BEACHHOUSE COFFE CAKE

 

BEACH HOUSE COFFEE CAKE

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For summers my family vacations close to home, at the beach thirty minutes away and yet worlds away. It is a shack. Walls and wood that should have rotted right into the sea by now still stand wobbly and splintered. It was the first beach house built on this beach and pictures on the wall boast this small shack alone with sand and sea for miles. It is a special place and as houses go this one has a personality of little pretense, deep modesty and a survivalist spirit. I am fond of places like this.

The kitchen is small. The shelves are packed with mismatched pieces from cooking bowls and cast iron pans, to mugs and plates. Random countertop appliances appear every year and take up space that just isn’t there. It all survives and gets shuffled here and there to make room for the bags of groceries and piles of sandwich rolls and buttermilk bread. Essentials of plastic trash bags, dish detergent, and condiments in the fridge remain from the last vacationers as well as the trash day reminder. And Emily always leaves oranges in a bowl on the table.

Beach house cooking is basic in essence but full of adventurous spirit. Meals are simple and often regular everyday staples laced with the uncertainty of the unfamiliar kitchen. Where are the knives? The potholders, dishtowels? Is there a mixing bowl? They must have spices? Damn, no vanilla! Wait, no baking powder?! Cake pan? Ants!!! So many ants!!! That skillet won’t get hot! I baked that for way over the intended time and it’s still underbaked! Oh no, it’s burnt! That didn’t rise right. Who left the freezer open! More bacon?!!

Toast might be the perfect solution to everything, but there is also coffee cake if one dare to venture forth. And if you find yourself in an unfamiliar kitchen I hope you do dare to delve into the spirit of the unknown. It can go drastically wrong and most often will but what a fabulous story to tell.

beachhouse coffee cake

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beachhouse coffee cake 〰️

 
 
 

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup sour cream, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla,

1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/3 cup sugar,

1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup chopped nuts (almond, walnut, pecan) , butter for greasing pan

 
 

PROCESS

  1. Combine the sour cream and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside

  2. Grease your pan with warm butter

  3. In a large bowl or kitchen mixer cream the stick of room temperature butter with the cup of sugar

  4. Add the eggs one at a time and mix

  5. add vanilla

  6. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together

  7. add the dry mixture and the sour cream alternately to the batter. Start with dries and end with dries

  8. mix together the 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, cinnamon and chopped nuts

  9. fill cake pan with batter

  10. cut the sugar cinnamon nut mixture into the batter with a knife

  11. bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until a thin knife is inserted into the cake and comes out clean