Last Thursday, my coworkers and I organized a little party in our cubeland, christened the Autumn Festivus. We took over an abandoned cube and turned it into a secret den of deliciousness.
I brought in some Pumpkin Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Yum. Dense and moist with a hint of pumpkin spice; it is perfect to serve to holiday guests.
Check out the food spread, someone even brought in a crock-pot for hot apple cider!!
This Festivus for the rest of us was awesome. It was a serious party- err, as serious as one can get without alcohol.
In true Festivus style, we had an airing of grievances. There was also some talk of turning the nearby coat rack into the Festivus pole, but it fizzled out as we happily munched away on bagels and sipped hot coffee and cider.
I liked #5
I know Festivus is mostly associated with the month of December. But really, I think it can be generalized- it is a holiday for the Every Man.
For the uninitiated, a short history of Festivus:
I know you are all wondering what my grievance is. How can someone seeming so chipper have grievances? HA. I have a lot of problems with you people!
You people who hate on pumpkin spice. I know there are some Scrooges out there that abhor pumpkin spice anything and are very vocal about it (you know who you are!!).
It has become so ‘in’ to hate on pumpkin spice that the pumpkin-hating crowd is now as lame and bandwagon-esque as the crowd who does like pumpkin spice.
I cook what I like, and I like pumpkin spice. Judging by the number of people at my office who gobbled up this coffee cake, I’m in the right here.
Pumpkin Sour Cream Coffee Cake
- 2 sticks butter or margarine
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- generous 1/2 cup pumpkin puree*
Topping
- 2 tbl sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
Do not preheat oven! Spray a bundt pan or angel food cake tin with cooking spray. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix into the butter and eggs, alternating with the sour cream. Mix in the pumpkin and vanilla last.
Mix together all the ingredients for the topping. Coat the bottom on the baking pan with the mixture. Pour in half the batter. Sprinkle the rest of the topping onto the batter, then pour the second half of the batter on top. Set oven to 350° and bake the coffee cake for 50 minutes to an hour. Check with a toothpick for doneness if you are unsure.
Let cool. Invert the cake onto a serving plate once cooled.
*Note: This is an adaptation of an old family recipe, if you don’t like pumpkin, simply use 1 cup sour cream and skip the pumpkin puree.
Enjoy!
– Erin
Erin's DC Kitchen 