Soft and moist sour cream coffee cake made with whole wheat flour with a streusel filling. Fresh curd or yogurt can be substituted in place of sour cream.
Grease 2 bundt cake pans (5.5 inches diameter) with butter. You can also use a 7.5 to 8 inches round pan.
In a bowl take 1 tablespoon unsalted butter.
On a low heat begin to melt butter. You only need to melt the butter.
Remove the bowl from the stove burner and keep on the countertop as soon as the butter is melted.
Add ¼ cup finely chopped nuts. You can use any crunchy nuts. I have added an equal mix of chopped pistachios, cashews and almonds.
Then add 4 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour and 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder.
Mix very well. Keep the streusel filling aside.
Making coffee cake batter
In a mixing bowl or a stand mixer bowl take sugar and softened unsalted butter. Meanwhile preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenehit for 20 minutes.
Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, beat on medium to high speed till the butter becomes fluffy. Scrape the sides while beating.
Then add baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. You can even add ½ teaspoon vanilla essence or 1 tablespoon white vinegar.
Beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Add sour cream. Instead of sour cream you can also use fresh curd or yogurt. Do make sure that the yogurt is thick and not thin or watery.
Beat on medium low speed for 30 to 45 seconds.
Add whole wheat flour and 1 to 1.25 cups water or add as required.
Beat on low speed for a minute or more till everything is mixed well. If there are many lumps then beat for some more seconds. Do not over beat. If batter looks very thick then add more water. I added 1.25 cups water. The batter consistency is thick. Some tiny lumps are fine in the batter.
Baking sour cream coffee cake
Take spoonfuls of the batter and place it in the greased bundt pan. Fill till ⅓ of the volume of the bundt pan. Using a spatula even the batter.
Now take spoonfuls of the prepared streusel stuffing and top it all over evenly on the cake batter.
Again add some batter and fill it till ⅔ or ¾ ᵗʰ volume of the pan.
With a spatula make the batter even from top.
Place the cake pans in the preheated oven in the center rack. If using an OTG, then use the bake option where only the bottom heating element is heated.
Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius/356 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 50 minutes or till the top is golden. since temperatures in ovens vary, do keep a check.
To check doneness, insert a bamboo skewer in the cake and it should come clean. If there is sticky batter on the skewer, this means the cake needs to be baked for some more time. For cooling keep the cake on a wired rack.
When cooled completely, unmould the cake from the pan.
Slice and serve streusel sour cream coffee cake with coffee or tea or as a dessert.
Notes
If you prefer you can skip making the streusel.
Instead of brown sugar, you can easily use raw sugar in the streusel. Also make sure to use ground cinnamon made from true cinnamon (ceylon cinnamon) and not cassia cinnamon.
Both baking powder and baking soda are needed in this coffee cake recipe.
If you do not like the flavor of whole wheat flour, opt to make the cake with all-purpose flour.
Sour cream is an ingredient which makes the cake soft and moist. Easily swap it with yogurt or curd. But make sure that the curd is not tangy or sour.
Baking times in various ovens vary. So keep this in mind while baking the cake. It can take more or less time in your oven for this sour cream coffee cake to bake.