Inspired by all the wonderful goods I'm baking for the Baker's Market this Saturday (butter count is up to 4 pounds so far!), I'm breaking from the unusual amount of healthy crap I've posted lately with something significantly back to normal: RLB's Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake.
This recipe was a big step for me because I have this... thing... about condiments. They are gross. So effing gross. Over the years I've been able to come to terms with some of them, namely certain salad dressings. Ketchup and mustard are acceptable ingredients in some recipes. Consuming any of these, however, takes a bit of mental preparation beforehand.Mayonnaise can jump off a cliff and die, though. It is so repulsive I want to vomit thinking about it. It's not allowed in my house, and if I'm-- god forbid-- visiting somewhere and something I need in the fridge is behind it I have three options: 1) abort the mission and don't bother getting what I want; 2) grab a stick/knife/ruler/long object and use it to move the mayo jar out of the way, so the item can be safely grabbed; or 3) move the mayo jar with my hand, and either douse said hand in bleach or ammonia or gasoline or just cut the damn thing off. Regardless of which method I choose (and I've yet to choose the third) I'll be considerably concerned for the rest of the day that somehow airborn mayonnaise particles have penetrated what I just ate.
So we've established that I'm crazy.
That out of the way, I've recently come to terms that sour cream is not (like mayonnaise) the devil, and sometimes it tastes good in baking. Deep breath. Because of this, and a conscious effort on my part to get over myself just a little bit, I had picked up some sour cream from Costco a few weeks ago, thinking of all the recipes I kept finding and not being able to make because I lacked some. It sat in my fridge until the day before it expired, isolated from all the other food products.
I finally buckled, not wanting to waste, and made RLB's Chocolate Streusel Coffee Cake. RLB recommends this recipe be made in a bundt pan, but sadly, I don't have one yet. But she also suggests the recipe can be made into cupcakes, and RLB's word is truth, so I wasn't about to pass these up just because they wouldn't be in a beautiful uniform bundt shape.
The cake was incredibly light and fluffy, and the filling was the perfect hint of cinnamon chocolate. One of my favourites from Heavenly Cakes so far! So good I completely forgot about the sour cream... issue.
If you haven't picked up a copy of Rose's Heavenly Cakes, I highly recommend it. Each recipe from this book is divine; I've yet to find a bad one.