Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake - Sweet Weekend

Wow, this  Raspberry Chocolate Coffee Cake is great! I haven't had coffee cake in a long time. For me they are dry, and sweet yet tasteless. I actually thought that it was just the way coffee cakes were supposed to be, but after making this one, I've definitely changed my mind.

This is the densest, moistest coffee cake you’ll ever eat, made of alternating layers of rich sour-cream cake and a filling consisting of raspberries mixed with cocoa sugar. Perfect to serve for breakfast or on Sunday brunch.



Ingredients:
Cake:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups sour cream or yogurt
• melted chocolate for top of the cake

Filling:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 1/2cup raspberries (frozen or fresh), plus extra for decoration

Tip: If you don't have sour cream you may substitute some Greek style yogurt.



Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour or spray a 9- to 10- inch Bundt pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.

In the bowl of stand mixer or a heavy-duty electric hand mixer (in case you don't have a stand mixer), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy about 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add vanilla.

On low speed, in 3 additions of each, mix in the dry ingredients and sour cream, alternating the dry and wet ingredients until ingredients are just blended. Be careful not to over mix batter.



Make the filling by mixing the sugars  and cocoa powder  in a medium bowl.

Scoop in 1 ½ cups cake batter into your prepared Bundt pan and spread evenly to cover the bottom. Sprinkle one-third of the filling and scatter one-third of the raspberries over the filling. Scoop in 2 cups cake batter and spread evenly. Sprinkle one-third of the filling and scatter one-third of the raspberries over the filling. Scoop in 2 cups of cake batter and spread evenly. Sprinkle the rest of the filling and raspberries. Add the rest of the cake batter and spread evenly over the raspberries.



Bake for 50-60 minutes at 350F until a cake test inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in pan for 30 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack, remove pan and let cool completely before serving. Put melted chocolate on the top of the cake and raspberries.

Have a sweet weekend!

Kougelhopf - Fruit and Almond Ring, the Perfect Breakfast and Brunch Dessert

Kougelhopf - Fruit and Almond Ring, is the symbol of Alsace baking.

Gugelhupf, Kougloff, kougelhopf, or guglhopf are the various versions of the name of the famous yeast ring cake. The Alsatians have used this name from time immemorial, but they still do not know how to spell it, although they all agree that the cake is part of a good breakfast or something to eat with afternoon coffee. When a glass of Tokay Pinot Gris or Gewurztraminer is offered, a piece of cake should be offered too. Savory versions with diced bacon instead of currants accompany the aperitive.



Its appearance is due to the high-walled wavy mold in which it was baked. Traditional ringcake molds are fired in terracotta and are tile red. The name is derived from German, although it comes from Austria, from where Marie Antoinette brought the recipe to Versailles. An exception is the kougloff of Ribeauville, where the inhabitants claim that the originator of their ringcake was a former village baker.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp/ 30 ml kirsch
• 1 cup/ 150 g raisins or (sultanas or Malaga currants)
• 5 cups/700 g flour
• 1 oz/ 30 g compressed yeast
• 2 cups/ 500 ml lukewarm milk
• 5 eggs
• 1 tbsp/ 10 g salt
• 2/3 cup/150 g sugar
• ¾ cup/180 g soft butter
• 2 tbsp almond flakes

Directions:
Pour the kirsch over the raisins, stir, leave covered for a few hours to soak. To prepare the starter dough sieve 2 cups/300g flour into a bowl, make a hollow in the center, crumble in the yeast, pour on half the lukewarm milk and stir. Lightly knead and leave to prove for 2 hours.



Then add the remaining milk, the remaining flour, salt, sugar, and eggs to the starter dough, mix all the ingredients well and beat vigorously for at least 10 minutes, which is very important for the texture of the cake. The loose, semi-solid dough should come away from the bowl easily. Mix in the butter and knead the mixture, until it becomes a smooth, supple dough. Now add the raisins or currants and work them in until they are evenly distributed in the dough.


   
Carefully grease two ringcake molds with butter and sprinkle the almond flakes evenly in them. Fill the mold up to halfway with the dough and leave to prove in a draught-free place.

Preheat the oven to 390F/200C. Bake the kougelhopf for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the mold. When the surface is golden brown, remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool on a cake stand.

Tip: I don’t have two ring molds, so I used one ring mold and one pan for 6 small bandt cakes. Worked perfectly for me. I baked small cakes for only 15 minutes.

Persimmon Bundt Cakes (Fat Free and Vegan)

Adapted from FatFree Vegan Kichen
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups Fuyu persimmons, cubbed
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2 cup agave nectar 
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup raisins

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Oil or spray a bundt pan.
In a small bowl, mix the persimmon, lemon juice, coconut oil or apple sauce, and agave nectar. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, except for raisins. Pour the wet into the dry and mix just until all flour is moistened (do not over-mix). Fold in the raisins.



Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes, if you using a pan for one bundt cake. (My bundt pan with 6 small bundt cakes took 30 minutes.) Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the pan. Cool completely before serving.



Note: Low-fat quickbreads like this really benefit from being allowed to cool completely, which is why they often taste better the next day.