Guest Post: Recipe of the Week

This week's recipe comes from my good friend Angela, who is married to my other good friend Philip. It's seriously the greatest thing in the world when two of your best friends get married. It makes life just a little bit easier because you don't have to worry about liking their spouse or trying to awkwardly fit them into your group. They already got the stamp of approval way back when.  

Ange and I actually planned for her to marry Philip, and for me to marry Luis, and for my sister to marry her brother way back in our sophomore years of high school. And wouldn't you know, it all happened just as we planned!

Now our families are weirdly connected through friendships and marriage and it's just easier to pretend that we are one big family than to explain how Philip's family and my family have been friends for more than 20 years so Philip was like my brother growing up and then Angela joined our little group of friends in high school, and then they got married and then Carissa married Zach, who is Angela's brother, and so Angela and Philip are my friends, but now they are my sister's brother- and sister-in-law and Angela's brother is my brother-in-law and both of our kids are my sister's and her brother's nephews and....see, I told it was complicated. 

Let's just let Ange do her thing so we can drool over her delicious recipe, shall we?

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Hello! 

First of all, I have to say how excited I am to be a guest on Cara's blog.  I am an avid follower of this Not so Desperate Hausfrau, and she also happens to be one of my very best friends!  

I have been blessed to be hanging out with her and her adorable little man while she is at home in Sierra Vista for a bit.  In high school we used to talk about how when we were married and had kids we would hang out while our little ones got to know each other and became best friends themselves.  How lucky for our little guys and us that we are getting to do just that!

Anyways, on to the reason you are actually here.  No, I can't take any credit for the deliciousness of the recipe, that will all have to go to Joy the Baker. It is her Extra Crumb Coffee Cake recipe.  And let me tell you, when she says extra, she means it.  In fact when I served this at the mini-brunch bridal shower for my now sister-in-law, people were putting their extra crumb on everything else including in their coffee!!  

I'm talking you need an extra serving spoon to get the extra crumb that just fell back in to the dish kind of crumb.  So if you are looking for something neat and tidy to serve, this isn't it.  (if you cut the topping recipe in half that would work)  But honestly, who needs neat and tidy when you've got mounds of sugar, cinnamon and butter? Right?

This isn't a difficult recipe, but it is a multi layer, which means multi-bowl recipe...therefore you may have to do more dishes than you would usually like to,  but I have to say it's worth it!!

So bust out five bowls (one of them being from your mixer) grab a 9x13 cake pan, grease and flour it, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

For the topping:

1 3/4 cups Granulated Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 cup (1stick) Softened Butter

Mix together the dry ingredients and then stir in the softened butter (I used my hands because I think it's quicker, and makes it crumbier) until it resembles moist, coarse meal. 

Put that baby to the side and grab the second bowl to make the filling!

For the filling:

1 cup Packed Light Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons Ground Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Freshly Grated Nutmeg (I used ground)

3 teaspoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Whisk it all together and put the bowl next to the topping bowl, so they don't get lonely.

Get your mixer bowl, or just another regular bowl if you you have a handheld. 

For the cake:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) Unsalted Butter

1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

1/3 cups Packed Light Brown Sugar

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

3 large Eggs

3 1/4 cups Flour

2 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 1/4 teaspoons Salt

3/4 cup Sour Cream (I used plain greek yogurt)

1 1/4 Whole Milk (I used skim)

Cream the butter and sugars together; once combined beat in vanilla.  Next, add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.  

Grab another bowl and combine your dry ingredients. (Flour, baking powder and salt) Set it aside, and get your last bowl to combine your sour cream and milk. Whisk it up! (it's ok if it's a little lumpy) 

With your mixer on low, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. As it's incorporating, add half of the sour cream/milk mixture to the batter.  Add another 1/3 of the dry and the rest of the sour cream/milk as the mixer is still on low.  Add the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients, and let all of the batter mix until it is all well incorporated.

Now it's time for the multi-layers I was talking about earlier! Spread half the batter into the prepared cake pan, covering the whole bottom of the pan.  Get your filling bowl and sprinkle it on top of the batter.  Like this.

Plop the rest of the batter on top, and gently spread it with a spatula.  That's right, I said plop :) 

Here's my favorite part... Take a butter knife and swirl the filling into the batter.  Joy says that it takes only a few strokes, but hey, I say swirl to your heart's content and no one will know the difference. 

Here comes the last bowl with that extra crumb topping, sprinkle it on top... remember, be generous! 

Bake 'til it's golden brown (55-60 min) Let it rest at least 20 min before serving, unless you are like me (and I'm sure Cara) then just grab a fork and dig right in.

Remember, this is not the cake that it was created to be unless you have coffee to pair it with.  So grab a nice hot cup o' joe and enjoy!  You can even sweeten that coffee up with a little extra crumb :)