Saturday, February 1, 2014

Pecan Toffee Coffee Cake for Gramma's Birthday

Last week was my mum's (Gramma as she'll be known from here on out) birthday, but she went to her parents' to celebrate (yes, you sense a little jealousy) so Adrian suggested we make her dinner this week (what a great, caring husband I have!). Naturally, I kept at the idea, partially because I know she'd appreciate it and she's done so much for us and there's no way I could pay her back, and I love her so very very much, and partially because I really wanted to try out a cake from The Sweet Kitchen that I knew she'd love!



I was right. This cake was amazing. Very sweet, very good.

I have to admit, i've been spoiled with our Kitchenaid mixer. I made this cake at Gramma's house, so that when she came home from work, her place would smell amazing! However, this meant that I had to mix by hand (oh no! the horror!). But seriously, it was harder, a little less enjoyable. Still fun though!


Whew… by this time, I was sweating...
It's a nutmeg-y sour cream toffee pound cake with a toasted pecan, toffee, cinnamon and brown sugar filling in two layers! Yum!!


Ready to start putting it together! The bundt pan is oiled AND floured. I've never seen that before, but it worked really well!

The first layer of filling. You pour 1/3 of the batter into the pan, then make a trough in the middle of it and pour in half the filling, making sure not to let it touch the sides of the pan.

 Ready to bake!
Incredibly easy to make, as are all of her recipes so far, a little tricky to put together. I'm not too familiar with cakes yet, and as you can see, I don't think I cooked it long enough at first - 50 minutes at 350. The other option, after some problem solving, is that I didn't let it cool enough on a rack in the pan, before attempting to remove it from said pan. Luckily, Adrian helped me get it back in the bundt pan so I could bake it for another 10 minutes. It came out much nicer after that, but I have to admit, I was very disappointed it didn't look nice... I'm still really working on presentation... I've got taste down pat…

Looks done, right?

Boo…. It fell apart taking it out of the pan...
Another disappointment with this recipe was having to buy instant coffee powder... I died a little bit, being the coffee nut I am. I don't know if there is any good stuff, but I'm not jazzed with the cheap brand I bought... Worth a bit more research…

There were no complaints from mum or Adrian, and she even brought the left over to a staff meeting the next day and apparently they all liked it too! Haha so I guess it's just me being picky.



4 comments:

  1. So important to keep the family recipes going. This sounds delicious Ericka

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  2. This looks really good. I must try it.

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  3. Kim, good luck! Haha I hope you have better luck getting it out of the pan than I did… :-)

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  4. When it comes to baking I think whipped cream can cover a multitude of sins.

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