Chocolate cinnamon crumble cake

Recipe is found in belinda jeffery's tried-and-true recipes book page 150. I had to make a special cake for a special friend as I forgot to phone her on the day of her birthday. I was given for my birthday a silicone kugelhopf cake mould as a gift and decided to give it a try out. the cake cooked beautifully in the mould and was easily removed from the mould when cooked.Forgot to camera to her home to photograph the cake with the ganache poured over the cake.

1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 plain yoghurt, at room temperature 9 I used low fat yoghurt)
1 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups castor sugar
250 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tablespoon cool strong coffee or coffee liqueur
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

cinnamon crumble
1/2 cup brown sugar
70 grams toasted pecans
1 tablespoon cocoa powder - preferably Dutch processed
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee granules
90 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

chocolate ganache icing (optional)
125 grams dark chocolate, in chunks
65 grams unsalted butter
25 mls water

- oven 180C
- butter and flour a large kugelhopf tin
- mix together sour cream and yoghurt then stir in bicarb soda and leave to stand for 15 minutes so the mixture puffs up to about double in size
- while this is happening make the crumble
- put all the crumble ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the chocolate and nuts are coarsely chopped. Put this into a small bowl and set it aside
- now put flour, baking powder and salt in the processor and whiz to combine then tip this into another bowl and set it aside
- next put eggs and sugar in the processor and whiz them for 1 minute then add the butter and process everything for another minute
- stir coffee or liqueur and vanilla into the sour cream mixture then add this to the egg mixture in the processor and blend it all together in a few quick bursts.
-scrape the mixture into a large bowl and stir in the flour mixture until the batter is just combined (if you have a large food processor, you can use it for this step as well)
- spread quarter of the cake batter into the bottom of the prepared tin and smooth out the surface, then sprinkle a third of the crumble mixture over the top and shake the tin gently to even it out
- repeat the layering twice and cover the final layer of crumble with the remaining quarter of the cake batter (this layer will be quite thin)
- bake cake 55-60 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let it cool in the tin on a rack for 15 minutes then invert onto a cake rake and allow to cool completely
- if making the chocolate icing , make it at this stage and let it cool to a thick pouring consistency then drizzle over cake and leave it to set
- otherwise dust cake lightly with icing sugar
- cake keeps well uniced for up to 3 days in an airtight container
chocolate ganache icing
- put all ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat
- stir until the chocolate and butter have melted and are smooth
- allow to cool to a thick pouring consistency, about 20 minutes, before using
- makes about 3/4 cup