Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake (REDUCED FAT & 220 Calories)

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I feel like Ina today because of what I’m about to say… My husband had a business dinner tonight, I knew he’d be late, so I thought I’d bake for myself. (haha – get the joke?) I was craving the “Sour Cream Coffee Cake” I watched Ina Garten make on Food Network. My challenge was to make the Coffee Cake and lower the fat by at least 25% or more. It took me about 1 hour to come up with this recipe. Seriously, after tasting this cake, I question why anyone would resort to eating full fat desserts when you can have the real thing with less fat, or at least close to the real thing. Works for me!

This cake reminds me of my girlfriends for some reason. It is a perfect Sunday afternoon cake with the girls, gossip, and a cuppa. 🙂 I definitely will be baking this over and over again! Thanks Ina – she’s genius!

MODIFICATIONS I MADE:

I made 2/3’s of the original recipe which brought the butter down to 8 tbsp. I went ahead and cut out 50% of the butter in the cake, only using 4 tbsp, which is still quite a bit, but hey, it’s cake.
recipe calls for full fat sour cream, I used a 1/4 cup of full fat sour cream and use 3/4 cup of low fat yogurt. It works!!! I didn’t have any light sour cream on hand, I would have much rather used light.
For the Streusel, I didn’t use all the butter, just 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of Canola Oil.
I skipped the walnuts and glaze. The glaze is so unnecessary for a cake with so much flavor, not to mention all the sugar in the glaze. Unnecessary calories! I simply used 1 tsp of confectioners sugar for presentation.
Lastly, I replaced 2/3 cup of Cake Flour with Whole Wheat Pastry Flour.

APPROXIMATE NUTRITION PER SERVING:

Calories: 220 cals

Fat: 7.7 g

Saturated Fat: 3.9 g

Carbs: 37 g

Protein: 3.9 g

Fiber: 0.8 g

SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE – REDUCED FAT (inspired by Food Network)
~ yields 12 generous slices using 2/3’s of the original recipe @ 350 degrees.
~ lowered fat by 39%; lowered calories by 20% (using my modifications)

INGREDIENTS for cake:

Cake Flour – 1 cup
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – 2/3 cup
Baking Powder – 1 1/3 tsp
Baking Soda – 1/3 tsp
Salt – 1/3 tsp
Sugar – 1 cup
Butter – 4 tbsp
Egg – 2 large whole
Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
Sour Cream – 1/4 cup (optional: use Light Sour Cream)
Low Fat Yogurt – 3/4 cup

INGREDIENTS for Streusel:

Brown Sugar – 2.5 tbsp
White Flour – 1/3 cup
Cinnamon – 1 tsp
Butter – 1 tbsp
Canola Oil – 1 tbsp

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Lightly butter or spray the baking dish; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar for five minutes, until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time.
5. Add vanilla, sour cream, and yogurt.
6. In another bowl, sift the cake flour, pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, until incorporated. Do not overmix.

For the Streusel:

12. Combine the brown sugar, flour cinnamon, butter and oil. Mix until combined and the dry ingredients are well coated. Use your fingers to mix.

13. Add half the cake batter to the cake pan.

14. Sprinkle 3/4 of the streusel on top.

15. Add the remaining batter to the mixture.

16. Top with the remaining streusel.
17. Place the cake in the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. My cake baked in 45 minutes.

INVERT THE CAKE – SO MUCH PRETTIER!

18. After the cake is cool, dush with confectioners sugar for presentation.

STREUSEL RATING: *****/5 I loved the streusel. With only 1 tbsp of butter, it was really good. The 1 tbsp of oil definitely helped bind everything together. It tastes sweet, flavored with cinnamon.

OVERALL RATING: ****/5

The Sour Cream Coffee Cake was excellent. I was surprised how good the cake tasted considering I reduced the butter by 50%, and replaced low fat yogurt with most of the sour cream.

Texture: The texture of the cake was great and light. It was crumbly, it tasted buttery, without a ton of butter.

Moistness: This cake was moist, but can get dry after a while. Each time I ate a slice, I warmed it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, the moistness comes back. I believe it tastes best when warm!