Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

I found this recipe at http://www.ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/ .   I adjusted it a bit to lower the fat content.

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

Crumb Topping:

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup hazelnuts or wal-nuts
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1" pieces (I used light butter)

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cake:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened (or 1 cup applesauce)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs (I used only the whites)
16 ounces sour cream (I used low-fat)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine.  Add the nuts and pulse until they are finally copped and incorporated.  Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand.  Cover and refrigerate.

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:

Mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  I put more cocoa.  You can never have too much :)

Sour Cream Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350.  Butter a 9X13 inch baking pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.

In another mixing bowl cream butter (or use applesauce) until smooth.  Add sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Beating well after each addition.  Add the sour cream and vanilla.  Beat just until incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients in three additions, beating only until each addition is incorporated.  Do not overmix.

Spread 1/3 of the cake batter into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle 1/2 of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering entire surface of the batter.

Spoon 1/2 of the remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. 

Top with remaining swirl mixture then the remaining batter.  Spread batter evenly.

Sprinkle with the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Let the cake cool for 30 minutes.  Serves 16.

Results:

My oldest, Kaylee, walked in the door from the school bus as I was taking this out of the oven.  It smelled so good, that she wanted a piece right away and was almost begging me to cut it.  I told her it had to cool and she checked back at least 10 times before it was cool enough to give her a piece.

She LOVED it!  She had 2 pieces last evening, a piece for breakfast this morning before school and there is a piece here for her after-school snack.

I took the cake to share at Prayer Meeting/Bible Study last night.  That is where I had my first piece and it was still just a tiny bit warm.  Yummm....  Especially the nutty/buttery crumb topping.  The applesauce gave it just a tiny hint of apple flavor that in no way detracted from the cake, only added to it.

Putting the cake together was a little bit involved because I had to break out my large food processor (my small one was, too small).  I hadn't used it yet so I had some figuring out to do.  But other than that, this was definitely a great recipe and I would recommend trying it out.

Let me know if you do!

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