Coffee cake

One of my favourite things to eat and to make is coffee cake. I saw that sour cream was on sale so I decided to buy a couple and make coffee cake.

This is my go-to recipe.

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups ap flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

I omit the salt asked for because I used salted butter

I make a cinnamon brown sugar for layering. Sometimes I add chocolate chips, coconut and/ or nuts. Whatever I have on hand!

I mix all the wet ingredients together and set aside. (The first 5 ingredients)

Then I mix all the dry ingredients together and set that aside. Or I have my helpers do it!



We then mix the wet into the dry; by hand!

This requires some muscle.

Then we mixed up the cinnamon brown sugar in a small bowl.

Now we grease our pans and start layering; beginning with batter and alternating with cinnamon brown sugar. Ending with batter, so the topping doesn’t burn.



Bake at 350F anywhere from 45 minutes to almost two hours. All depends on your pans, and I flip them out as soon as they come out of the oven.

My favourite way to have coffee cake is from my grandmothers bundt pan. Something so wonderful about it. I think fondly of her and the Cooking adventure that was her life.

For the bundt pan I grease and flour lightly so it will come out easily.

This is the moment I hold my breathe every time! 

Perfection!

This extra cake that I  made inadvertently became bedtime snack. I couldn’t blame him for sneaking a morsel; Delicious!

Banana muffins

One thing this little guy loves is freshly baked muffins. And if they have chocolate chips in them; even better! 

Liam loves to be involved in the kitchen; his big sister would prefer to be colouring these days But He loves to be hands on. 

This is the map I use for my muffins.

2 cups flour (white tastes the best!)

1 tsp baking soda

Salt

1/3 cup whatever sugar 

1 egg

1cup mashed banana (or pumpkin purée)

1/2cup melted fat(oil/butter/coconut oil)

1/2cup liquid (sour milk, buttermilk, almond milk, whatever!)

I find using my emersion blender to mix the wet ingredients works great.





Then I add the dry ingredients and incorporate by hand.



We usually add chocolate chips but this time we opted for just a few pinches of cinnamon.








I preheat my oven to 350F and spray my muffin pan with nonstick spray. I use a large icecream scoop to make consistently sized muffins.

These take 20-25 minutes.

I forgot to take an after picture! Oops! They were delicious. They rise perfectly and have great “muffin tops”!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Well welcome back to myself! I mentioned to a friend that I had a blog. I really made the comment as “past tense” but then I thought “no, I have a blog”!

My mom texted me a few days ago asking when she could drop off a pot of Irish stew. Um, you can bring that whenever is most convenient for you! Thank you very much!

Irish stew means soda bread, so she sent me her recipe.



This was so delicious that I didn’t even get a picture. My main point for this recipe is; don’t over work the dough. It’s a biscuit dough more than a bread dough. No kneading required!

This morning I woke up with two children wanting to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. After a quick google search on who he was and why we celebrate him; we decided this missionary who had over 135, 000 people come to know the Lord under his ministry and who started over 300 churches; this 1st century Billy Graham is worth celebrating. 

With left over buttermilk to use up I found this yummy recipe.

These cooked up great! For a festive touch I let the kids put chocolate chips in their own pancakes.
I was told to write down this recipe; it’s a keeper.



Liam had no time for a photo op; he needed to dive in!

These dark chocolate chips were on sale last week; so I bought them to try. What a delicious dark chocolate chip. I highly recommend them. 

Well, happy Saturday and happy St. Patrick’s day!