Eat The Love

Recipes, Photographs and Stories about Desserts, Baked Goods and Food in general, with a healthy dose of humor and happiness for the food obsessed

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Apple Coffee Cake with Double Crumb Topping [Sponsored Post]

This apple coffee cake is rich and buttery, with a layer of tender apples and a double layer of cinnamon crumb topping!

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A slice of apple coffee cake on a plate, with a glass of milk, and apple and cinnamon sticks behind it.

This post was sponsored by Real California Milk. I was compensated for this post and developing this recipe. However, all opinions below are my own. To find more recipe inspiration visit the Real California Milk website.

I’m not going tell you the ideal wintery flavor because I refuse to pick between pumpkin, gingerbread, peppermint, seasonal fruit like pomegranates, apples, and pears. But I do have a fondness for apples that knows no bounds. This is clearly evident with my various apple recipes, including apple cider donuts, apple fritters, apple bread, apple Brown Betty, apple fig cobbler with eggnog biscuits, apple and berry cobbler with strawberry cinnnamon swirl biscuits, spice apple berry cobbler, and the numerous apple pie recipes like fried apple hand pies, apples slab pie with prunes, tarte tatin, apple and cranberry pie with almond butter, and my open-faced brown butter spiced apple pie. When it comes to apples, I’m a fan! 

But despite having a number of coffee cakes on here (cinnamon streusel coffee cake, blueberry cream cheese coffee cake, pumpkin coffee cake, Mexican Chocolate Corn Coffee Cake, Swedish blueberry cake, Earl Grey blueberry coffee cake) I’ve never shared my apple coffee cake. It has a plush and buttery coffee cake layer, a soft (not crunchy) apple filling, and a double layer of crumb topping that makes ideal for a fall and winter snack. Though honest, I make it anytime, because apples are easily available all year round. One bite and you’ll understand why!

Three slices of apple coffee cake on three different plates, with a glass of milk, cinnamon sticks and an apple next to the plates.
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Chocolate Chess Pie

This easy chocolate chess pie is an intensely chocolate variation of the southern chess pie, which has a touch of cornmeal to give it texture.

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A slice of chocolate chess pie on a plate, with another slice on a plate and the remaining pie behind it. The text on the image says "chocolate chess pie."

Right out of college I worked at a small art museum with tight knit group of employees. We were a nonprofit, working for very little money, but dedicated to the cause of bring contemporary art to the mid-sized Midwest city I grew up in. My co-work Deb was a self-proclaimed “foodie” (a relatively new term back in the mid-90s) and for our company picnic assigned all of us different dishes to bring.

My dish, a chess pie, was something I wasn’t familiar with, but I took to the recipe she provided with aplomb, making the classic chess pie, along with a lemon chess pie, and a chocolate one. All three of them disappeared nearly immediately at the picnic, but the chocolate chess pie with its rich intensely chocolatey flavor, with a filling almost like a fudge brownie, was one that subsequently made it into my rotating repertoire. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to share it.

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Marbled Pound Cake

This beautiful marbled pound cake use cream cheese to give it a classic pound cake crumb that everyone loves.

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A slice of marbled pound cake on a plate, with the rest of the cake on a cutting board next to it along with a mug of tea.

I adore my classic cream cheese pound cake for the velvety tight crumb that it has. But when I want something that’s even more impressive, I make this marbled version. After all, I did write the cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered! How could I resist making a chocolate and vanilla pound cake, aka the marbled version of my favorite pound cake? With swirls of chocolate batter in it, each slice of the pound cake looks beautiful when you slice into it. The recipe isn’t much different than my cream cheese pound cake but you do need to do the extra step of turning half the batter into a chocolate batter to mix in. Don’t worry though, it’s a pretty easy step!

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Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie with Pistachio Crumb Topping [Sponsored Post]

This Strawberry Rhubarb Slab Pie has a crunchy pistachio topping made with olive oil which adds a peppery fruity dimension to the topping. 

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A slice of strawberry rhubarb slab pie with pistachio crumb topping on a plate. with the remaining pie and a mug of tea behind it.

Last month I had the pleasure of visiting San Luis Obispo, otherwise known as SLO, with my friends at California Grown. I’ve collaborated with California Grown for years, going on farm tours and visiting local producers across the golden state of California. Last year was one of my favorite tours ever, as we had a chance to visit a rhubarb farm and I’m OBSESSED with rhubarb, as evident by my strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry rhubarb cobbler, strawberry rhubarb buckle cake, strawberry rhubarb galette, strawberry rhubarb syrup, blueberry rhubarb pie, cherry rhubarb crisp, and so many more recipes.

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Olive Oil Brownies with Sea Salt

These olive oil brownies have a generous sprinkling of sea salt on top. The olive oil gives the brownies a fudgy, truffle-like texture.

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A small plate of olive oil brownies stacked on top of each other. There is a glass of milk and more brownies behind the plate.

Olive oil is one of those of those under-appreciated baking ingredients. Though it’s one of my favorite things to reach for with cooking, it lends a lovely dimension and texture to baked goods as well, like the extra virgin olive oil chocolate chip cookies or these peach and basil olive oil cake. These olive oil brownies get a fantastic flavor from the peppery and fruity extra virgin olive that I use, as well as a rich fudgy, almost truffle-like texture that you can’t quite get with butter. Though I adore my easy fudge brownies and have a nostalgic soft spot for my one bowl cakey brownies, these salted olive oil brownies are quickly becoming a favorite in our household as well!

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Tunnel of Fudge Cake

This updated version of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake is take on the classic nostalgic vintage cake that popularized the bundt pan. It features a creamy dark chocolate filling with nuts and cacao nibs!

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A slice of tunnel of fudge cake on a plate, with the remaining cake behind it on a cake stand.

Lately I’ve been obsessed over nostalgic American vintage recipes like my version of the black bottom cupcakes and secret ingredient peanut butter blossoms. Next on my list was the classic Tunnel of Fudge cake that won Ella Helfrich second place in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake Off. What’s remarkable is that it not only came in second place (the first-place winner, Mari Petrelli’s Golden Gate Snack Bread is largely a footnote in the Bake Off history) but that it popularized Nordic Ware’s bundt pan (<- affiliate link).

Nordic Ware started out in 1950 making bundt pans, but sales were slow until the Tunnel of Fudge cake recipe exploded in popularity. Soon, Nordic Ware had to run their factory 24/7 to keep up with demands of their pan, cranking out 30,000 pans per day during the peak period. And once Pillsbury discontinued the key ingredient, Double Dutch Frosting Mix, bakers around the US complained so much that Pillsbury, brought back the mix temporarily, then eventually permanently discontinued it, finally posting a recipe for the cake that could be made without the frosting mix. Variations of the recipe have popped up here and there but the version that I ended up adapting was developed by Shirley Corriher, author of Bakewise (<-affiliate link), an excellent book that dives into the science of baking.

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