I made a coffee cake! It has been a long, hot summer. The heat finally broke with a big rain storm last week and I was struck with the mood to bake. I browsed Grandma Clarke’s recipe box for something simple and sweet. Coffee cake was the perfect answer!
The recipe that I found is for a sour cream coffee cake. One of the ingredients is a cup of sour cream mixed with some baking soda, which activates the baking soda and fizzes like a little science experiment! Very cute.
A word of warning: I can’t vouch for the actual baking time on this recipe! My oven typically runs hot, so I’ll shave off a few minutes from Grandma’s suggested time or bake to the lowest time in a provided range. This recipe suggests 40-45 minutes, so I baked my cake for 40 minutes. I let it cool, cut off a slice from the end for my little photoshoot… and it wasn’t until I cut deeper into the loaf later that I found a gooey center!
If you try this recipe, please let me know how it turns out for you. I’d love to be able to update this post with more data!
Coffee Cake
Topping
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Mix ingredients together in a small bowl
Set aside
Batter

- 1 cup white sugar
- ¼ cup margarine
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 cup sour cream with 1 cup baking soda added to it
Cream together white sugar and margarine
Add 2 eggs and mix well
Stir in sour cream and 1 tsp baking soda (mixture)
Mix baking powder in the flour and stir into above mixture
Pour half the mixture into bottom of a (greased) loaf pan
Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture (topping) over this
Add rest of batter, then rest of sugar mixture
Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes
[Editor’s note: I recommend longer! I’ll be baking mine for 50 minutes next time.]
