Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Orange & Chocolate
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It took 32 years for me to start listening to my mother. I’m only just beginning to understand how annoying this must have been, only just appreciating how many gray hairs I may have caused, only just accepting how many wrinkles I may have induced.
The other day I asked Ella (my four-year old) to help me pick up a mess she created, and she said: “Um, you can just do it all by yourself.” I’ve read enough self-help parenting books to know that freaking out is not the appropriate reaction to this response, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to strangle her.
I have it in for me. Every time Ella yells: “No Mom, I’m telling you a question!” I think of my poor mother and all the times she offered advice only to receive pushback.
Why was it so hard for me to just say, “Yes! Of course! That’s a great idea!” every time my mother told me to “Enunciate!” or to “Eat [my] greens!” or to “Put [my] shoulders back!”?
Why couldn’t I have just said, “You’re right,” when she told me the best chickens come from her kosher market, the best lamb from Australia?
Why couldn’t I have just smiled when she told me not to frown?
Because she is right. She is ALWAYS right.
And for this, I have started to listen: I now save all of my receipts. I keep a journal. I floss. I salvage the juices from that roasted kosher chicken, and I cook potatoes in those juices on subsequent nights. They are the best potatoes in the world.
And it seems her granddaughter is listening, too: Yesterday, Ella dropped a box of toothpicks all over the floor and asked for help picking it up because she was too tired to do it all by herself. As I knelt on the ground next to her, she looked at me and said, “Many hands make light work.” Yes they do, Ella. Yes they do. My mother would be so proud.
…or chopped chocolate. This Guittard chocolate is delicious:
Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Orange & Chocolate
- Total Time: 1 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
Description
Inspired by a recipe in More From Macrina
Notes: The original recipe calls for an orange syrup, a chocolate glaze, almonds, and a number of other ingredients/changes, so please check out the original if you are looking for the Macrina version.
I absolutely love this cake — the texture is super moist, and the orange zest and juice offer the nicest complement to the chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1¾ (224 g) cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 (114 g) cup sugar
- 1/2 (116 g) cup light brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed (or not) orange juice
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup butter, melted
- a scant cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate from a bar
Instructions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325˚F. Grease two 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pans or a bundt pan with butter or nonstick spray.
- Whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix in the orange zest with your fingers until evenly distributed. Set aside.
- Whisk together the orange juice, vanilla, eggs, and sour cream in a separate medium bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Whisk wet and dry ingredients together. Pour in melted butter and stir to combine. Fold in chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the cake is golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. If you have an instant-read thermometer, it should register 200ºF. Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a plate.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 – 60 minutes
- Category: Quick Bread
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
146 Comments on “Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Orange & Chocolate”
My mom always reminds me to be the bigger person if I am able.
The stories about Ella are just too sweet 🙂 Moms really are always right! And because I’m clearly becoming more and more like my mother every day, I’m so glad she’s an amazing lady 🙂 Such a great post! Coconut, orange and chocolate?…. YES. I say, Mother’s Day Brunch here we come!
My mom always told me to carry at least $20 in cash, at least 50c in quarters, and a blank check in my wallet along with my normal credit/debit/ID cards in case I find a place that doesn’t take one form of payment. I still do, even though the quarters were for payphones which I never find anymore. I doubt I’ll ever stop!
Always take off your makeup every night! 🙂
When I was young, my mom also told me not to make mean faces because then my face would freeze that way!
Be kind to others because you never know what they may be struggling with.
My grandmother always had a glass of tea and a pie at the ready, was always cooking the next meal, had readers digest condensed books by the bedside and let me sleep on the porch…you never know how much you will miss these things later in life…’busy hands are happy hands’. Happy Mother’s Day grandma! <3 I love u!
My mom taught me to do the dishes as you cook so there will be less to clean in the end.
my mom told us – “Life is not a dress rehearsal”
“Layer/Bundle up. Better to be too warm and able to take off a hat or sweater, than be too cold and have nothing to add.”
My Mama was a funny woman and I learned many things from her. Always wear clean underwear in case you’re in an accident. ♥
My Mom always told me not to knit my brows. Now my wrinkles scream at me every day: “Your Mom was right!”.
My mom taught me to bring a book with me everywhere I went to stave off boredom. Many a book have I finished in a doctor’s office!
Best advice or rather maxim from my mom is to write out all of the things you want to say to someone when you are angry at that person, and then to wait a couple of hours. If you’re angry, you’re allowed to pick half of what you would actually say to this person. Every time I’ve done this, I actually don’t end up saying anything I wrote to the person but make peace in a much kinder way
The bread looks delicious!
Some good advice I received from a mother-like figure is to never speak ill of your boyfriend or husband to others, especially if they’ve never met. It does not reflect well on you, and leaves a sour impression in their mind of your significant other.
Mom always told me to wear a hat, but it’s only as an adult could I acknowledge that she was right – much warmer in winter and much cooler in the sun!
My mom always taught me to make more food than you think necessary when either hosting or bringing something to a party. No one will go hungry and you can always bless someone with leftovers!
My mom taught me to respect food, never to waste any.
My mom always said, “do what I say, not what I do”. The phrase comes in handy!
The advice I was given was to enjoy life because it goes by so fast. Boy was she right. The years just fly by!
My mom told us,”If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all”. And she practiced what she preached.
These pictures look delicious! My mother always came to us and asked for forgiveness and it has taught me to do the same to other people I have wronged. Mothers, never doubt that your little ones are watching you. 🙂
My mom taught me that as long as I had some kind of tape and a stapler I could hem anything. 🙂
A few minutes ago, my mother advised me to make this coffee cake for our book club tomorrow. That’s advice I’ll definitely follow. Though I suppose the best advice my mother ever gave me was not to buy something “unless it makes you do a little dance.” Her three daughters, myself included, have used this as a guide for many life choices, shopping-related and otherwise.
My grandmother told me to always read through the recipe first. Make sure you have all of the ingredients and that you have the time and knowledge to follow through with the recipe. It has helped! Although sometimes I have forgotten to take her advice and end up messing up a recipe!
sellcrystal2 at yahoo dot com
My mother was a retailer and always prided herself with finding the best bargains. Her advice was to never purchase anything at full price; everything goes on sale eventually. I am my mother’s daughter–just went shopping with MY daughter and saved a bundle with coupons and a sale.
Try as I might, I can’t be like my mother who is just always happy and not things about the bad stuff. I try to attempt to carry it on though.
Besides be humble and when you think you have done enough you could always do more, my mom said to always clean as you go in the kitchen. I never realized how important it was until I went to Culinary School and now I am really organized in the kitchen at home and at work!
My mother always says you get more with sugar than vinegar!! And Kill em with kindness.
She taught me that when things go wrong in life to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and carry on. It could always be worse.
my mother taught me that food is meant to be shared around the table with friends and family. she believes that the food and the experience are better when there is someone to share it with.