Coffee Cake Recipe: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Do you enjoy having a delicious pastry to go with your morning single cup coffee? Well, if you do, then we have the absolutely perfect coffee cake to pair with your morning coffee. It's a sour cream coffee cake and it. is. divine. 

All the recipes we share are ones that feature ingredients that are easy to find in stores, if you don't already have them in your cupboard. For this sour cream coffee cake recipe, you will need:

Streusel:

• 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts- if you are allergic to nuts, then just omit this ingredient. Not a big deal. 
• 3 tablespoons of cold, sliced butter- unsalted? Sure. 
• Quarter teaspoon of salt- kosher? Go for it. Sea salt? Go for it. Regular? You betchya. 
• 1 and a half teaspoons of ground cinnamon. 
• Half cup of all-purpose flour. 
• Quarter cup of brown sugar

Cake:

• Half teaspoon of salt - not a typo. You'll need this.
• Half teaspoon of baking soda.
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 and a half cups of cake flour
• 1 and a quarter cup of sour cream
• 1 and a half teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 3 eggs at room temp
• 1 and a half cups of sugar - granulated
• 12 tablespoons of butter- you'll need this plus the other butter

And for the glaze: 

• Half cup of sugar- confectioners
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Now, let's to baking so you can enjoy this with your K-cup coffee! 

Cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. While that's heating up, use non-stick spray and some flour on a tube baking pan (10 inches).
2. Mix the butter and the sugar in a bowl either with an electric mixer or manually. With a mixer, use a paddle attachment for about 5 minutes. Do this until the mix is lighter in color and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and then mix in the vanilla extract and the sour cream. In that order. 
3. Grab a mixing bowl, sift the baking powder, flour, salt, and baking soda into it. Put the mixer on a slow setting, then mix in the powder mixture and mix until it's all mixed in. Now, you can mix it some more manually for a bit. 

For the streusel: 

1. Grab the brown sugar, flour, salt, butter, and cinnamon and mix in a bowl. Use your fingers to form crumbles. If you are using nuts, mix them in here. 

Back to the cake:

1. Grab 50 percent of the batter and spread in the tube pan. Toss about 3/4 cup of the streusel into the this. Mix the rest of the batter into the pan and spread it, then place the rest of the streusel on the top of it. Bake it for an hour; monitor until it looks done and the toothpick test comes out clean. 

Now, let the cake cool, this will be about half an hour. Move the cake (make sure the streusel side is on top) onto a plate. Mix the confectioners sugar and the syrup with a whisk. Make it like a glaze. Spread on top of the cake. 

Now slice and enjoy with your coffee. Spread the happiness and love! 

Pancake Recipe Perfect for Pairing with Coffee

On a nice weekend morning, nothing is better than having a delicious plate of pancakes and a hot cup of single cup coffee. We found an incredible recipe for apple-bacon pancakes with cider syrup. Oh my, they will even make pancake lovers out of someone who once despised pancakes. If you like apples, pancakes, and bacon, you will absolutely love these. These pancakes have a nice sweet, yet slightly smoky taste to them.

The ingredients in this recipe are very easy to find in a store, if you don't have them in your kitchen cupboards already.

• Half cup of apple cider
• 3 tablespoons of light brown sugar, and make sure it's divided 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• half cup of whole-wheat pastry flour. Yeah, has to be whole wheat. 
• Quarter cup of all-purpose flour. None of that flour that isn't cool enough to do more than one job! 
• 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour. That's not a typo. 
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• Half cup of nonfat buttermilk
• 1 cup of apple, peel it and dice it (about 1 medium sized apple)
• 4 slices of bacon, fried and cut
• 1 teaspoon of canola oil, and make sure it's divided

Now that you have ingredients good to go, let's get to frying up some pancakes to pair with your medium roast K-cup coffee! Or, if you like K-cup tea, that works too! Delicious. 

1. Mix the cider, brown sugar (just 2 tablespoons), lemon juice, and the cornstarch into a small saucepan. Bring your mix to a medium heat until boil. Whisk it and cook it until it thickens; this should take about a minute or two. 
2. Whisk the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and the last bit of brown sugar (there should be 1 tablespoon left) in a small mixing bowl. Mix in the egg, egg white, and the buttermilk in a large mixing bowl. Then, mix in the dry ingredients, bacon, and the apple chunks until it is all combined. Yeah, it will be thick batter indeed! 
3. Grab a skillet (large) and with a half teaspoon of oil and put on medium heat. Use a quarter cup of batter and cook four at a time. They should be about 3 inches in diameter per pancake. 
4. Cook until the edges are dry and you see bubbles start to form in the middle (this will take about two minutes). Flip. Cook a couple more minutes or until they are golden brown. 
5. Serve pancakes, pour on apple cider syrup. Sip a dark roast single cup coffee, read your favorite section of the paper. Repeat. 

