WELCOME NOVEMBER

"When the trees their summer splendor
Change to raiment red and gold,
When the summer moon turns mellow,
And the nights are getting cold;
When the squirrels hide their acorns,
And the woodchucks disappear;
Then we know that it is autumn,
Loveliest season of the year."
-   Carol L. Riser, Autumn

Such a beautiful time of year, days shorter, the crisp feel of fall in the air, the knowing that winter will soon be here.  Our thoughts turn to family as we begin to make our plans for Thanksgiving.  Thoughts of turkeys, pies, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, football, children laughing, all the family sights, sounds and aromas that we cherish.

A dear friend is having out-of-town guests soon and as she is so busy caring for others I thought I would make a Coffee Cake Pound Cake for her as a little treat for her guests.  Pound cakes are one of those wonderful sweet things that can be served at any meal and because they are not frosted easy to wrap a little plastic wrap around and tuck into a container for "the road."

Ingredients

• PECAN STREUSEL

• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• POUND CAKE BATTER

• 1 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
• 6 large eggs 
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 (8-oz.) container sour cream 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preparation

1.    Prepare Pecan Streusel: Combine first 3 ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles small peas. Stir in 3/4 cup pecans.

2.    Preheat oven to 350°. Bake 1 cup pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Cool 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

3.    Prepare Pound Cake Batter: Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

4.    Stir together flour and baking soda; add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Pour half of batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan. Stir together toasted pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter. Spoon remaining batter over pecan mixture; sprinkle with Pecan Streusel.

5.    6. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

Cooks Notes: This recipe may be a little confusing because you are making the streusel to go on the top (first part of the recipe) but in the cake portion instructions you will be roasting, chopping more pecans, mixing them with brown sugar and cinnamon to put on top of the batter after you have spooned half  into the pan. 

I decided I would try this wonderful, yummy, makes your house smell so darned good cake in two take-out pans, my friend who is having company but did not need a big cake.  The following are the instructions for doing this in two pans.  Now I have one to give and one to keep (it freezes wonderfully) or one to use as a hostess gift.

 Spray two aluminum pans with non-stick spray or wipe with butter.

 Gather ingredients for the pecan streusel.

 Toast, than chop the pecans for the center pecan, brown sugar, cinnamon filling.

Make your cake, following the above directions.
Spoon half of the cake batter divided between the two pans and then divide the filling between the two pans making sure you go all the way to the edges.

Divide the remaining cake batter between the two pans, using the back of a spoon smooth the batter evenly to the edges.

Divide the streusel between the two pans and smooth it evenly across the pans

Bake in a 325 degree oven
  
When baking this in two pans the cooking time for me was half - approximately 45 minutes.  

 These containers are 3/$1.00 and I always keep them around to send leftovers home with people or for making gifts of food.  Using these types of recyclable containers means you don't have to worry about folks returning dishes to you.

The tops of these containers are plain white and so easy to decorate.  For this oak leaf cover I went over the the wonderful Graphics's Fairy at: http://thegraphicsfairy.com/
and found a graphic I liked, brought it into my draw program, made a circle as big as would fit on an 8 1/2x11 plain white label.  Added the lines and the verbiage and since there was some room left on the label I just put a couple of the oak leaves on the label and then when I printed the label out I cut out the round one and then cut around one of the small ones and adhered to some scrap cardstock for a note. Since this was so organic looking I decided to use some waxed linen instead of a ribbon.

Resources:

Pizza Pan (I love it for roasting nuts), Kohl's
Food Storage containers (various sizes & shapes) $store, Walmart, usually $1
Waxed Linen, Ebay (great color choices) craft & hobby stores
Draw Program, Corel Draw x6 (see previous post re: Draw Programs)
8 1/2x11 Label, Walmart, Staples, Amazon, any business supply store
Font used on Label, TT BirminghamBold, size 21 & 30
Circle Size is approximately 8.215 x 7.85
Plain white cardstock