Family coffee cake

Okay, this is not Big Sis's recipe. She said "Ick" loudly and clearly when I mentioned it. Apparently my mom made it a bunch of times before I really got on the scene (I only have the vaguest of memories of it). I don't think Big Sis is being fair though--I think it's the maraschino cherries that are causing the rejection here. I made it a few weeks ago, decided it was pretty okay, but it would be much, much better with either dried sweet dark cherries or even ripe ones, if you can get your hands on them (maybe frozen would work.) Or none at all, though I kind of like the fruit kick in this one. A friend suggested peaches, which if not dried, would probably really work well. So if you try it with some other fruit, post comments!

At any rate, it's a really nicely textured and flavored coffee-cake-headed-toward-pound-cake-territory.

Mom has it labeled "German Coffee Cake."

And for kicks, I've attached a shot of the front side of mom's recipe card, so you can see what a challenge transcribing her handwriting can be. It's lovely, just some letters aren't easy to distinguish from each other. You'll note her Ks and Bs tend to resemble each other, which was quite a challenge in my childhood since she's a former librarian and used to leave us kids notes about our about-to-be-due library books. (And no, we never read it as kooks.)

Preheat oven to 350.

1 jar maraschino cherries (I don't know what size, how much fun is that? I used the small one)
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c ground walnuts (not powder-ground, small nodules)
1 t cinnamon (go higher)
4 c flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 lb (1 c) softened butter
1 t vanilla
2 c sugar
1 pt (2 c) sour cream
6 eggs

Drain cherries and cut in half (maybe even quarters). Set aside.

Mix brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. Set aside.

Toss flour, salt, baking powder and soda together. (Sift, if you want to). Set aside.


In mixing bowl, cream butter, vanilla, and sugar together. Add the sour cream. Beat until well-blended. Continue mixing, alternating additions of the flour mixture with the eggs. Beat well.

Generously grease tube pan. Pour 1/3 of the dough in, top with half the cherries and 1/2 the nut mix. Layer again, finishing with the last third of the dough.

(Pro Tip: Make sure your nut mixture doesn't reach the edges of the pan/dough. The cake will stick together with slicing WAY better if the dough has a chance to merge at the edges. I discovered this the hard way. Every slice broke into 3. Still yummy, just not quite the presentation intended.)

Bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes or until the cake tests done (i.e. toothpick or skewer inserted comes out clean). Cool before inverting and removing from pan. You may need to run a knife around the edges--I've just discovered that my beautiful Buck's filleting knife works perfectly for this purpose (even though knife aficionados are probably going into cardiac upon reading this.)