Cranberry Almond Coffee Cake

This tasty coffee cake is a great Brunch item - it is easy to make and stays moist when you make it the night before. For this coffee cake, I tweaked an old recipe from Bon Appetit. Once you have a good recipe for a basic sour cream coffee cake, you can easily change the flavor by changing just two ingredients - the cranberries and the almond extract. Just replace the cranberries with other chopped fruits or omit them altogether. Substitute other flavors for the Almond extract (Vanilla, Lemon or Anise would work well). There are endless variations!

1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 Cup Chopped fresh cranberries
(To use dried cranberries: soak them in hot water about 30 minutes to soften, then drain the water and pat dry)

Glaze:
1 Cup Confectioner's Sugar
1 Tablespoon Milk
1/2 teaspoon Almond extract
1/2 Cup chopped toasted Almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a standard-sized bundt pan.

Stir together the flour, baking powder and baking soda until well blended. Set aside.

Put the butter in a mixing bowl with the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until just combined. Add the sour cream and Almond extract, mixing on low until combined. Add the flour mixture gradually, mixing on low only until combined. Fold in the cranberries by hand.

Spoon the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 45-55 minutes. Test by inserting a cake tester or a toothpick into the center - it should come out clean. Let the coffee cake cool to room temperature before unmolding and topping with the glaze.

Glaze: In a small bowl, mix the confectioner's sugar with the milk and almond extract, stirring until the lumps are gone. Spoon it over the cooled cake, letting it drizzle down the sides. Sprinkle toasted almonds on top if you wish.

Enjoy!