Mama's Brown Sugar and Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Come over here and give mama some suga... brown sugar.

Can you blame me, a girl needs a little suga. So while contemplating of deliciousness to bake up for the office, I came across a Zingerman's Gourmet Food Catalogue.

Tangent about my love affair with Zingerman's: Which by the way, if you are ever blessed enough to pass through Ann Arbor, MI, or incredibly blessed enough to live there you know what I mean. Delectables from every corner and nook in the world, a phenomenal bakery that rivals those of Europe and a deli with so much meat it would make Jewish butcher blush. Their Colossal Rubens on Marbled Rye... nuff said. Don't get me wrong University of Michigan maybe the best educational institution in the world, the football games at the Big House, awesome. But I would move their for Zingerman's, alone.

OK I'm back from my mental vacation... Yes, sour cream cake came to mind but what is in a cake without sugar? So this is what the gnomes in my kitchen decided on:

For the cake:

1 stick plus 2 teaspoons butter
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (i always buy in small quantities and open a new box)
2 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pour salt (not sea salt)
1 cup sour cream (full fat, none of this fancying about with skim milk bit)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (leave the imitation's for desperate house wives)

For the crumble middle and topping:

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use a cooking spray to slick up a bunt pan or i am sure any oven-proof dish will do.

In my red hot, oh so sexy Kitchenade, aka my love, with the beater attachment: cream together the butter ("its so creamy its like butta") and brown sugar until light and airy. Add the eggs 1 at a time. Add the sour cream and vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Then add the flour. Finally just as everything is coming together, add the baking powder. Pour about half the batter into the prepared baking dish of choice, spreading out to the edges of the creamy goodness.

In a separate bowl make the cinnamon and brown sugar topping, mix with a fork the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter, and mix until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle about half of the topping over the cake.

Then add the other half of the batter spreading with a spoonula to cover. Sprinkle all of the left over topping. And put the whole pan of sweet bliss in the oven. (Now you can lick the spoon, this batter, well lets just say i didn't want to bake it.)

Bake until golden brown and set, 35 to 40 minutes. Use the toothpick trick to make sure its done. Take the tasty cake out of the oven and let it cool on wire rack.

There you have it, a happy set of tribal leaders at the office and a day of peace and quiet for writing.

Much love and happy baking.

Guiness Pint-cake with Irish Whipped Cream

Top of the Morning to you! I hope you had a nice St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate my friends and I had a wonderful Irish meal with some great Irish Cheddars, Soda Bread, Corned Beef and Cabbage and to top it all off... a Guinness Cupcake with Irish Whipped Cream. This was an awesome cake definitely the hit of the party.

For the cupcakes you need to set out:
1 pint (2 cups) of stout (such as Guinness or an Oatmeal Stout)
2 cups (4 sticks) best quality butter
4 cups sugar-bowl sugar1
1/2 cups cocoa powder (Valhrona is the best)
4 large eggs
4 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/3 cups sour cream

To make the icing you need
1 cups whipping cream
1 shot (1 ounce) of Irish cream liquor
2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar (XXX sugar)

Crank up old Bessy (my oven) up to 350 degrees F.

So I think the key to good cakes, is to keep your butter and eggs at room temperature, keep your cream cold, cream your sugar and butter first, and always sift your dry ingredients.

So here we go. In my love (my Kitchenade free standing mixer) I creamed the sugar and the butter. I added the cocoa and the eggs until the consistency was creamy. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients and then finally add the sour cream and the stout. Be careful that the stout doesn't bubble up over. Mix until well combined... go ahead you can taste it as long as you are using fresh eggs. :) I won't tell.

This made 24 cupcakes, baked in a lined muffin tin for 22 minutes. Every oven is different so wait until a toothpick came out clean.

But, while you are waiting: stash the cream in the deep freeze for a few minutes. Whip it up to soft peaks and fold in the Irish cream and sugar. I highly reccomend singing the Devo Whip It Song. It helps.

When they were completely cooled. I iced with the cream. You definetly want to wait until its cold otherwise your beautiful whipped cream will become a delicious puddle.

Please enjoy these cakes, I know we did.

Much love and happy baking.