Make-Ahead Sour Cream Coffeecake

From America's Test Kitchen'd "The Best Make-Ahead Recipe" CookbookMakes two 9-inch cakes, each serving 6-8

Streusel

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
4 Tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces and chilled
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans, almonds, or walnuts, chopped

Cake

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sour cream
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled.

1. For the Streusel: Using your fingers, mix the brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the nuts and set aside.

2. For the cake: Coat two 9-inch cake pans with vegetable oils spray. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the sour cream, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and melted butter together until smooth. Gently whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until the batter looks smoothed and well combined but do NOT overmix.

3. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of both cakes.

4. To Store: Wrap the pans tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours or freeze for up to 1 month. Do no thaw the frozen cakes before baking!

5. To serve: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the cakes and bake until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes if refrigerated or 40-45 minutes if frozen. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving.

To Serve Right Away: Bake the cakes as directed in step 5, reducing the baking time to 25 to 30 minutes.

VARIATIONS

Apricot-Orange: Stir 1 teaspoon grated orange zest into the flour mixture in step 2 and 1 cup chopped dried apricots into the finished batter in step 2.

Cranberry-Orange (dried cherries can be substituted for the cranberries). Stir 1 teaspoon grated orange zest into the flour mixture in step 2 and 1 cup dried cranberries into the finished batter in step 2.