Grandma Schroeder’s Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I can’t believe I haven’t shared this recipe yet! It is a true family favorite. It goes waaaay back. It’s a tangy coffee cake with a center layer of cinnamon and brown sugar; cinnamon and brown sugar are on the top, too. This moist cake is nice as a breakfast or coffee-break treat, but it’s also excellent as a dessert.

Several nearly identical copies of this recipe exist in Grandma Schroeder’s collection. Two of them appear as pictures in this blog post. This is one right here:

Plus, Dad got a copy, and I made a copy of his. This is a really good cake. I’m sharing my version of the recipe, which creams the butter and sugar first, then adds the eggs, then adds the sour cream and vanilla (all the wets) then adds the combined dry ingredients.

I think a few tips are in order. You should have a plan for constructing this cake: you will need to spread half of the sticky batter into a 9 x 9 pan, then sprinkle a crumbly layer of brown sugar, white sugar, and cinnamon on that, then spread the second half of the sticky batter on top of that, before sprinkling again with the sugar-cinnamon mix. This is problematic: the sticky batter is hard to handle and spread, and it can be next to impossible to try to spread the second half of the batter across the first, crumbly layer of cinnamon-sugar. Here are some ideas:

• If you have an offset spatula, this is a perfect time to use it.
• Try dipping your spatula in a pitcher or tumbler of warm water to keep batter from sticking to it.
• Or, just use your immaculately clean, damp hands to pat down and even out the first layer.
• It’s a good idea to use slightly less batter for the lower layer (it gives you more batter to play with as you try to cover the sugar with the second layer).
• To apply the second layer of batter, start by doling it out in portions atop the cinnamon-sugar. Then, spread those portions with the spatula or with your hands, joining the blobs together.

Remember, Grandma made this all the time, and she wasn’t fussy. It really doesn’t matter if that middle layer is perfect. The cake is delicious no matter what.

Make sugar mix and set aside:

• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Then make the cake batter:

Cream together:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick oleo

Beat in:

• 2 eggs

Then add the rest of the wet ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients:

• 2 cup. flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt

Combine the wet and dry ingredients to make the batter.

Pour half the batter into a buttered pan [9 x 9; if you use 9 x 13, it is harder to spread out the two layers]. Sprinkle with half the sugar mixture; pour the remainder of the batter and sprinkle remainder of the sugar on top.

Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes, or until done. [Note that some versions of the recipe have it at 325°F; your oven may vary.]

Celebrate German Heritage Recipe #2: Apfelkuchen

Oh, man, there’s a whole world of great German desserts out there, and even just the “kuchens” come in all varieties and forms. (Well, that’s not surprising, when you consider that kuchen means “cake,” and of course we have ten thousand types of cakes—sheet cakes, pancakes, crab cakes, coffee cakes, ice cream cakes, rice cakes, etc.)

So there are a ton of different ways to make “apfelkuchen,” or “apple cake”; this is just one version—but I think you’ll like it.

It’s a nice, easy, little apple cake recipe from my Grandma Schroeder’s best friend in the whole wide world, her crony from early girlhood through their entire lives, Marie (Weigand) Korsmeyer, born February 19, 1904.

Their friendship resembled a “Lucy and Ethel” relationship in some ways; it was beautiful, lively, fun-filled, and true. I think whenever their shenanigans ended with “trouble,” they generally wound up having a good laugh over it.

Grandma and Marie were practically sisters, growing up together here on Elm Street; to my dad and his brothers, Marie was another aunt. And to me, she was in the same category as my great aunts Minnie and Esther, and cousin Marguerite, in that same age group . . . No family get-together was complete without Marie’s cackling laughter.

She passed away on October 4, 1999—almost exactly ten years ago. Hard to believe we’ve been this long without her. (*Sigh.*)




. . . Okay, back to Marie’s apple cake. Notice that the recipe calls for two cups of apples and one cup of flour—so get a sharp knife and chop the apples finely. Indeed, this cake can be rather crumbly because of all the yummy apple in it.

I also recommend blending all the dry ingredients separately before adding the apples and nuts; also, I suggest mixing the vanilla in with the sugar-shortening-egg mixture, since it’s a “wet” ingredient.

The batter is pretty stiff, sticky, and relatively dry, but not to worry—the apples will provide moisture while this bakes. To spread the batter out in the pan, try wettening your hands with some water and using them to pat and smooth the surface.