Southern Sweet Tea from K-Cups

Hopefully you have enjoyed the K-Cup coffee recipes and our K-Cup tea recipes because we love sharing them with you! Recently, we shared a post about K-cup iced tea and people seemed to love it, so, how about a recipe to make southern sweet tea? Indeed, it does sound awesome.

As you know, we love to share recipes that do not require a lot of work, crazy ingredients, and that require you to run out to the store; all the recipes we share have ingredients that you should already have in your home (unless you ran out and are due for a grocery trip anyhow). Well, this recipe falls right in line with the others on that regard.

True southern sweet tea is made by using some black tea, putting it into a big jug of water, then placing it out in the sun to do its thing. This way is just as tasty and refreshing with a fraction of the waiting time. It doesn't require waiting hours and hours and no powdered teas, just a simple K-cup. 

The ingredients you will need for this recipe are:

• 1 black tea K-cup (I like the Celestial English Breakfast)
• 2 teaspoons of sugar or artificial sweetener (whatever you enjoy more or must use)
• 1 slice of lemon (you can do a very small wedge but a slice works better)
• a tall glass
• Measuring cup

Now that you have your ingredients ready to go, let's get started. 

1. Take your tall glass and fill it up with ice. Do it to the brim but you can hold a few cubes back if you'd prefer. 
2. Place the sugar into the measuring cup. Do not put it into the tall glass. 
3. Brew your K-cup into the measuring cup, not the glass with ice. 
4. Mix the sugar and tea together until all the sugar is mixed in. 
5. Pour the tea from the measuring cup into the glass with ice. 
6. The ice will melt in the glass so you'll likely want to add more. 
7. Place the slice of lemon on the rim of the glass, or in the glass on top, or whatever you want, it's your iced tea. 
8. Drink up! 

A convenient and easy place to buy K-cups is right here at Coffeevines :)

K-Cup Recipe: Perfect Iced Tea for Summer

It's hot outside, for many of us, it is humid as well and that makes it so much worse. How can we stay cool in these days of summer? Sure, you could turn on the air conditioning but what about when you have to go outside or you would rather have the windows open? One of the best things is to cool down with a nice iced beverage.

So to help you out, we researched a fantastically simple yet delicious recipe for an iced tea that is made from K-cup iced tea. As usual, the ingredients in this recipe are easy and are likely things you already have around your kitchen; if you do have to run to the store, they are easy to get and cheap. It's not like you'll have to order off the internet and shipped from Bangladesh.

Here are the ingredients and tools you will need for this recipe:

• A nice tall 12 ounce glass
• Ice ( of course, but had to say it)
• Citrus of some kind (lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit. Lemon or lime will work best, though)
• Sugar or artificial sweetener (if you like it a little sweet)
• Mint leaves (optional but adds a nice taste and look)
• Iced tea K-cup (does not matter what brand or what kind of tea, just use whatever kind is your favorite.)

Now that you have your ingredients and tools ready to go, here is how you make your delicious beverage. 

1. Fill your 12 ounce glass with ice. Put in as much ice as you would like, whether a lot or a little. 
2. Place your glass at your single cup brewer. Brew your K-cup into that 12 ounce glass. 
3. Take whatever kind of citrus fruit you are using and cut it into wedges (like we said, you can use lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit). Squeeze one wedge into the iced tea then place the rest into the glass for a nice look (put in as many as you'd like). 
4. Place the mint into the glass (if you are using any mint). 
5. Enjoy while soaking up some rays. 

Looking for an easy place to buy K-cups? Then shop Coffeevines. 

5 Things You Need to Know About Green Tea

Green Tea is one of the most common forms of tea consumed in the country, perhaps world; of course, this is for good reason. Green tea has good flavor and it has numerous health benefits. There are plenty of health benefits of green tea that we all know about but there are also ones that remain more hidden.

Some of the benefits that have been discovered about green tea have been debated so it's important to do research; however, it is true that many of the proclaimed health benefits of the stuff are indeed true.

