STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE

The title is a misnomer and there is no coffee in the ingredients - rather, it is a cake made to eat with a cup of coffee. This wonderful tray bake is taken from the cookbook ‘United Cakes of America’ and as promised, from time to time I will bake some of the recipes for you. All very different from our usual, English/Cornish cakes! I do enjoy baking something different now and then!! European settlers took their traditional recipes with them, when they settled in America and this type of cake is a mix from Germany, Netherlands and Scandinavia whose folk settled on the east coast.

If you live in Cornwall this would be great for The Great Cornish Cake Bake Day on the 6th May! In aid of the Children’s Hospice. Get organising and baking!

Grease a 9” x 13” tin, at least 2 inches deep. I also placed strips of parchment that hang over the sides to help lift out. Preheat your fan oven at 150C.

The cake is prepared in 3 parts:

The filling:

4 oz light soft brown sugar

2 oz caster sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

pinches of salt and ginger

4 oz chopped walnuts

Just combine the whole and set aside.

The streusel topping:

3 oz soft light brown sugar

2 oz caster

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Pinches of salt and ginger

2 oz butter

2 oz plain flour

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and rub in the butter, until even. Set aside.

The Cake:

4 oz butter

12 oz caster

3 oz light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs

4 fluid oz milk

4 oz sour cream

15 oz plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch salt

Cream the butter and sugar until evenly mixed [with a mixer is easiest], add the eggs, one at a time. You will need to keep scraping the sides down. Then alternately add the wet and dry ingredients until everything is incorporated. Mix well for another 30 seconds.

Tip half of the mixture in the bottom of your prepared pan, then carefully spread over the filling, then very carefully place little dobs of the cake mix over the filling and spread out with a knife, without disturbing the filling. Finally tip over the streusel topping. Bake for about 50 minutes, until the cake bounces back when poked. Cool in the tin for 5-10 mins then carefully lift out. What a delicious bite!