Creme Fraiche Coffee Cake

We usually don't bake a lot of cakes but this recipe for Creme Fraiche Coffee Cake was irresistible. We had to make it. It was delicious. It was the perfect weekend coffee cake.

Creme FraicheCoffee Cake

Mark Peel & Nancy Silverton at Home

The wonderfully rich coffeecake has been, reinvented almost as many times as there are cookbooks. The crumb is moist, dense, of butter flavor, and the layer of streusel is everyone’s favorite combination of pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Close your eyes, and you can probably recall eating something very similar in your childhood. Whenever Nancy makes this at home, the tantalizing aroma fils the apartment, and before the coffeecake has even corded we’re breaking off big hunks with our hands.



½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups Creme Fraiche

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

¾ cup light brown sugar

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, lightly toasted for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven

4 teaspoons ground cinnamon



1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter a 10-inch Bundt pan.

2. ln the Iarge bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until well blended. On low speed add the Creme Fraiche, vanilla, and lemon zest.

3. In a small bowl stir together by hand the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, beating just until blended. In another small bowl stir together by hand the brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon or the streusel.

4. Pour half the batter into the Bundt pan. Sprinkle with half the streusel. Pour in the; Remaining batter, spreading with the back of a spoon to cover the streusel as much as possible. Top with the remaining streusel.

5. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and invert onto a serving plate

Serve warm.

Serves 10