It will get a little crisp on top; it’s done when the edges start pulling away from the pan and a toothpick comes out clean. You know.

This is an excellent coffee cake as well as a yummy dessert. For the latter, consider serving it hot, à la mode, and perhaps garnished with a bit of cinnamon sugar, or nutmeg, or powdered sugar.

Marie’s Apple Cake
from Marie Korsmeyer

Blend:

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg

Add:

2 cups apples, cut fine
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 cup nuts, if desired

Spread into a greased [8 x 8”] cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes or until done.

Bertha. Bertha Was Her Name.

Mom remembered the first Mrs. Sippel’s first name: it was Bertha.

And she also found another recipe from the Cooking with Faith cookbook, and this recipe is credited to this Mrs. Sippel. The first Mrs. Sippel. So the cookbook has recipes from both Mrs. Sippels in it. How about that.

Here you go. By the way, I think some instructions are missing, such as how to create a “marbled” effect using the two different colors of batter . . . but then I guess you can figure out how to do that: dollop and swirl with a knife or skewer.

“Family” Marble Cake

1 c. butter
1 c. milk
2 c. sugar
3 c. flour
6 egg whites
3 tsp. baking powder

Blend butter and sugar. Combine baking powder and flour. Blend into first mixture alternately with milk. Beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry, and slowly blend into mixture. Remove 4 tablespoons mixture into a small bowl. Add:

4 Tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Bake at 350 degrees about 40 minutes. Does very well in tube pan.

Mrs. Wm. Sippel (Bertha), First President of Faith Guild

From p. 130 of Cooking with Faith: Favorite Recipes of Faith Lutheran Church Women, Jefferson City, Missouri, by the Faith Lutheran Ladies Guild, Jefferson City, Missouri [1975].

Easter Egg Cake

Here is a family recipe. Well, it’s not really a “recipe” at this point, since we use an angel food cake mix, so it’s more of a technique. Or an idea. This is something my Grandma Renner used to make for an Easter dessert, and my mom makes it, too. So of course, I’m next in line. I guess that makes sense.

Easter Egg Cake

You will need: angel food cake mix, white icing, food coloring, several small bowls (like cereal bowls), angel food cake pan (with removable bottom) and a bottle to stand it upside down on, if the cake pan doesn’t have those little lifter-things. Decorations can include shredded coconut that you’ve colored green with a few drops of food coloring, jelly beans, edible flowers such as pansies, and so on.

Of course, when making angel food cake, you can’t let any kind of grease get into the batter, so all bowls, spoons, mixer beaters, etc. should be clean and not oily.

Preheat the oven and mix up your angel food cake batter per the package directions. Have several bowls at hand. Reserving some of the plain cake batter in the original mixing bowl and working quickly, spoon out the rest of the batter into approximately six smaller bowls—well, one for each intended color. Read on.

Squeeze drops of food coloring into the bowls of batter and stir gently to mix. Red/pink, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple. Whatever; get creative. The uncolored batter of course will be white. Oh, and the colors of the finished cake will be darker than they seem in the batter.

Gently dollop the various colors of batter into the angel food cake pan, alternating colors as you go.

Once you’ve blobbed all the colors of batter into the pan, carefully run a knife through the batter a few times to eliminate air bubbles (and to create a groovy swirly pattern).

Bake the cake per package directions and turn it upside down like you’re supposed to.

Before you do anything else, let it cool completely.

Then carefully remove it from the pan and set it on your serving platter. Brush the crumbs off the top and sides. Carefully ice it with the white-colored icing of your choice. Icing an angel food cake is tricky. It helps to dip the spatula in warm water every once in a while.

We usually stick some colorful jelly beans on top as decoration. Dyed-green coconut can hide the places on top where cake crumbs got into the icing, because you concentrated on getting the sides iced just right and kind of ran out.

One year my mom made a little “vase” for some daffodils using soggy paper towels wrapped with aluminum foil and stuck them in the hole in the middle. It was so pretty when we brought it to Jeff City to share with Grandma Renner on Easter Sunday.

Serving: Well, you could put ice cream with it, I suppose, but I’m partial to sliced strawberries this time of year.

Of course, the colors inside the cake are a big surprise. Everybody is supposed to inspect his or her slice and count the colors they got. Whoever has the most colors wins the contest.

Happy Easter!