Ok, don’t look at me like that.
Stop it. I know! I’ve been on….leave? Or let’s call it pre-leave.
Well, you try growing a baby in your belly while being repulsed by every smell (every single smell) you encounter and bake and act like you like it. Try it. Dare you. PS. dont’ mess with me, I have hormones.
Here, I made this. So….
And its’ Gooooouuuuud. It’s brought to you by Christmas and Ms. Martha Stewart. And the letter B.
Christmas because I got a butt/boat load of baking supplies and a smantzy camera for Christmas and Ms. Stewart because she thought up this swirly bob. And I’ll get to ‘B’, just hold on a minute.
And they are Serious about the Ultimate-ness of this cake. Watch.
Lots of everything. Including 2 kinds glorious sugar.
All of this butterness.
I could seriously just eat one of those slices straight up. Pregnancy is weird.
Hello pre-prepared pecan pieces out of the package! Thank you for your existence. Thank you.
The more you cut them up, the easier it is to smoosh them into the dry ingredients. And it’s not like a pie crust, so don’t worry about keeping the butter super cold. The recipe called for “softened” butter, but I wouldn’t go that far.
Work it out.
Till it’s streuselly.
Mix it up and now you have the biggest bowl of streusel your have ever made. And you will use it all!
Now time for the cake part.
Sift the dry like you do.
And then play with the functions on your new camera and get an action shot.
Sugar and butter getting together.
Lovely.
Add the eggs one at at time and let them incorporate. You know this. Remember the vanilla.
And this is not an ad for Kitchen Aid. I just need to learn how to focus my camera.
How do you say ‘eggs’? Do you say it the right way? Ehggs. Or the terribly wrong way? Aaeggs. What about the word ‘measure’? Mehsure or Maysure?
There will be a quiz later.
This is a good situation. Nothing can go wrong with a bright blue full fat sour cream container nearby.
Start and end with the flour, but alternate the flour with the sour cream.
And if you watch Ms. Stewart’s video (which is on the left column of the recipe’s webpage). Whatever you do, don’t over mix the batter. If you do, I think she’ll come over to your house and crack some eggs in your face right after she lectures you and your cat on the science of gluten.
Add 1/2 of the batter to your new Christmas swirly bundt pan.
And just know that all that streusel will ultimately end up in and on your cake. (see what I did there?)
So far you have: batter and streusel. Half way done.
Then add the rest of the batter. It’s a good batter. Really dense. Or maybe I just over mixed it.
Uh-oh.
Then top with the remaining streusel.
The other living creatures in my house (1 human, 1 canine) emerge from wherever they were at this point and enter the vicinity of where this is happening.
See the streusel layer in the middle?
This is a good thing.
This is where I got a bit creative and added my own twist on the icing. Think confectioners sugar, browned butter, vanilla, milk. Mmm-hmm.
Many thanks to my handsome drizzling assistant. Excellent job!
Fully iced.
Fully delicious.
Oh and for the ‘B’. It’s a boy!
From Martha Stewart with an adapted Icing
For The Pecan-Streusel Filling
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
For The Cake
Nonstick cooking spray with flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream
For The Icing
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of browned butter
Enough almond milk for desired thickness
Directions
Make the filling: Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves in a medium bowl. Stir in
granulated sugar, flour, and salt. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, cut in butter until
combined and mixture is crumbly; stir in nuts. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a 10-inch Bundt pan (or other tube pan with a 3-quart capacity) with cookingspray; set aside.
- Make the cake: Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl;set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter andgranulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time,
beating until well combined. Beat in vanilla. Add reserved flour mixture and sour
cream in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour; beat just until
combined. Spoon half the batter into prepared pan. Make a well in the center, and
crumble two-thirds of the streusel mixture into well. Spoon in remaining batter,
smoothing top; sprinkle with remaining streusel. Bake until golden brown and a cake
tester comes out clean, about 1 hour. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 45 minutes;
invert cake onto a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar, butter, vanilla and milk untilcombined; set icing aside, cover with plastic wrap, until ready to use. Drizzle over
inverted cake; serve.
Love the look of this! And congratulations on your baby boy!
I love it! And YAY for a boy! We need some more of those around here
. It’s nice to see you back, er…around this website and such. 