Technically there was no overt “challenge” issued in this coffee cake challenge but, the gauntlet was definitely thrown albeit in a genteel “there is coffee cake in the kitchen” sort of way. Let me back up…one of Victor’s co-workers brought a coffee cake in work that she made from a box cake. So, he emails me at work during the day about this cake, how good it was, etc. Hmmm…I wasn’t sure how to interpret this news. Was the message, “hey, I know you make your little cakes and they’re ok, but my co-worker made a really good cake that you might want to check out?” Or was it more, “hey, my co-worker made this coffee cake…how come you haven’t made a coffee cake yet?” I went with the latter interpretation and considered myself served! I called up my mom to get her killer Sour Cream Coffee cake recipe and was off to the market. True to form, while shopping, I misinterpreted some of the ingredients and only bought an 8 oz container of sour cream. I knew the recipe called for a pint of sour cream, but late in the day on Friday, I simply forgot how many ounces were in a pint. I know it’s a pretty basic thing to remember but, you know, sometimes after lunch, usually in the 4pm hour, my brain grows weary. Anyway, while making the cake, I looked upon my sour cream shortage as an additional bonus round challenge to see if I could still pull off a decent cake which I did (yes, I was proud of this one). Oh, and while mixing up the batter, I lost count on the number of cups of flour I had already added, so I think only put in 3 cups BUT it was still good! Below is my very tasty yet bastardized version of my mom’s recipe.

*Note that this makes a ton of batter. It was at the top of the bowl by the end….

SOUR CREAM CAKE
1 Cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cinnamon
9 Tbsp. nuts
Mix and keep aside.

4 Eggs
4 Cups flour (I used 3)
1 Pint sour cream (I used 1 8 oz container of fat free sour cream and 8 oz of applesauce)
1 Cup butter (8oz) soft
2 Cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda

Cream butter & add sugar & vanilla, add salt & eggs. Beat at high speed. Add flour & baking soda. Add flour and sour cream alternately at low speed. Then beat approximately 1 minute at high speed. Shut off.

Grease pan.

Pour half of batter in pan, sprinkle half of cinnamon mixture onto batter. Add remainder of batter and remainder of cinnamon mixture. Cut through with a knife.

Bake at 350 for about 50-60 minutes.