Weekend Baking: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I am still trying to adapt to some terms/names used here that doesn't make sense to me. Coffee cake for example, doesn't mean that the cake has any coffee taste. It's just the name of the cake. Strangely, a bite of this coffee cake reminds me of my mum's walnut butter cake! I must tell my mum that her walnut butter cake has another name here in the State.

This recipe is from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Parties. Because I couldn't find the recipe from the internet, I decided to type it out; OCT and I like this homey cake so much that we believe we will do it again with other variations! I must tell you that I made some adjustment on the amount of sugar, but it still turned out a bit too sweet. So feel free to cut down on the sugar to your liking. The original recipe also called for a maple glaze. But I thought it was nice enough to eat it on its own, so I skipped that!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
12 tablespoon unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar ( *I used 1 1/4 cup*)
3 extra large eggs at room temperature (*I used 4 large eggs*)
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream ( I used fat free sour cream, but added 1 more tbsp of butter*)
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising) * if you don't have cake flour, substitute 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour plus 1/4 cup corn starch*
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel:
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed (*I used 1/2 cup*)
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 walnut

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. ( I used a 9x9 square pan)

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment for 4-5 mins, until light. Add the eggs one 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 crumbles, mix in the walnuts.

Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out waith 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 50-60 min, until a cake tester comes out clean. (Mine took about 40 minutes.)