Holiday Baker Man: Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake

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

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

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!

To order one of these Cherry-Streussel Coffee Cakes, contact me holidaybakerman@hotmail.com. Please include your full name and phone number.

Cherry-Streusel Coffee Cake - Secretary's Day 2013