Coffee anyone?

It's hard to believe, but we're already more than halfway our Advent baking adventure! When I started, I had only a handful of recipes I wanted to try and a lot of uncertainty about what I'd be trying after that, but now it's looking like I'm going to run out of days before I run out of recipes. Who'd have thought?!

Today's recipe was Cinnamon-Walnut Coffee Cake from the Williams-Sonoma Baking Cookbook. I made a major modification in that I took out the walnuts, but it didn't change the final outcome. So here's the recipe:

Makes: one 9-inch square cake
Total Time: "15 Minutes Hands-On Time"

2 cups (10 oz/315 g) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 oz/125 g/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (6 oz/185 g) sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated
1 cup (8 oz/240 g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup (4 oz/125 g) walnuts, toasted and chopped

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the butter, sour cream, eggs orange zest, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and the vanilla until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until smooth.

2. In a bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon, and the walnuts. Spread half of the batter evenly in the prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with half of the walnut mixture. Top with the remaining batter, spreading it evenly, and sprinkle with the remaining walnut mixture.

3. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Let cool slightly in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Like I said, I cut the walnuts out, but I also cut the orange zest because I'm not a fan of citrus in my coffee cake. I prefer it to taste more like regular cake. And this does.

I had some slight concerns when putting the batter into the pan as it is very thick and there isn't an overabundance of it. I actually used vegetable oil spray on my hands and pressed the batter into the pan that way since it was just sticking to the spatula I was using, making things very inefficient. In fact, even using this method, it still didn't look like there would be enough batter to make any sort of normal-sized cake. But I needn't have worried, the batter smoothed and expanded just like thinner batters I've used.

Also, in keeping with recent events, I needed to bake the coffee cake 10 minutes longer than the 30 minute maximum to account for the fact that I was baking in a glass pan. Actually, 10 minutes is much better than other things I've made in glass, and I was quite satisfied that this was all the extra time required.

So it's a short and simple recipe today with short and sweet results. Now to send it off with my husband in the morning for his co-workers edible enjoyment! And don't forget to enjoy your own with a cup of your favorite coffee or tea.