Wellesley Coffee Cake--from Fran's Favorite's Cookbook

Coffee cakes were a staple in Polish kitchens in the Detroit area when I was a boy. You could find a bakery every couple of blocks. Many of the coffee cakes were yeast-based, but others were cheese, nut, or fruit-filled.

I baked a Wellesley Coffee Cake the other day. It’s a rich sour cream coffee cake with pecan streusel running through it. Fellow Aramcons (Arabian American Oil Company) who worked in Saudi Arabia may recognize it from a cookbook, Fran's Favorites, written by Frances Swingholm. All of her recipes were fabulous! They are my favorite type of recipes--hearty and homey! Enjoy!

Wellesley Coffee Cake--A fabulous sour cream coffee cake with pecan streusel.

Wellesley Coffee Cake

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add sour cream, vanilla and almond extract and mix well. 

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and add. 

Place one third of the batter in a well-greased and floured (I used baking spray and it worked perfectly) Bundt or tube pan. Sprinkle with one half of the nut mixture. Add one third of the batter, then the rest of the nut mixture and the rest of the batter. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until cake tests done. 

Cool for about 15 minutes. Place plate on top of cake and flip cake over on to plate. 

Optional: When cool dust with confectioners' sugar.

Nut mixture:

4 teaspoons sugar

1 cup pecans, chopped

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon

Combine nuts with sugar and cinnamon.