Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake: National Coffee Cake Day

Today is National Coffee Cake Day, and it's the perfect day for Coffee Cake. There are so many wonderful recipes for Chocolate Coffee Cake, Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake, and hey, lots of pound and bundt cakes are coffee cakes. Coffee cakes are sweet cakes usually meant to accompany coffee. They are usually single layer cakes, baked in loaf or bundt pans, but other shapes are fine. I have a square chiffon cake pan that works with the following recipe.

This recipe for Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake produces a cake with a dense texture that will appeal to both chocolate and white cake lovers--and it has coffee in it, so it's a perfect"Coffee Cake." This recipe is adapted from Stephanie Jaworski's - Joy of Baking. If you're not familiar with her website, you should get acquainted. Lots of great recipes.

Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake

Ingredients
2 1/2 ounces 65-75% dark chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp brewed coffee or espresso
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Butter 10 inch bundt or tube pan.
In stainless steel bowl, over saucepan of simmering water, melt chocolate with coffee. Remove from heat and set aside.
In separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
In bowl of electric mixer (or with hand mixer), beat butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until mixture is light and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add beaten eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract and sour cream.
With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk to the batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.
After preparing batter, pour half of batter into separate bowl. Stir melted chocolate into one half of batter, mixing well. Place batter into prepared pan by alternating spoons of vanilla batter and chocolate batter. Then, with flat knife almost to bottom of pan, gently draw swirls (up, over and down) through batter as you rotate pan (if you're using round bundt) to marbleize it. Don't over mix. Smooth top of batter.
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes before removing cake from pan to cool completely. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I think this cake is fine the way it is (not too sweet), but you can dust with powdered sugar, drip with a chocolate glaze, or frost with chocolate ganache.

This cake will keep for a couple of days at room temperature or it can be frozen.

Cartoon of the Day: Coffee Cake

This could be Reign!

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CHUNK COFFEE CAKE: National Coffee Cake Day

I am a sucker when it comes to Sour Cream Coffee Cake, so I was thrilled to find this recipe for Sour Cream Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cake on the Scharffen Berger website. I know I've posted other Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipes, but I love this one, especially for the Chocolate Streusel Topping! I use a Bundt Pan, so it looks great, too! You can use whatever chocolate you like, but since the recipe is from Scharffen Berger, I list it as the chocolate.

Happy National Coffee Cake Day!

SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CHUNK COFFEE CAKE

Ingredients 

For Batter 
16 Tbsp unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
5 ounces SCHARFFEN BERGER 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch bits, or a scant cup of SCHRAFFEN BERGER 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate Baking Chunks

For Streusel Topping 
 2 ounces SCHARFFEN BERGER 62% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease Bundt pan generously and dust with flour. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy in electric mixer (using paddle attachment if using electric mixer). Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract.
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture alternately with sour cream. Fold in chocolate pieces. Set aside.

To Make Streusel 
Melt 2 ounces of chocolate in top of double boiler or in bowl placed over pan of simmering water, stirring frequently until melted. Remove bowl from heat and mix in toasted walnuts until coated. Mix in sugars and cinnamon.

Pour half batter into prepared pan. Top with half streusel mixture. Cover with remaining batter and top with the remaining streusel mixture.
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.
Cool on a cake rack.
Unmold and serve warm or at room temperature.

Cartoon of the Day: Coffee Cake

Happy Coffee Cake Day! 

Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake for Coffee Cake Day

Today is National Coffee Cake Day, so here's a great and easy recipe for Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake. It's slightly adapted from the Godiva website. As always, use the very best chocolate and cocoa. So grab a cup of Joe and have a piece of this fabulous coffee cake to celebrate!

CHOCOLATE SWIRL COFFEE CAKE

Chocolate Streusel Filling and Topping 

Ingredients
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup pecans
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 ounces Dark Chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
4 Tbsp sweet butter

Directions
Place sugar, pecans, and cinnamon in food processor. Cover and pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped. Transfer 3/4 cup of mixture to small bowl and stir in chocolate for filling. To remaining mixture in food processor add flour, cocoa powder, and butter and pulse until mixture is crumbly for topping.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Ingredients
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sweet butter, softened
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
3-large eggs
1-large egg yolk
1-1/2 tsp Madagascar vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
Confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan. Dust pan with flour, tapping out excess.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl; whisk to combine and set aside.
Beat butter at medium-high speed in mixing bowl for 1 minute or until creamy, using electric mixer at medium-high speed. Gradually add sugar and beat at high speed until well blended and light, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and yolk, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and alternately add dry ingredients and sour cream, beginning and ending with dry ingredients and mixing just until combined.
Scrape half of batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle with filling. Scrape remaining batter over filling and smooth top. Sprinkle with topping.
Bake 65 to 75 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean and cake pulls away from edge of pan. Let cake cool in pan set on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove side of pan and cool completely.
Dust cake lightly with confectioners’ sugar before serving.