Marionberry Swirl Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

It’s a pretty cake isn’t it? What girl doesn’t like a little pink icing? I know I do. It’s festive and even though it’s coffee cake the color makes me want to indulge in a couple glasses of bubbly with a slice.

I hope you can all get Marionberry jam in your neck of the woods, it’s a very Oregon product. In fact 90 percent of the world’s Marionberries are grown close to my home, how lucky am I?

There are only a handful of areas in the world where Marionberries thrive and right here in the Willamette Valley is one of those places. In fact, it’s known as the Marionberry Capitol of the World. Our valley’s very wet, spring rains and summers that are warm in the daytime and cool at night, provide the perfect conditions to produce these sweet and plump berries.

It’s taste is distinctively sweet, but has a mildly tart and lasting flavor.  People who visit Oregon seek it out, making it one of the most popular souvenirs (next to wine) purchased by visitors to the Willamette Valley.

If you are not in this area, make sure to check out a higher end grocery store. They usually have fancier jam products and will often carry a selection of Marionberry jam.

Marionberry jam is beautifully colored. So gorgeous in fact, it inspired me to make the pinkish Marionberry icing. I think jam icing is going to be my new thing. It would be such a great addition to so many goodies.

I also wanted to test out a new stand mixer sent over to me by the lovely folks from Hamilton Beach.
Here’s what I noticed right away, it was light, even though it’s a heavy duty product. I really appreciated that and I think lots of people will too. Not everyone has the where-with-all to lift a stand mixer, this one makes it possible.

I loved the tilt-up head, which made it easy to put on and remove the mixing attachments as well as add ingredients to the bowl. But probably my favorite feature was how the mixing action completely covered the whole bowl, including the bottom. That doesn’t always happen and I loved, loved it. A lot less scraping of the bowl sides were necessary.

The non-slip feet on the bottom of the unit meant the mixer did not bounce around on my counter when I had it going on high speed. Overall using the mixer was a great experience.

This particular coffee cake is delicate. If you overmix the batter it will be a little tough. This is where it’s nice to have a stand mixer that can efficiently mix up the ingredients with a few gentle turns. This helps keep your baked items soft and enjoyable.

The marionberry jam and almond mixture is placed on top of the cake. I used my absolute favorite tube pan to bake this cake.

With a butter knife, swirl the jam mixture into the batter. I’ll be honest, swirling into cake batter is not an easy thing. It looks simple, but it’s a technique requiring some practice.

Getting the jam mixed throughout the batter takes time and precision. Do the best you can and use what you’ve learned on your next swirl project, improving each time.

Here is what your cake will look like right out of the pan.

Hamilton Beach also sent me their Softscrape Hand Mixer. I loved the weight of it in my hands, but I especially enjoyed the coated stainless steel blades. I will no longer scratch my pots and pans while I mix up my creations and no more transferring to mix-safe bowls. I can’t tell you excited I was about this.

The mixer also comes with regular blades and a whisk attachment too.

I made my cinnamon whipped cream without issue and of course the blades are dishwasher safe.

Have a slice or two. I know you will enjoy it.

Disclosure: Hamilton Beach sent me these two products to test, I happened to love them both. All opinions about these items are 100 percent my own.

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