Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Orange & Chocolate
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
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”
We love your blog at The Cook’s Cook magazine. We will feature it as our next Blog of the Week. Keep up the great work!
The best advice my mom every gave me was not to be afraid of being different, to do my own thing!
My mom always carried sea salt in her purse, which I thought was crazy, but now I do the same thing. Tiny Maldon tins are a lifesaver.
When I got married, my mother advised me not to eat crackers in bed…she said it does not make for a comfortable night’s sleep.
To always apply sunscreen for beautiful and cancer free skin.
My mom always told us to help out any elderly people and to respect them. I think it’s an awesome advice.
I’m not sure if your giveaway is open to Canadians (just in case: always make space in your life for something you enjoy), but that recipe looks amazing!
Photos that old friends have posted of me on Facebook from high school has confirmed that my mother was right, I looked much better when I wasn’t wearing baggy Tshirts with pictures of waterfalls and fairies on them in my Grateful Dead phase.
My mother and I have different ideas of the best advice she has given me over the years. According to her, our grandfather neglected to pass down these critical messages to her: “get your wisdom teeth removed” and “buy real estate” while you’re young. However, the best advice she has ever given me is “you can only control your own happiness, and no one else’s.” These wise words have helped me more than she knows. I love my mom!
The best advice my Mother ever gave me was always be myself because other people are boring 😉
My mom enjoys weighing in on many subjects, but I think most of all, she wishes I’d wear lipstick more often.
both the cake and the goodie bag look delicious.
some of the best advice i got from my mom and ignored for a long time was to not pay attention to what other people thought about me. there was also a lot of “drink your milk”, “wear your hair down”, “don’t be so negative”… you really do appreciate your own mother so much more when you become a mother yourself!
happy mother’s day to you and to your mom who i adore!
My mother tells me to be present. That we cannot change the past, or predict the future. We must live presently and enjoy each day as it comes. Great advice!
I just made this in a 9×5 inch loaf pan and it’s perfect! I cooked it for 60 minutes because I was afraid the center wasn’t cooked through and it’s a tiny bit overdone on the edges. I think next time I would throw caution to the wind and take it out at 55 minutes.
My mother died when I was 21 and sadly there is little from her life that I would want for my own. But I’m now a mother of 3 grown kids and a new grand-baby and my advice to them (learned from many years of experiences) is to be grateful. Learning to acknowledge the good things in my life – however small and seemingly incidental – has gotten me through some pretty tough times and made the good times even better.
Lindsay, your words have given me the chills. Thank you so much for sharing them. You are the winner of the giveaway! I will email you. So happy you like this!
My mom gave me the best guy advice “when he’s interested hes interested, and you’ll know it!”
Mom handed out lots of advice, I promptly ignored most of it. But most the most helpful… Happiness is a choice. Second only to Never be dependent on a man, be able to take care of yourself so you always have options.
My mom advises to hold on to the friends you made when you were young – they will know you like no other.
My mom always said, “Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.” I chuckle about that when I hear someone say there are no stupid questions. Let’s face it, sometimes there are. 🙂
“Crying can be good exercise for them.”
When my oldest daughter was a baby she had colic – for six months. Six. Months. Around month two I was about to break when she advised me to not fret over her crying so much because “crying is good exercise for her lungs. You should go sit on the stoop for a few minutes while she is in her crib safely exercising.”
I am so glad I listened to her. I don’t know how I would have ever made it through those extremely challenging months of near-constant screaming had I not allowed myself to be ok with let her go for a few minutes. When I returned, I was much more able to soothe & comfort her than before I left. It was my first lesson on how necessary it is for mommas (& caregivers of all stripes!) to get rest.
Although my Mom passed away when I was 18 years of age, she had a profound influence on how I live my life everyday. She taught me to be truthful and loyal; two qualities she embodied.
My mom allows me to be myself. Of course she offers her advice, but in the end she is always proud of my choices and who I have become.
She taught me not to sweat the small stuff during high school when everything seemed so urgent and upsetting. I remember her tip today.
My mom always says that we are put on this earth to serve, and not to be served.
i’m stumped to come up w/ any good advice from my mom.
My mother implicitly provides advice just by living her life in an organized, productive, thoughtful, kind, and generous way. But when asked, she gave me this advice: “Drink champagne!”
That is the best advice ever. Love it!
What do you think of butter instead of coconut oil? Would it be okay? Would it be a one-to-one sub or a bit less butter?
Yes! I would do a one-to-one sub. I’ve been meaning to try this myself.
“do what feels right”
I love your post, it is so true.
And this cake is wonderful. I just reduced the amount of sugar and put less coconut oil (1/2 cup), because my sour cream was really fat (my uncle brought me one from his neighbour’s farm 🙂 ). Very nice cake, my kids loved it (and so do I).
So happy to hear this! And that sour cream sounds luscious. Yum.
Did *I* write this? Wow, you’ve expressed what I thought since becoming a mom. It would just be so easy to do what Mom says, wouldn’t it? I cannot wait to try that coffee cake. Have a great day!
This looks delicious. Not a huge fan of adding orange or lemon to cakes, breads or muffins, what else would you recommend? Vanilla? I’d also like to add currants or fresh cherries (would dried cherries be better)? Tks for your thoughts and recommendations.
Hi Kathryn,
I would either just omit the zest or, as you suggest, use vanilla. Dried currants or cherries sound delicious — love the idea of dried sour cherries. I worry about fresh, but that’s just because I don’t bake with fresh cherries very often, so I don’t really know how they behave. Hope it turns out well!