Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake

C inspired me to make this cake and by inspired I mean dropped every hint possible that he was in the mood for cinnamon and walnuts preferably in a batter that combines the two. Story time! We shop at Costco a couple of times a month. Most of the time, we're in a mad rush to finish shopping and get home to lunch or dinner. Once in a while, we amble through every (food) aisle and make an impulse buy depending on how hungry we are. Last week, I was looking around for some fruit and realized C was gone. Picked up my honeydew and went on a search for him only to find him circling the baked good section, eyeing the 3 lb (!) banana nut bread loaf and the cinnamon walnut coffee cake. I've made banana nut bread a million times before so I thought I'd try the cinnamon walnut coffee cake as it's something new. Also, I'm not buying a Costco sized cake for two people...

After extensive googling (read: first 5-star recipe I saw after typing in "cinnamon walnut coffee cake recipe"), I found this recipe. I was a little dubious seeing all the positive reviews, thinking there has to be SOMEONE who had a problem with this recipe, but nope, they all loved it. Having tried it, I can say I would leave a similar review - it's delicious!! I would cut down on the sugar in the streusel topping, mostly because very sweet cakes leave a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. The recipe listed below is my amended version. 

Also, I don't own a bundt or tube pan so I used my 8" cake pan with 4" wall. The cake rose to the very top, so a regular 8" cake pan with a 2" side won't work. Also, extra baking time is needed (20 minutes extra in my oven) because there's the center of the cake to deal with when using a regular baking pan. 

On to the cake!

Ingredients

Batter:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 stick butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt

Streusel topping:

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325F. 

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. I sifted all the ingredients - I think it makes for a softer cake, but it's not necessary if you don't have a sieve. 

3. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add the eggs and vanilla. Beat until the mixture has a custard-looking appearance. Basically, you shouldn't see any grains of sugar or lumps of butter. It will also have a slight sheen. Tip: Use the paper the butter was wrapped in to butter the baking pan. If you have it, place parchment on the bottom. 

4. Add the dry ingredients to the egg-butter-sugar mixture and beat on low speed until moistened. Add the yogurt and beat until smooth. 

5. Combine streusel ingredients in a separate bowl. 

6. Spread 1/3 of the batter in the pan. Top with 1/3 of the streusel mixture. Repeat until both batter and topping have been used. 

7. Bake at 325F for 45 mins if using a bundt pan or for 1h 5 mins if using a regular baking pan. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick or a butter knife into the center. They should come out clean. 

Observations while making this cake:

a. The cake doesn't come out with a layered look like I was expecting it to have. As you can see from the picture above, the topping is distributed all throughout the cake so the next time I would make it a three layer cake - two layers of cake with the streusel topping in the middle and maybe some on the top. 

b. The batter will be thick. 

Enjoy! Let me know how you enjoyed this cake!

'Til the next dish...