Apple Coffeecake

This week's Friday Cakeblogging returns to the Granny Stark Apple Cookbook by, Olwen Woodier. The only change I made to the recipe was a bit of glaze and parlsocker for looks. Really, the cake does not need it.

I do think perhaps it is time I invest in more attractive tube-pans. After a while, all my cakes begin looking the same-fine for us, but not terribly interesting to look at week after week on a blog.

This cake was easily prepared even with a toddler tearing my house apart as I worked. It does need time to cool completely before icing, but otherwise you're looking at around two hours including baking. I omitted the nuts called for in the recipe and it was just fine without.

You Will Need:

3 medium sized apples (Woodier suggests Golden Delicious, but I used Granny Smith)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

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

Peel, core and chop the apple into small pieces. Place in a large bowl with the lemon juice and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Fold into the sour-cream butter mixture.

Stir in the chopped apples. Pour half of the batter into the tube pan.

In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon with the nuts. Mix well and spread over the batter. Top with the rest of the batter and smooth evenly.

Bake 1 1/3 hours, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean (mine took 1 hour, 15 minutes).

Remove to a rack and cool in the pan ten minutes. Then remove and cool completely before decorating as desired.