Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Walnut Swirl

Every year in November, this is the recipe I pull out and bake first.

It’s time to welcome the holidays.

After all, walnuts are the nut of the season and this recipe showcases their depth!

First I’ll say, there are a lot of sour cream coffee cake with cinnamon walnut swirl recipes out there, but they are NOT all the same.

Next, we’ve been making these in my family for over 75+ years and it’s not a cookbook recipe that we follow.

Tradition, handed down from Great Grandma to Grandma to Mom, to daughter.

We’ve tasted and tested so many recipes for Sour cream coffee cake with cinnamon walnut swirl and something is always missing.

The little things we will share today make the difference between ‘eh’ and “YEAH!”

Funny, when I married my husband, my mother-in-law also had a fabulous sour cream coffee cake with cinnamon walnut swirl and had a few tricks up her sleeve as well.

There’s nothing like a different perspective and a recipe that gets tweaked over and over.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Why would you tweak a recipe that is good already?

Because after all the tweaking renditions, you end up with a bundt cake that has every possible angle covered, to make it stand out from all the others.

Let’s bake so you can taste test for yourself.

The Sour Cream ~ Before You Start

Don’t allow the sour cream to be at room temperature.

Grab it from the refrigerator when you are ready.

Drain the water, you don’t need that.

Simply put, the butter and the sour cream together make an incredibly moist and delicious bundt cake you’ll savor!

Tip No. 1 For Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Grind your walnuts for the topping.

When you create the swirl mixture, you will LOVE this change.

It takes the walnuts to another level and ground is a better bake.

Also, when it states a 1/2 cup, generally I add a bit more in.

Perhaps it’s my Italian way of baking, but it seems to work well.

I believe I add about an additional 1/4 c give or take.

Butter Me Up

We’ve never used just unsalted or salted.

Instead, my Nonna taught me to use a stick of each and thereby eliminate the salt you would have to add later.

I love this tip and I use it in much of what I bake.

There’s salt in everything and you need it when you bake, but, this modifies the need to add it in.

Dust Me With Cinnamon And Let me Bake

It could be argued that I am a cinnamon nut.

But, baking a bundt like this you really want to shake that cinnamon and dust it as you mean it.

However, I don’t mean adding too much to the recipe, instead, I add it in a different way.

Dust the base of the bundt pan.

You will thank me later.

Walnut Chunks Are Here

When you take that bundt cake out of the oven and allow it to cool, what comes next is everything.

So, do this right.

Remember I said a few tablespoons of walnut in reserve on the recipe card?

Here is where we separate the wanna be cinnamon swirl bundt cakes from the real ones!

Add those nuts atop the freshly dusted cinnamon, evenly spreading them.

You’ll thank me later!

Recipe For Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Walnut Swirl

dana vento

Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Walnut Swirl

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1 5

Additional Time 10

Total Time 1 35

Servings: 12 slices

Course: Recipes

Cuisine: dessert

Calories: 403

Ingredients Method Video Notes

Ingredients

CINNAMON WALNUT FILLING
1/2 cup + a few tablespoons up to 3 of Brown Sugar Packed (don't be too cheap this gives flavor, but too much will create chaos, this is a good balance as listed)
Chopped Walnuts 1/2 C
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon can be adjusted down to as little as 1 1/2 Teaspoons
COFFEE CAKE BATTER
Wet Ingredients
2 sticks of butter 1 salted one unsalted
3 room temperature eggs**
1 Tablespoon Vanilla or you won't taste it
1 1/2 C White Sugar
Sour Cream 1 1/2 C
Dry Ingredients
3 C All Purpose Flavor
1 1/2 Tsp each Baking Powder + Baking Soda
Salt Only if you did not use a stick of salted butter
CINNAMON -- for bundt pan and a handful of walnuts lightly chopped. 2 TBSP

Method

Preheat Oven to 350° F
Chop or grind walnuts depending if you want larger or smaller pieces.
Next in a small bowl, combine cinnamon, walnuts, and brown sugar.
Set aside.
Prepare a Bundt Pan by greasing and flouring*
Do not let extra flour in the bundt, make sure to tap it all around, and then if any extra remains, dump it into the sink.
If your butter is not softened at this point, microwave it in 30-second increments at 50% power, not to create a liquid, rather soften.
Set aside.
In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, powder, and set aside.
Using a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), combine sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla.
Mix until creamy but do not over mix.
Next, add in the sour cream.
Again, just enough to combine.
Now take the dry ingredients and add them a little at a time to the wet trying to avoid a POOF Of dust.
Just add bit by bit and then mix very well on low until well mixed.
Get your bundt pan, dust it with cinnamon, and add the 2 Tbsp of walnuts scattered around the bundt evenly.
Now, divide the cake mixture in half.
Using one half of the batter, drop by the large spoonful around the pan.
Next, divide the Cinnamon Walnut Filling in half.
Using one-half, top the newly dropped batter.
Now, cover this layer with the rest of the batter, and again, coat this with the other half of the cinnamon walnut filling.
Bake in the oven for up to 55-65 minutes - the goal is a toothpick coming out clean, it does not really turn golden brown.
Once it's fully baked and the toothpick comes out clean, allow it to cool for 20 minutes.
Then, invert and remove from pan.
Serve and enjoy.

Video

Notes

*Spray and use a pastry brush to make sure the grooves of bundt pan are coated.

** If your eggs are not room temperature, run water to make it warm, place eggs in a bowl, and coat with the warm water. Allow eggs to sit for a few minutes and then dry off the egg and crack. You now have room temperature eggs.