The Friday Baking Project
Budapest Coffee Cake

Yield: 1 10“ cake

# of servings: 10

Method: Creaming

Ingredients

Nut filling:

¾ cup (5.25 oz / 149 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 tsp (.15 oz / 4 g) ground cinnamon

1 tbl (.2 oz / 6 g) cocoa powder

3 tbl (.9 oz / 26 g) currants

1 cup (4 oz / 114 g) chopped walnuts

Cake batter: 

3 cups less 2 tbl (12.75 oz / 362 g) all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp (.3 oz / 9 g) baking powder
1 ½ tsp (.3 oz / 9 g) baking soda
½ tsp (.1 oz / 3 g) salt

¾ cup (6 oz / 170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cup (10.65 oz / 302 g) sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups sour cream

Icing: 

2 cups (7.65 oz / 217 g) confectioners’ sugar

3 tbl warm water

Special tools and equipment needed:

• One 12-cup Bundt or tube pan
• Hand held or free-standing mixer with paddle attachment.
• 21†pastry bag with a .56“ plain tip (Ateco #807)

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Butter the Bundt or tube pan, or place a can of release spray with flour¹ by your work area.
• Bring butter, eggs, and sour cream to room temperature

Directions

Nut filling: 

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, and combine well. 
2. Set aside. 

Cake batter:

1. Stir dry ingredients together in mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. On medium speed, cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. 
3. Beat eggs and vanilla together. 
4. Add eggs in 3 stages, beating until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with plastic spatula and beat until smooth.
5. On lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in three stages, alternately with the sour cream mixture in two stages, beginning and ending with the dry. Use a plastic spatula to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and mix. Note – this is a fairly stiff batter. 

Assembly and baking:  

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F

1. If using baker’s spray with flour instead of butter, spray the pan well. 
2. Pipe or spread just under one third of the batter into the pan. 
3. Mix the filling to evenly distribute the walnuts. Spread a layer of the nut filling on top of the batter. You want some of the filling to touch the sides of each well, as this adds to the appearance after baking.
4. Pipe or spread another layer of the batter over the nut filling. Use a small offset spatula to spread the batter over any spots where the filling is showing through.
5. Continue by spreading another layer of the nut filling, and then the final layer of batter. There will be three layers of cake and two of filling. 
6. Rap the pan of the counter to eliminate any air pockets.
7. Bake until firm to the touch and golden brown, approximately 50 to 55 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.  Place a cooling rack over the pan and flip upside down for the cake to release onto the rack. Let cool right side up.

Finishing: 

1. Place confectioners’ sugar in medium mixing bowl.  Whisk in the water. The icing should be thick, but still be able to fall from a spoon. If too thick, add a few additional drops of water. If too thin, add more sugar at tablespoon at a time. 
2. The icing can be drizzled over the cake with a teaspoon, or piped over using a small pastry bag. 
3. Alternatively, the cake may simply be finished with a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar. 
4. Store at room temperature. Cake may be frozen. 

Notes:

¹  Use only a spray with flour, which are formulated for baking pan release.  Examples are Baker’s Joy or Pam for Baking.  Regular cooking sprays, such as Pam, should not be used as they will leave a residue on the pan. 

Baker’s tips:

• Classic Bundt pans are available directly from Nordic Ware:  Bronze Cast Bundt ® Pan – Nordic Ware or Toffee Original Bundt ® Pan – Nordic Ware.