Walnut Maple Coffee Cake
Serves 6-8
This beautiful coffee cake is fragrant with maple and vanilla. It's perfect for a fall brunch, but will be welcome at any time of day.
The recipe produces a taller cake than a standard 9” cake pan will accommodate, so you’ll want to use a springform pan.
Ingredients #
For the crumb mixture: #
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 cup walnuts, toasted and cooled
- 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ¾ stick (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
For the cake: #
- 2 cups flour
- 1¼ tsp. baking powder
- ¾ tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- A pinch of ground cinnamon
- A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. maple syrup
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- ¾ cup sour cream
Instructions #
Make the crumb mixture: #
In a food processor, combine the flour, walnuts, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt. Pulse until the nuts are ground and the mixture is crumbly. Add the syrup and pulse until combined well.
Make the cake: #
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9” springform pan.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a mixing bowl.
In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter with the brown sugar until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Beat in the maple syrup and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Add the flour mixture in parts, alternating with the sour cream, until both are fully added and incorporated.
Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly across the bottom. If the spoon is too sticky to do this effectively on the floured pan, wet your fingers with cold water and pat the batter into place. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture evenly over the batter and then spread the remaining batter on top of the crumb mixture. Top the cake evenly with the remaining crumb mixture.
Bake the cake in the center of a preheated oven for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 5-10 minutes, and then release the sides of the springform pan and transfer the cake from the pan’s bottom to the rack. Let cool until it is slightly warm or room temperature.
This cake can be made the day before; wrap it tightly in plastic wrap once it’
Dust with confectioner’s sugar before slicing and serving.