Growing up, we visited with my father's relatives almost every weekend. These visits revolved around eating. On some visits -- if the cake, lunch, snacks and treats weren't enough -- my great uncle would send us home with a sour cream coffee cake, carefully wrapped in foil, and tucked neatly into an empty cereal box.
This, along with his vegetable soup, was one of his iconic recipes. No one knew how to make it.
Going through his apartment this past fall, I looked for recipes. I found a few of them -- though not for the soup, which he'd learned to make in the Russian army. There were variations on variations on variations for the sour cream cake -- handwritten and clipped from the New York Times Magazine, among other publications. Of course, the handwritten version lacks any direction; it's a list of ingredients only.
This past Yom Kippur, I made two versions of the cake. One came out super flat and buttery -- that was the New York Times's version. The other, pictured above, was puffy the first day, but sank somewhat the next. Partly that's because it calls for baking powder and baking soda, but also because I substituted tofu for some the sour cream. The point is, both versions were tasty, but need further refining -- especially as I'm trying to turn this parve.
Stay tuned for further experiments with the sour cream cake this fall. The roadblock -- as with all cooking experiments -- is that one must literally eat one's experiments. (My faithful companion/photographer isn't one to shy away from dessert -- this is the person who orders six (6!) cider donuts at a time, and finishes them on the way home -- but even he has his limits.)
Batter:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 pint sour cream (** I substituted soft tofu for part of this)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
Topping:
1/2 cup crumbled walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
Directions:
Combine dry ingredients
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. When well blended -- you can do this by hand, people -- add eggs and vanilla.
Add about half the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir. Then add part of the sour cream. Alternate between the sour cream and the dry ingredients until it's all mixed together.
Butter a 9 1/2 x 11 inch baking dish; pour in the batter.
For the toppping, combine the nuts, cinnamon, and sugar, and spread evenly over the top.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes (ish) -- but keep your eye on it, and be sure to take it out of the oven as soon as a testing fork comes out clean.
