First, the filling:
- 1 lb. cream cheese, softened (Yes, that's "lb." as in "pound". But you're gonna share, right?)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
Mix these ingredients well & set aside. ("Aside" can be a refrigerator overnight, if you want to get ahead of the game)
Next, prepare the streusel topping ingredients: (Does anyone know where "streusel" comes from? I suppose I should google it, but I'm kind of glad to leave in the realm of the vague...)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp. butter
- 1/4 cup flour (ooh, look, something healthy!)
Mix these well and set them aside (for novices like me: don't set them aside in the same bowl you're using to set aside the filling). Add a handful of oatmeal, and a little cinnamon, too, if you like. How much? "A little," says Gran. Just try it.
Next, prepare the cake ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 eggs (Yes, that's two more eggs)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 tsp. baking powder (still can't keep straight in my head what the difference is between baking soda and baking powder, but apparently they're different ;)
- 1/2 cup butter (that's a full stick)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 cup sugar
Start preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a big mixing bowl (but notice that sugar is not considered a "dry ingredient" just yet). Cream the sugar, butter and eggs together separately ("cream" basically means "mix", as far as I can tell). Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Then add this concoction to the dry ingredients and mix (slowly at first or you're going to have a flourstorm on your hands).
Pour half of the cake batter into a greased and floured 9" X 13" baking pan. Pour in the filling, then the remainder of the cake batter (it will be very thick to spread). Then sprinkle with streusel topping.
Bake at 350 deg. for 45 min and... voilà!! It's munching time. And don't wait...this one is good warm, while the inside is soft and warm and the topping crunchy...
