Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon-Pecan Filling

October is National Cookie Month.  Tate's Bake Shop is offering a few food bloggers an opportunity to taste their award winning Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Cookies.

Owner Kathleen King made her reputation--and a thriving bakery business-- on her famous chocolate chip cookies.  Her bakery is located in the Hamptons-- a place I hope to visit someday.

Last December , I was one of the fortunate bloggers who was able to taste Tate's Chocolate Chip cookies-- and Tate's Bake Shop offered a giveaway to one of my lucky readers .  My family and I really loved these cookies, that are thin and crisp and buttery.  They disappeared really fast. I also received a signed copy of the Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook, and I  made the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They were delicious, but not quite as crispy as the authentic cookies that Tates Bake Shop can ship to you! 

Denielle contacted me, again, and asked if I'd like to sample their Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies.   I love cookies, but I asked her if there were any other options.  She cheerfully offered to put together a breakfast package for me, and said that she'd also let me choose a lucky recipient to receive the same.  A week later...

...I received a box with their Sour Cream Coffee Cake and a bag of their Granola.  The very next morning, I opened up the package, and started fresh hot coffee brewing.

The coffee cake was carefully wrapped. Look at all of those pecans!

We each cut a generous slice, and my husband particularly loved all of the pecan-cinnamon. Heaven!

The granola was wholesome, and generously mixed with golden raisins, hazelnuts, almond, and honey...

Here. Take a look!

My favorite way to eat granola is with vanilla yogurt.  It's really delicious!

The coffee cake was gone, by the next day.  I picked up my copy of the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook, and looked through the many recipes I had bookmarked. Aha!  On Page 128, I found the recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  I loved that 2 cups of sour cream is used.  I love the moistness and tang of sour cream in cakes.  My mind was made up, that this would be our Saturday morning breakfast treat.

The recipe lists 2 cups of chopped pecans.  I decided to cut it back to 1 cup of pecans.  Your choice.

I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar (rather than white), the chopped pecans and 1 Tablespoon cinnamon.

Mix it up, and set aside.

For the batter, I creamed one stick of room temperature butter (the recipe listed 2 sticks of butter, but I reduced it) with 1 1/2 cups sugar, until it was light and fluffy.  I then added 2 eggs, 2 cups of sour cream, and one tablespoon of pure vanilla.  The dry ingredients were 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt. 

I dumped all of the dry ingredients at once, and pulsed my stand mixer a few times...then I folded the batter just until it was mixed.  (I think this method was used, so that the dough isn't overworked. )

I love using Baker's Joy spray.  My cakes no longer stick, and I've had my share of bundt cake disasters. The batter is very thick, and I put half into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.  Then, I layered half of the pecan-cinnamon mixture evenly.  I added the remaining batter and finished it off with the remaining pecan-cinnamon mixture.  Then it hit me... I should have used a spring form pan, so that the cinnamon topping would remain on top!  Too late, now...

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and ten minutes, is what the recipe says. HOWEVER, I could smell the heady aroma of cinnamon wafting from my kitchen, and throughout the house.  I checked the cake at 50 minutes, and a toothpick left just a few crumbs attached. Done!

I waited about five minutes, and placed a wire cooling rack on top of the cake-- then flipped it. The cake slipped right out. I placed another wire cooking rack on top and flipped the cake again.

There. The topping is where it belongs.  The moment has arrived, as I sliced into the warm cake...

The texture looks very promising.

VERDICT:  The cake had a very tender texture, indeed.  It was moist, and the sour cream gave just the right amount of tang.  Reducing the amount of butter, from two sticks, to one worked out fine, in my opinion. We loved the cinnamon-pecan filling, and I don't regret cutting back on the amount of pecans. I love pecans, but I wanted the cinnamon to be equal.  I think using brown sugar was another bonus.  Everyone went back for seconds. This is a great recipe, and I'll definitely make it again.

Thank you, Tate's Bake Shop for your generous gift.  You, too, can have the opportunity to receive the same breakfast treats that I did, plus a signed copy of the Tate's Bake Shop cookbook!  

A printable recipe card for this coffee cake is at the end of this post.