A little bit about almond chocolate coffee cake!

I had half a packet of almonds leftover from exams. Apparently nuts are good study food?
Well I learnt it's not about the food you eat or how hard you study, it really depends on how mean your lecturer is when it comes to exams. I don't know who could've finished that Civil211 exam in two hours and gotten half of it correct... No hard feelings, Piotr, really.
Anyway, I snacked on almonds cause I didn't want to take fish oil pills.

This morning I felt the urge to bake and I came across this marvellous site
http://www.verybestbaking.com/

There were recipes and mouth-watering photos of chocolate caramel brownies, fudge, Christmas cookies with red and green chocolate chips, apple and pumpkin loaf, chocolate filled braids and... Almond-chocolate coffee cake!

So I got out of bed and began baking.

 Half a cup of roasted unsalted almonds, to be chopped coarsely

1/3 cup of firmly packed brown sugar

I got this cute measuring shot glass to measure tablespoons and millilitres

Mix into a bowl with chopped apricots, coffee granules, cinnamon and chocolate chips

Spoon half the cake batter into the tin and sprinkle half the nutty mixture on top

Repeat with the remaining then bake!

Almond chocolate coffee cake

1/2 cup chopped roasted unsalted almonds
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp coffee granules
A handful of dried apricots, chopped (about 5 pieces)
3/4 tsp cinnamon
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 cups yogurt (I used vanilla)

1. Preheat oven to bake at 180C. Line or butter a baking pan

2. Combine almonds, brown sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa, coffee, chopped apricots and cinnamon in a bowl.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a different bowl.

4. Beat softened butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla then beat for 2 minutes. 

5. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, until mixture is smooth. 

6. Alternately add the flour mixture and yogurt; beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until smooth. 

7. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Spread half the nut mixture on top; repeat layers.

8. Bake for 1 hour or until wooden skewer inserted near center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes before carefully turning cake out onto rack.

Improvements for next time:

More chocolate chips.

It's surprisingly soft! The almond, coffee and brown sugar sprinkling added a nice crunch to it.
I think it's really nice served warm with the leftover yogurt

And to conclude,

I read a really nice bible verse last night

Colossians 4:6 "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

Signed,

Elisa