CREME FRAICHE COFFEE CAKE

Even though I consider myself to be a citizen of the world: born in the USA, raised in Canada, studied and worked in the UK, moved to Hong Kong, then Sydney and now Kuching on the island of Borneo, I still love the tradition of Thanksgiving. Today is Thanksgiving in the States when families and friends come together to give thanks and stuff themselves on juicy roast turkey with all the trimmings and either a pumpkin or pecan pie (or both) for dessert. This year, the gatherings will no doubt be smaller but the tradition still stands. Here in Kuching there's just me and Mike so maybe I'll roast a chicken with potatoes. pumpkin and something green. But then, I decided at 6am today that I was going to make a celebratory cake, and by 6.15 I was in the kitchen looking up a favourite from one of the first cookbooks I ever bought, the iconic American @Silver Palate Cookbook by @Julee Rosso and @Sheila Lukins. Their recipe is called Sour-Cream Coffeecake. Mine is called the above because I didn't have any sour cream and I changed a couple of other things too. The Silver Palate recommends you bake this in a 10-inch bundt pan, which I didn't have either so I used a normal cake tin with a detachable bottom. (Sometimes I wish I had a detachable bottom, especially if I keep eating cake like this!) Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

INGREDIENTS

227g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature

2 3/4 cups organic cane sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups creme fraiche

1 tbsp vanilla extract (not essence)

2 cups unbleached flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups shelled pecans, chopped a little

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease your cake tin with butter and then line with baking paper on the bottom and the sides.

Cream the butter and 2 cups of the sugar together for a few minutes until they are well blended.

Add your beaten eggs, blending well.

Add the sour cream and vanilla and keep blending.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and then gently fold the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar /egg/sour cream/vanilla mix by hand. Keep folding it in until you see no traces of flour but don't over-blend it.

In another bowl toss your pecans with the remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Pour half the batter into your prepared cake tin and smooth out the surface.

Tip half of your prepared pecans/sugar/cinnamon over the top of the cake mix.

Pour in the rest of the batter and top with the remaining pecan mixture.

Set on the middle rack of your oven and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let cool for about 30 minutes and serve warm.