Four little loaf cakes to take to a picnic (which, chez moi, would never be outdoors), to pack for travel or just keep in the kitchen to peck at and enjoy from morning to night.
The batter is an almost classic sour cream coffeecake and the swirl is cinnamon, sugar, dried fruit and nuts, but there’s a small twist: instead of putting all the swirl in the cake, I mix some in with a portion of the batter. You get a cake with three different layers: a bottom layer of plain cake; a middle layer of swirl; and a top layer with fruit and spice and texture that’s different from the other layers. No more work; lots more fun.
The story and recipe are from my Everyday Dorie column for Washington Post Food.
Photograph by Goran Kosanovic for the Washington Post.