VANILLA Coffee Cake with lots of vanilla (Marion Cunningham)

This is dearest Marion Cunningham's vanilla coffee cake recipe. It's a recipe for a basic cake, not all that fancy, not overly sweet, easy to prepare, wonderful to eat, and for me, it's reminiscent of the old-fashioned cakes, those perfect cakes grandmothers would make, slice up, and place on the kitchen table for snacking. Eating to drinking ratio: one slice of cake per two cups of black coffee for grandmother and her friends; for the grandchildren, the ratio differs. The kids get one thin slice of vanilla cake to one large cup of hot chamomile tea with honey. 

Ingredients: 

½ pound (2 sticks) of butter, at room temperature

1  cup of sugar

3 eggs

2 ½  cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream 

5 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

• Ingredients should be at room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 350° F / 180° C.
• Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
• Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and stir with a fork until well blended.
• Into a large mixing bowl add the butter and beat with an electric beater for 1 minute. 
• Add the sugar mixture to the butter and beat until smooth, about  2 minutes.
• Add the eggs and beat for about two minutes, until the mixture is light and creamy. 
• Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until all the ingredients are combined. 
• Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix.  
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
• Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for 10 minutes. 
• Invert onto a rack and let cool for about fifteen minutes. 
• Slice and serve.  

Marion Cunningham gives us variations for her coffee cake:

DRIED  FIG  AND ALMOND: 

1  1/2 cups dried figs

1  1/2 cups of unblanched and coarsely chopped almonds 

Place the figs into a bowl with boiling water and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain, then cut the figs into quarters. 

Once the sour cream is added to the batter, incorporate the figs and almonds. 

Stir to combine and continue with the recipe. 

APPLE  AND WALNUT:

 

1  1/2 cups coarsely chopped apples

1  1/2  cups coarsely chopped walnuts

After adding the sour cream to the batter,  add the apples and walnuts. Stir to combine. Proceed with the basic recipe. 

ORANGE FLAVOUR:

Add the zest of one orange to the sugar and mix well. Proceed with the recipe.

Kind of old-fashioned, reminiscent of those perfect, peaceful days at grandmother's home.