Brown Sugar Macadamia Nut Coffee Cake

When my husband and I went to Hawaii a few years ago, I brought back some macadamia nuts. I found a bunch of different recipes that I wanted to try and bookmarked them. I’ve long used up all of the nuts that I bought during that trip, but I’ve yet to make all of the recipes. This recipe is one that I bookmarked, and I hadn’t noticed it at the time, but it uses a fairly special ingredient: macadamia oil. (You can substitute vegetable oil if you want, but it will be different.)

I looked high and low for macadamia nut oil and I couldn’t find it anywhere. Yes, you can buy it online but it can be hard to know what you are getting when you order it from an online source. I figured that I could get it in Hawaii, but I knew I wouldn’t be there anytime soon. Thankfully, my good friend at work was going and I asked her to get some for me if she saw it. She brought some back for me and I finally had a chance to make this recipe.

This is a layered coffee cake, with a layer of cinnamon and ginger flavored crumb between the layers of coffee cake. The cinnamon and ginger are subtle, but I like the tiny boost of flavor that they add. Macadamia nuts don’t have a strong flavor, they just make things taste buttery. This is a simple cake, but not at all plain. I like it a lot, but I think I would boost the flavor even more my adding brown sugar to the crumb topping. Thanks to my friend for bringing me the macadamia oil!

Brown Sugar Macadamia Nut Coffee Cake

2⁄3 cup flour

1⁄3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1⁄2 teaspoon ginger

6 tablespoon butter, in small pieces

1 cup unsalted macadamia nuts

1 1/2 cups flour

1⁄2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1⁄2 cup macadamia nut oil

1 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper and grease the paper.

Make the topping: in a food processor combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.

Make the cake: coarsely chop the macadamia nuts and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the sour cream, eggs, oil and vanilla. Stir the sour cream mixture into the flour mixture. Stir until smooth, using a spatula or a hand mixer.

Spoon half of the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle evenly with half of the crumb topping. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the crumb topping. Top with the chopped macadamia nuts and the remaining crumb topping.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 20 minutes; remove the sides of the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe from Williams Sonoma