I like to bake to calm myself down.

Yesterday’s blog post was very cathartic for me and I was so happy to finally release some of my true feelings into the universe.  Just because someone’s truth is not pleasant does not mean that they should bury it inside feeling shame for things they could not control and did not want.  It’s one thing to harp on things another to finally state the facts.

So last night I wanted to use up the rest of my sour cream before it goes bad and found this great recipe that I divided in half and changed ever so slightly to lower the sugar and sodium content.  It was from my vintage Betty Crocker’s Cookbook that I received as a gift at my wedding shower in 1972.  

The recipe was for Sour Cream Coffee Cake.

This book has been well used through these many years and it shows.  Below is the recipe I prepared because I only wanted one loaf and the recipe above is for two loaves.  I also did not add any additional salt, used low sodium/sodium free baking powder and cake flour instead of all purpose.  If you are using all purpose flour, you only need 1 1/2 cups flour.

To me, less is always more when it comes to ingredients and seasoning.  You have to be careful in baking to have the right fats and leavenings with your binding ingredients but you can play around with recipes to get desired flavor or results.  No recipe is carved in stone so to speak.  Much like the recipe below is not exactly half of the above recipe but it came out great.

When the cake was finished baking in the loaf pan, I microwaved 2 Tbs butter with 1/4 C brown sugar for a few minutes, checking every 30 seconds or so to thicken, then stirred in about 1/2 cup pecan halves to coat.  When the cake was finished I spread it evenly across the top while it was hot and everything set when it cooled.