Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

This is my first recipe from the well known book - Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, probably most famous for the "Baked Brownie" (which I have not tried yet but is on my list. After making this recipe - a classic sour cream cake with a twist - I'm eager to see what else these boys from Baked have up their sleeves, so you will likely be seeing more recipes from this book soon. The addition of cocoa to the cinnamon swirl was an unexpected yet very welcome deviation from the classic.

The cake was really moist and easy to transport too. Beware, it makes a huge cake! It's baked in a 9x13 pan but it rises so high that the end product is about 3 inches tall. I managed to cut 24 good sized servings.



Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl
9 x 13 pan | Adapted from the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Crumb Topping
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chunks (Original recipe calls for pecans)
6 tablespoons cold butter

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp cinnamon

Cake
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
16 ounces sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Crumb Topping: Put the flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like pebbly sand. Mix in the chocolate chunks. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl: Mix ingredients in small bowl.

3. Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9×13" glass baking pan. (Glass works better as the cake edges brown too quickly with metal). Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl as needed.
Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and beating only until each addition is just incorporated. Do not overmix.

4. Pour 1/3 of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering the entire surface of the batter. Spoon another 1/3 of batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with remaining swirl mixture, then the remaining 1/3 batter, and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.

5. Bake in the center of the oven for 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cover with foil if browning too quickly. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.