(Helen) Jean's Coffee Cake With Mandarin Sauce

We will probably never know who Jean is as it was from a piece out of the newspaper, but Helen must have really liked this coffee cake as it was in her cook book in an easily accessible place. I have a similar recipe, and one can find very similar recipes in most cook books simply called "Sour Cream Coffee Cake". The recipes may vary some in amounts of ingredients, but basically they are all the same, all delicious, and all worth making often! My family loves a variation of this recipe which I've been baking for many years.

(Helen) Jean's Coffee Cake With Mandarin Sauce

1/2 cup butter*
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. baking osda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 pint sour cream*
2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbls. cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well. Add vanilla. in separate bowl, add 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. Pour half of batter in pan*; sprinkle half of topping mixture over batter, add batter, then topping. Bake at 350 degrees 35-40 minutes, or till tests done. When cool, remove sides of pan. Serve Mandarin Sauce over slices of cake.
*Make sure the butter is room temperature.
*Half pint is 8 ounces
*Make sure your pans are well-greased even though it is not designated on the recipe.

Helen's Mandarin Sauce

3-4 Tbls. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. cornstarch
2 1/2 cups orange juice
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 Tbls. butter
2 cans (11 oz. each) Mandarin Oranges, drained

Combine sugar, salt, and cornstarch in pan. stir in orange juice and mix till smooth. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly till thickened and smooth. add extract and butter; blend well. Let cool 10 minutes; fold in oranges. Serve over slices of coffee cake.
*I think this is a recipe of Helen's as it is not marked whcih means it was not from the same paper as the recipe above.