Loser’s Coffee Cake Recipe

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

When the days turn crisp and the nights downright cold, is there anything more comforting than a coffee cake? Whether you indulge in a slice with your morning coffee or serve it to cap off a cozy dinner with friends, this coffee cake’s pillowy texture and cinnamon-laced sweetness seem to soothe any worries you have. If baked goods could act as therapy (and for some, maybe they do), this cake would be a distinguished psychologist sitting in a bookcase-and-leather-chair office — classic, confident, and slightly crusty.

Don’t let the cake’s dispiriting moniker fool you — there’s nothing even slightly loser-ish about this cake. Maybe the name came about because it’s so easy to make that even culinary losers could successfully bake it. You mix up the ingredients in your mixer, plop the batter in a tube or Bundt pan, and bake. Assembling the cinnamon, sugar, walnut, and chocolate chip filling takes an extra two minutes and adds no degree of difficulty to the preparation. The result is an impressive cake that makes guests squeal with excitement while you turn down their compliments with self-deprecating charm: “It’s called Loser’s Coffee Cake — I guess I couldn’t lose!”

Loser’s Coffee Cake
Serves 14-16

Dough:
½ c butter, softened
1 c sugar
2 eggs
16 oz sour cream
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Dash salt
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:
⅓ c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
¾ c chopped walnuts
¾ c chocolate chips

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Cream butter with sugar in an electric mixer.
  3. Add eggs and sour cream.
  4. Sift dry ingredients and then add to wet ingredients.
  5. Add vanilla.
  6. Combine ingredients for the filling in a small bowl.
  7. Spray a tube or Bundt pan with cooking spray and put in half the dough.
  8. Sprinkle half the filling on top of the dough.
  9. Add the rest of the dough to the pan and sprinkle with the remaining filling.
  10. Bake 50 minutes.

2 Comments

  1. Tom

    My Mom used to make this when I was growing up for special occasions and sometimes just because. It was ALWAYS a smash hit. I am so glad to have found it. Thank you for letting me be 10 again :)

    Tom

  2. michelle

    so glade tom you found this now i can try and make it and see if tastes anything like ur moms.man i miss it. so happy..

    michelle

Comments are closed.