Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Lemon Curd and fennel

• 1 cup milk
• 1 large fennel plant
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup lemon curd

1. preheat oven to 350*
2. Grease and flour a bundt pan
3. place the fennel leaves in a medium pot with milk. Bring the milk to boil and let infuse for 5 minutes. Then drain the milk to remove the fennel leaves.
4. Place the milk with cold butter, sour cream, and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix on low for 5 minutes.
5. Add the eggs and mix until smooth.
6. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
7. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
8. Slowly pour half of the batter inside the bundt pan. 
9. Layer the lemon curd over the batter and pour the remaining batter over the lemon curd.
10. Bake for 40-50 minutes.
11. Cool for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack before removing it from the pan

 I've been loving the Trader Joe's lemon curd. I eat it by the spoonful, it's that good. I tend to like anything lemony and tart. I'm also a huge fan of sour cream coffee cakes, they're so moist and fluffy it feels like you're biting into clouds, clouds of sweet lemon...delish. As for the fennel I picked some up at the farmer's market this week and wasn't really sure what to make of it besides my usual tea. I'm happy with the result but if you're not a big fan of fennel just omit it and use heavy cream instead of milk for the batter.

enjoy!

oh, and have yourself a lovely Easter.