Nutella Coffeecake and What Happened to My Camera

I had a lovely blog post all set to go, but there's no picture. 

Why? Why is there no photo, you ask?

Because I foolishly tucked my camera into the pocket of my jacket when I went kayaking this weekend. I'm not sure why I thought this would be a good idea. I did think it would be fun to have pictures of my friends paddling along. But cameras don't like water.

No, they don't.

I didn't capsize, but I got much wetter than I anticipated. The river was moving fast due to all the rain we've had, and even as I paddled furiously, it came up over the sides. We might have been better off with surfboards.

Within just a few minutes I was sitting hip deep in water, yet somehow managing to stay afloat. And the camera, while zipped securely in my pocket, sucked up water like a sponge. 

So sad for my little camera. Now I have to find a new one. One that will hopefully take excellent pictures of all kinds of food.  Do you have any suggestions? I could really use some words of advice from those of you who take such beautiful food shots - what do you use?

I did promise to post the Nutella Coffeecake recipe from last week. So here it is, with a picture I had already taken. It's a nice sweet ending to a brunch. And it's great to do ahead of time - keep it in the freezer until ready to serve.

Nutella Coffeecake, adapted from Cooking Light

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 (16 oz.) container sour cream (regular or lowfat)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts, toasted

1/2 cup (approx.) Nutella

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray for baking (such as Baker's Joy).

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and sour cream and beat until well blended.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk lightly to blend. Add flour mixture to sour cream mixture, stirring until just combined.

Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with hazelnuts. Drop spoonfuls of Nutella over nuts,and spread to almost cover batter. Spoon remaining cake batter over Nutella. Swirl gently with a knife.

Bake for 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan, on a wire rack, at least 15 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely on wire rack. When ready to serve, sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar.

Do you love Nutella?

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