Merry Christmas, with Brunch, links, and a Recipe!

*12/26/09: This post was supposed to go live on Christmas Eve, but I'm apparently technologically challenged, and effed it up. Sorry...

It's a Smitten Christmas brunch I'm planning this year. My parents are coming over, opening gifts with Felix, and brunching. We'll be roasting a beef loin the size of a Yule log to feed everyone when my in laws join us for dinner. Yahoo!

We're having this strata, these scones, this fruit salad, my Mom's sour cream coffee cake (see below), bacon, mimosas, and bloody marys. I heard a rumor about chocolate dipped strawberries, too. Mmmmm....

Merry Christmas too All, and here's the coffee cake recipe, as a little holiday gift:

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
adapted from the Worcester Art Museum Cookbook

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, room temp.
1/4 t. kosher salt
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 c. sour cream
2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda

for the topping:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional**)

Grease a tube (or bundt, or angel food) pan. Preheat oven to 350.

Sift together dry ingredients into a medium bowl. Cream sugars and butter together in a large mixing bowl. Add salt, eggs, and vanilla and beat until smooth, scraping as you go. Add sour cream and dry ingredients; beat until very smooth.

Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl.

Pour half the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with half the topping, doing your best to keep it centered in the pan, so as to form a channel of filling in the final cake. Spoon the remaining batter over top, and finish with the rest of the topping, which doesn't need to be quite as tidy.

Bake 45-50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

**(Mark prefers pecans, but walnuts would also be acceptable. Me, I leave 'em out.)