I’ve always loved coffee cake. It could be because of the awesome crumb topping or it’s simply because coffee cake makes it perfectly acceptable to have cake for breakfast. But regardless of the reason, it has always been something I enjoyed. Surprisingly up until last week, I had never attempted to make a coffee cake. Since I was making it for a meeting at work, I definitely wanted to make sure that it was going to turn out well and so I turned to my most trusted source for cake recipes, Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri. This cookbook is seriously my bible when it comes to cake recipes. Every single cake I’ve ever made from it (which is at least a third of the cakes in the book) has come out perfectly, which if you’re an avid baker like I am, you’ll understand how rare that is.

 
Luckily for me the entire first chapter of the book is devoted to coffee cakes. It didn’t take me long to settle on making the Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Not only was the picture exactly what I’ve come to expect a coffee cake to look like, a ring cake with a crumb top and a perfect swirl running through the middle, but it was also surprisingly simple to make. The batter came together in minutes and the crumb topping was just walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon so that came together in a few seconds. Within an hour of starting the recipe, my apartment was filled with the delicious smell of cinnamon and the cake was ready to come out of the oven.

It was extremely hard not to try a piece as soon as it cooled, but it was definitely worth the wait. The cake came out fluffy and buttery with amazing flavor considering how few ingredients it had. The topping and swirl added the perfect spice and crunch to the cake. Needless to say, I will definitely be making this cake for many years to come. If you haven’t already gone out and bought Perfect Cakes, which I obviously highly recommend you do, don’t worry. You can find the recipe for the cake here on Nick Maglieri’s website. We can’t wait to hear how you think it compares to you’re favorite coffee cake recipe!