Fatty Friday Issue # 15: Cawfee Tawk!

Most of you know that I'm from Queens and in Queens we like to talk. We especially like to talk over food - I mean, who doesn't? As my father would say, "Am I right or am I right?" Of course I am!

Summer makes me think about visiting with my grandparents, the people who taught me how to talk. Whether at their beach house on Long Island or at their year-round house in Astoria, I loved to visit my grandparents when I was a little girl. One thing that I especially loved were the Entenmann's coffee cakes that my grandpa always had handy (my personal favorite is still the raspberry danish twist). I learned so much over those cakes: how to play Uno, checkers and chess; how to conjugate Italian verbs and (cheese alert!) I learned that I was grateful for my grandpa (and my grandma, too).

So, in honor of precious time spent with grandparents, this week's issue features coffee cake. The recipe I used calls for blackberries, but I added some nectarines, too. I also halved the clove and nutmeg, left out the all spice entirely and replaced the buttermilk with sour cream. The result? A cake that is incredibly moist and not too sweet. Perfect for a summertime snack that grandpa would have loved! (In fact, the author of the recipe credits it to her grandmother).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 1 cup diced nectarine
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1 cup sugar (I used a mixture of regular and brown)
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss fruit with two tbsp of flour and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and mix until light and fluffy. Next add the sour cream. Then mix together the dry ingredients, slowly add to the wet ingredients. Then fold in the fruit, pour into a greased and floured cake pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy!