If you asked me to tell you exactly how many recipes there on this blog, I couldn't tell you. I could only tell you there are more than "X number". However, if you asked me if I had a specific recipe for something, my answer would depend on what it was. With more than 700 recipes on the blog, I must admit that I don't have them all memorized! But it's actually when I get this question do I come to learn I have some gaping recipe holes on the blog! This actually happened a couple of weeks ago when Linda, one of my very good friends, asked if I had a recipe for coffee cake. Needless to say, even I was surprised or rather I should say shocked, to learn I didn't. I mean really, coffee cake? Something that has been around for hundreds of years and is pretty much standard fare at every breakfast potluck (remember those?) I had ever attended. And I don't have a recipe for it? What the heck, right? So I promised her I would make that a goal for 2022. Little did I know this goal would take me down a coffee cake, crumb cake rabbit hole. One that caused me to, technically speaking, not even meet the goal. But more on that later. On the upside, had it not been for her to give me a push, who knows when or even if I would have ever created this melt in your mouth, ambrosial Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake?
A sour cream enriched cake with, not one but two, cinnamon, pecan, buttery, sugary streusel layers, and drizzled with icing is the kind of attention getting crumb cake just beckoning you to pour a cup of coffee, cut yourself a square, and then sit down uninterrupted while you savor every delicious morsel. Without being overly melodramatic, a piece of this blissfully delicious Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake should be one enjoyed with reckless abandon. To take only a sliver of it would not only be blasphemous, but it would be akin to denying your tastebuds the chance to have the complete euphoric experience. In other words, this is one of those crumb cakes having no place for self-control or restraint.
So why is it called a crumb cake and not a coffee cake? Can it be considered both? Can you call a crumb cake a coffee cake and a coffee cake a crumb cake? The simplest answer to the first question has everything to do with the size of the crumb, the amount of the crumb, and the subsequent sweetness factor of the cake. Bigger and more crumbs create a sweeter cake and ultimately one we would call a crumb cake. This Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake definitely meets the basic "crumb cake" requirements. While there isn't a higher ratio of crumb to cake, it has more crumbs than the thinner layer typically found on most 'coffee cakes'. So it leans closer to the crumb cake (in both texture and taste) end of the continuum than the coffee cake end. And yes, you can call a 'crumb cake' a 'coffee cake' because it was intended to be enjoyed with coffee. But no, you can't or shouldn't call a coffee cake a crumb cake if it lacks the appropriate amount of crumbs.
This Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake has three components: the cake layer, the streusel layer(s), and the icing layer. It's a pretty straightforward, easy recipe to assemble and make. Although the multiple steps and layers might make some of you think otherwise. (See, this is why I find recipe rating is so challenging!). But regardless as to how you might rate it after you read the recipe below, let me just say it's definitely one you will want to make. Especially if you are a big fan of crumb cakes or cakes intended to be enjoyed with coffee! As an added incentive, this is THE cake you want to make for friends and family. The one you want to serve to weekend guests, the one you want to bring to a gathering, the one you want to serve to your book club, the one you want have on your brunch/breakfast table, the one you want to package up and share with friends and/or neighbors.
While I say there is a fair amount of sweetness to this crumb cake, in large part to do the luscious middle and top layers of brown sugar cinnamon streusel, it's not at all overly sweet. Even with the icing on the top finishing touch. The recipe for the icing below gives you enough to drizzle over the cake, then drizzle on more when you serve each slice. It's up to you as to whether or not you want to enjoy it with a single or double drizzle. Personally, I am on team 'double drizzle'.
I rarely bake cakes in pans not lined with parchment paper, but I always bake them in metal not glass pans. For this cake I used a 9" square metal baking pan and simply buttered and floured the pan so that the bottom and sides of the crumb cake could get a bit more browned. The cake baked up beautifully!
Any day that starts with cake is destined to be a good day! But any cake that starts with this Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake is destined to be a great day!
There are still 360 days left in the year. Enough time for me to fulfill the promise of sharing a 'coffee cake' recipe. While this perfectly proportioned cake topped with gorgeous clusters of brown sugar and cinnamon and the loveliest icing layer may not exactly be what my friend was looking for when she asked for a coffee cake recipe, I really think it could be the cake she didn't know she was actually hoping to find. It may have taken me more than eight years to post a 'crumb cake' recipe, but this one was well worth the wait.
Recipe
Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake
Serves 12-16
Ingredients
Streusel
1 1/2 cups (195g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled very slightly
1/3 cup (36g) pecans, toasted and finely chopped
Cake
2 1/4 cups (292g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (120g) sour cream
1 cup whole milk
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs, room temperature
Icing
1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups (240g) confectionary sugar
Directions
Streusel
1. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, Kosher salt, cinnamon and chopped pecans.
2. Pour the melted butter into the bowl and stir using a spatula or wooden spoon. Stir until the mixture looks like wet sand and there are no streaks of flour showing.
3. Cover and set aside. Note: You could put the bowl in the refrigerator while you are assembling the cake as it will make it very easy to create clumps using your fingers.
Cake
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Generously butter and lightly flour a 9" square metal pan (or alternately line with parchment paper, buttering the parchment paper). Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and Kosher salt just until blended.
3. Add in the chunks of room temperature butter and sour cream. Beat until the mixture comes together (about 2-3 minutes).
4. In a large measuring cup, whisk together the milk, eggs, and vanilla until well-blended.
5. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour/sugar/butter mixture in three additions and beat for about 20 seconds after each one. Then beat for additional minute until the batter is light and fluffy.
6. Spread half of the batter on the bottom of the pan. Smooth out using an offset spatula.
7. Sprinkle slightly less than half of the streusel mixture over the bottom cake layer.
8. Spread the remaining batter of the first streusel layer. Note: It helps if you try to even pour the batter over the streusel or drop it evenly over the streusel layer with a large spoon before spreading it out evenly.
9. Using your fingers, create small crumbles of the remaining streusel and spread over the top.
10. Place the baking pan on a large baking sheet and bake for 65-75 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
11. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack for about 15 to 20 minutes before drizzling on some of the icing.
12. Cut into 16 squares, place on a serving platter, pour some coffee, and sit back to savor the moment.
13. The crumb cake will keep covered at room temperature for up to 2 days. Or you can over and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If refrigerated, when ready to serve warm up each piece in the microwave on high for about 10-12 seconds (it will taste like it just came out of the oven).
Icing
1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the room temperature butter until creamy (you can also do this with a hand held mixer).
2. Add in the vanilla, Kosher salt, milk and confectionary sugar. Whisk until very smooth. The icing should have a pourable consistency to it. If it doesn't, add in some more milk, one Tablespoon at a time.
3. You will have enough icing to drizzle the cake and drizzle again when serving each piece.
Notes: (1) Toast the pecans on a sheet pan in a 350 degree (F) oven for about 7-8 minutes before cooling and chopping.
