Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Secretary’s Day 2013

For Secretary’s Day I was asked to make a cake for the office.The ultimate request was for a Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake. This recipe was lurking in my edition of “Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook” – a Christmas gift in 2005. By all accounts the cake was a hit this morning.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake

For this recipe I used:

Cake:
1 Stick (4 oz.) of Unsalted-Butter
2 Cups of All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Cup of Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of Sour Cream*
1 Cup of Frozen Sour Cherries* – thawed and drained

Streusel Topping:
9 Tablespoons of All Purpose Flour
3 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
2 1/2 Oz. Unsalted Butter
1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Milk Glaze*:
1 Cup of Confectioners Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Milk
See bakers notes

I started by gathering the ingredients, buttering a tube pan, and pre-heating the oven to 350˚.

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Ingredients

I an a bowl I sifted the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt together and set it aside.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Sifting the Flour

Next I made the streusel by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl and used a pastry blender to mix well. I stored the bowl in the fridge until it was needed.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Streusel Topping

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Streusel Topping

In a large bowl I mixed the butter, sugar, and eggs together until smooth. This will take up to 5 minutes – longer if the butter is on the cool side. I then mixed in the vanilla extract*. See bakers notes for the vanilla.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Blending the Butter, Sugar, & Eggs

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the Vanilla

I then mixed the flour and sour cream in an alternating sequence. 3 flour additions and 2 sour cream additions. Starting and ending with the sour cream.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding 1/3 of the Flour Mixture

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding 1/2 of the Sour Cream

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the second 1/3 of the Flour Mixture

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the rest of the Sour Cream

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the rest of the Flour Mixture

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake — Just barely mixed

After the batter was barely mixed I finished mixing everything in with a spatula.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Finished mixing by hand

I added 1/2 of the batter to the tube pan and smoothed it out. I then added the sour cherries evenly spread out. The picture in the book looked like it had more cherries.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the Sour Cherries

I topped the cherries with the rest of the batter and smoothed everything out again.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Adding the rest of the Batter

I added the streusel to the top of the cake the put the pan in the oven.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Topped with Streusel

I baked the cake for 40 minutes then check it. It needed another 5 minutes.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Just out of the oven

I removed the cake form the oven and let it sit on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. I used a small pallet knife to loosen the cake from the pan then flipped it our on the cooling rack.  I then flipped the cake again, so the streusel top was upright, then let the cake cool for 2 hours.

Once the cake was cool I mixed the milk glaze. I drizzled the glaze on the cake and let it dry.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Milk Glaze Ingredients

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Mixing the Milk Glaze

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake – Topped with the Milk Glaze

“*” Bakers Notes:

• I think 1-1/2 cups of sour cherries would work. Any more and the cake will be too soggy.
• I mixed the vanilla in at this time. The recipe said to mix it in with the butter eggs and vanilla.
• The recipe for this cake can also be found here.

Sadly I did not get a full taste of the cake. I was told it was great. I did taste some crumbs of cake that were stuck on the centre tube of the pan – where I had not buttered enough. Any reason to make another!