sour cream coffee cake

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while now and i figured today was as good a day as any. Let me tell you this coffee cake is fabulous!! It's so moist and flavorful! A definite keeper! The only changes I made where that I used large eggs instead of extra large and I didn't use the walnuts. I think next time I would double the streusel too.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten (food network)

Ingredients:

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 extra-large eggs at room temperature (i used large and it came out just fine)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the streusel:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

For the glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, place the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a bowl and pinch together with your fingers until it forms a crumble. Mix in the walnuts, if desired.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup streusel. Spoon the rest of the batter in the pan, spread it out, and scatter the remaining streusel on top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Carefully transfer the cake, streusel side up, onto a serving plate. Whisk the confectioners' sugar and maple syrup together, adding a few drops of water if necessary, to make the glaze runny. Drizzle as much as you like over the cake with a fork or spoon.

how to make a tape measure cake

Well I was looking through my photos today and found these. I had forgotten that I had taken some progression photos of how I made my dad's tape measure cake. It's not a complete step-by-step progress, but I thought it might be helpful if anyone wanted to try making one.

I started out with a 1/4 sheet (this is the 9x13 magic line) that I torted and then cut in half.

I then filled and layered it. (this is my dads favorite, white cake with chocolate frosting :).

I needed it to be square so I measured the short side and then cut the long side so they were equal.

Then I rounded the top two edges and took a chunk out of the bottom right hand corner. At this point I took out a ruler and made a 1" mark all the way around the top of the cake and that was my guide for the beveling.

You then need to do a crumb coat, being careful to keep the bevel as much as you can. This is where I put it in the fridge to firm up a bit and settle.

For some reason here is where I forgot to take pictures :(. After it finished chilling I covered the cake in grey fondant. I ended up making a seam in the lower right hand inner corner and just cut away excess. Then I painted water on just the front side panel and front bevel and put a piece of black fondant on and trimmed off at the side bevel and wrapped it around the side and trimmed the excess.

For the face plate I made a template with a piece of paper just by cutting out a square and then cutting away until it was the shape i wanted. Then i cut it out of black fondant. For the lettering I looked up the craftsman logo and magnified it until it was the size i needed. Then just traced the letters I needed and the ones that weren't in the logo, I just used similar ones to make the ones i needed. For the numbers I just found a font that was similar and did the same thing. Then I used those as templates and cut them out of fondant with an exacto knife. For the red lines I just used a fondant rope. The thin writing is royal icing that I piped using a parchment piping bag (I personally think this is a must for piping very tiny), and the "made in the USA" logo is just traced onto paper and cut out of fondant. I painted the gray part of the cake with the silver luster dust being carful not to get any on the black (if I do this cake again I will put the bottom black piece on after this step) then I put the finished face plate on.

For the tape part of the measuring tape I used gumpaste. I started out with a 2" rectangle and then about 1/2 of the way in i cut the triangle. then i put the notch in the top and the hole. I used saran wrap over the pudding box so it wouldn't stick and let it dry like that for a couple days.

For the tape i just cut a 2" x6" piece of the yellow and let it dry for a couple of days.

Then I took my food safe markers and drew the inch and centimeter marks on it. I used silver luster dust mixed with alcohol to make the end piece look metallic, and then using gumpaste glue I attatched the two pieces together.

To attatch the tape measure to the cake (after i've placed the cake on the cake board) I cut a 2" slit in the fondant where I wanted it to go and just pushed it in.

and here is the finished cake!

Chocolate mint cupcakes

Moist chocolate mud cupcakes with creme de menthe infused italian meringue buttercream and topped with a chocolate mint candy. these were FANTASTIC! it was like eating chocolate mint chip ice cream in cupcake form.

I used this recipe for the cupcakes. (edit: unfortunately the recipe has been removed/private and any good chocolate cake recipe will do).

For the italian meringue buttercream, i used the recipe by warren brown of cakelove. He has a great video over on youtube where he shows you exactly how to make it. To make it the creme de menthe, I just added a few drops of lorAnn's creme de menthe oil and a small amount of leaf green and blue gel food coloring.

Welcome to my latest and greatest obsession :). Cupcakes, cakes, and cookies. My plans for this blog are to show my recipes, tips, and photo's of the things I like to create.