Oh boy.

Baked is the name of a bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn that is worth a visit next time you are in NYC. Baked is also the title of a cookbook that the bakery recently published, which has been getting lots of press. With good reason—it is exceptional. And perhaps most exceptional of all is their Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Swirl. It is a dream come true.

The cake is moist and tender with swirls of cocoa and cinnamon and the crumb topping is exactly right—not too overwhelming but just gives that cake that extra crunch it needs. It is a recipe I will make again and again.

So far, I have also made a spicy version of Baked’s brownies as well as the raspberry breakfast bars, both of which were posted over at Smitten Kitchen. They were both great. The book is full of good recipes, even though it is a little heavy on chocolate for my taste. For those of us that are already fans of the bakery we will be happy to make some of our favorite recipes at home. The rest of you will be inspired to venture out to Red Hook next time you are in New York.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

Crumb Topping

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup pecans, toasted
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cake

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 16 ounces sour cream
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in bowl of food processor and pulse to combine. Add the pecans and pulse until they are finely chopped and incorporated. Add the butter and pulse until mixture looks like coarse sand. Cover and refrigerate.

Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl:

Mix ingredients in small bowl.

Sour Cream Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl as needed.

Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat just until incorporated.  Add the dry ingredients in three additions, scraping down the bowl before each addition and beating only until each addition is just incorporated. Do not overmix.

Pour one third of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Use an offset spatula to spread batter evenly in pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate cinnamon swirl mixture over batter, covering the entire surface of the batter. Spoon half of remaining batter over the swirl mixture and spread it evenly. Top with remaining swirl mixture, then the remaining batter, and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top of the batter.

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

Notes:

The recipe originally called for 2 1/4 cups sugar in the cake. That seemed like too much so I reduced it to 2 this first go around. I think you could even try 1 3/4.

Spreading the batter in the pan takes some patience. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just do your best to get each layer evenly spread.

This seems to keep well at room temperature for a couple of days.