and stir with a fork to mix everything well. Combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them. Place the cinnamon mixture, nut mixture and melted butter by the baking pan to use later.

To make the cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir the vanilla into the milk. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer on high speed until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl to ensure a good mix. Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.

Use a large spoon or spatula to add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir only until the flour disappears. Add a third of the milk and mix in. Repeat twice more until all the flour and milk mixtures have been incorporated. Stir just enough to keep the batter smooth.

Spread half the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter followed by half the melted butter. Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the top. Spread the remaining batter carefully over the filling, using a spatula to smooth the batter all the way to the edges of the pan. Top with the leftover cinnamon, butter and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant and beginning to pull away from the edges of the pan. Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes before serving in squares right from the pan. The cake is delicious hot, warm or at room temperature.


Stay tuned for next month's recipe, it sounds perfect for this time of year !!

29 comments:

  1. Wow! Now that looks like MY type of breakfast! What a beautiful cake!

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  2. Damn that looks good!!! Let me get a plate :-)

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  3. Wowee! That's a serious cake. I'd love to make that for the kids - they'd totally dig it.

    I dropped the CSB because there were too many nut-cakes that I couldn't make. But I'll certainly be enjoying them vicariously through you!

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  4. great job on your cake. It's making me wish I had another slice.

    welcome to the group!

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  5. Oh, how delicious, these are like my favorite flavours. If you left this unattended on the counter, i know a certain house wife who might have a field day.

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  6. Gorgeous coffee cake and I admire you for joining another group! ;-)

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  7. Welcome to the group! Your cake looks wonderful. So pleased you liked it

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  8. Whoa that cake looks good! I love cinnamon raisin any way I can get it. That sounds like such a fun cookbook/cooking group. You are going to have some fun times ahead of you! Baking just always seems so challenging to me, but I'm beginning to appreciate it more and really want to get better at it. Practice makes perfect, I suppose...

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  9. Cake sounds delicious, I would omit the raisins too, not a fan. Love your choice of pecan addition!

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  10. Oh, I just saw one of these somewhere else, too...my tummy is growling like crazy...it looks so moist and delicious and amazing! Great job, yummy :D

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  11. I have never ever made a coffee cake either come to think of it--sounds easy enough, and looks mighty tasty too!

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  12. How I wish I can a piece and a cup of nice coffee.

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  13. This was my first month baking along too. The timing worked out great so that I could take the cake to my parents' and enjoy it with our whole family. They loved it!

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  14. Ciao Kim ! The looks of your slice are divine !!!

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  15. Yay..I omitted the raisins too :)

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  16. oh this looks fantastic! i'm with you on the raisins, i really have to be in the right mood to use them!

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  17. How scrumptious! Love the cinnamon filling, I would of left out the raisins too. It looks so moist and yummy.

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  18. Yummy, I am loving that cake picture!

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  19. Oh! this cake looks so yummie, moist, absolutely tempting :-)

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  20. Your posts always make me hungry! I have just starting drinking coffee and ever since Starbucks opened right around the corner, I've gotten in the habit of getting a coffee cake too! Maybe thats why my pants are tight!!!!!

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  21. Kim, you are killing me. That looks #$%@!ing fantastic!

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  22. Cinnamon & Pecan: two of my favorite ingredients for baking! Yum!

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  23. All those ingredients are so tasty - I can imagine how delicious this cake is - lovely, lovely cake.

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  24. This looks really good! I love making coffee cakes for brunch :)

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  25. Hi Kim!

    I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself- My name is Joy and I’m another one of the newbie Cake Slice bakers. I’m really looking forward to meeting other members, and I hope to have the chance to get to know you better as we bake our way through Southern Cakes :)

    I'm so glad your first coffee cake baking experience was a smashing success. Your cake looks absolutely delicious- fabulous job! I'm sure everyone that got a taste was greatly appreciative! I think I might give your suggestion of adding the chocolate chips a try next time- that sounds really yummy.

    If you have a chance, I’d love for you to stop by my blog, “Hot Oven, Warm Heart,” and say hello- it’d be wonderful to hear from you!

    Hope you have a great rest of your week and a relaxing weekend!

    Fondly,
    Joy
    http://hotovenwarmheart.wordpress.com/

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  26. That looks delicious, Kim!I love coffee cake!

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  27. Ooooo this looks great! I'm a sucker for a good coffee cake.

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