1. It helps with weight loss. Green tea has a compound in it that is known to boost a persons's metabolism. When your metabolism is higher, it burns off calories and such from food easier and faster than a slower metabolism. When fewer of those calories and fats make it through your system, you have less weight gain; pair that with exercise and a decent diet and you have weight loss. 
2. It helps with diabetes. When you have diabetes, glucose levels can be hard to manage. Green tea has been been reported to help control glucose levels, this helps slow down the blood sugar from rising after you eat. 
3. It helps with heart disease. It has been studied that green tea has the ability to improve the inner lining of the blood vessels; when the lining of the blood vessels is strong, the vessels withstand the changes in blood pressure much better than when the linings are weak. 
4. It helps with esophageal cancer. Esophageal cancer is getting much more common among people and green tea is able to help with that. Green tea is known for its ability to limit free radicals and cancer cells. 
5. It helps with cholesterol. Green tea has the ability to help reduce the bad cholesterol in your body, this improves the good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio. 

So drink up your green tea. Now that it's summer, having some iced green tea is even better. If you are looking for some great stuff, then shop Coffeevines because we have Celestial Green Tea and Bigelow Green Tea. 

3 Tips for Making the Best Iced Coffee from K Cups

It is technically summer, official summer does not start for another month, but the weather is already saying, "I'm here!" and so this means iced coffee. Coffee lovers still need to get our fixes every day, perhaps more than once a day, but sometimes the heat just makes it too difficult to enjoy a hot cup.

You can't deny that having a single cup coffee machine gives you the latest and greatest coffee offerings and is also convenient. Forget about measuring out all sorts of amounts for coffee every morning. Now, k cup coffee machines have yet to really nail down the "iced coffee" option, so we still have to brew it like normal and then mix in some ice but still, having one of these makes making an iced coffee even better and easier.

So what are three things that every coffee lover needs to remember when they try to make their cup of iced coffee this summer?

1. The ice. This is a really common mistake for people to make. A lot of "at-home baristas" think that you need to wait until the end of the brewing to add in your ice cubes. While you can still achieve a real good cup of iced coffee by adding in your ice post-brewing, you can get an even better result by putting them in the mug before brewing the coffee. Why? Well, when you put the ice in before brewing, you allow the coffee to cool while brewing; this allows the coffee to become cooler and creamier, faster. 
2. The coffee blends. Choosing the best coffee blend is a a big help to making a
   
   delicious cup of coffee. The right coffee will make a nice and delicious cup of iced coffee that will get your taste buds buzzing. Try to use either a french vanilla k cup because that will go really well with any cream you add into the coffee. 
3. The cream, sugar, and milk you add. You can add your combination of these and in varying amounts, it's up to you; it depends if you like a creamier coffee or a stronger coffee flavor. 

The heat of summer will not squash your love of good coffee, so conquer the heat with a great iced coffee. 

What You Should Know About Tea

Tea is a fun and healthy drink. There are many health benefits to it and it is interesting to know a lot about it. We have compiled another list of cool things that you ought to know about tea. Once you read these, you'll want to get some tea for yourself.

1. "Tea", the word, comes from the Chinese word, T'e; this word hails from a Chinese dialect called Amoy. The word is the name of the plant that the tea leaves come from.
2. "Chai" comes from the Mandarin word "Ch'a". 
3. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Black tea, green tea, and oolong tea all come from leaves that are pulled from the same tea plants; what makes them different are their processes. Black tea is fermented, oolong is semi fermented, white tea is unfermented, and green tea is unfermented as well. White tea is from the same bush as the others but is picked before the tea buds open. 
4. According to Chinese stories, Emperor Shen Nong was the first man to discover tea in 2737 BC. His servants were purifying water and some leaves from tea bushes fell into the water and created tea. In tea's early days, it was for medicinal use only. 
5. When a Jesuit priest named Jasper visited China from Portugal, he traded with men in the region and was allowed to bring the tea leaves back to Portugal with him. This is believed to be how tea made its way to Europe. 
6. All the way until the mid-1800s, China was the world's biggest producer of tea and their main customer was Great Britain. Great Britain began finding tea from places like India, Africa, and other regions when it grew harder to find tea from China. 
7. United Arab Emirates is the biggest consumer of tea in the world, consuming 14 pounds of tea every year. China is still the world's biggest producer of it. England comes in seventh, the United States is in 69th. 
8. Tea used to not be brewed from tea bags, that did not happen until Thomas Sullivan, an American, sent some to customers in some silk pouches. His customers did not know to take the tea out of the silk. 
9. The world's most expensive tea hails from China, in the mountains of Ya'An, located in the wonderful province of Sichuan. The way it gets to be the world's most expensive tea is due to how it is grown. Field workers fertilize the tea plants with the feces from the pandas since it is so nutritional. How much for a cup? About $200. 

If you are looking for more moderately priced, yet gourmet quality, tea, then shop Coffeevines. Find great brands of single cup tea.