Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Classic Crumb Cake

I've been making a lot of recipes from cookbooks lately. Sure, I can come up with my own creations, and I often do, but it's nice to take a break and make someone else's recipes, too. I don't have to think too hard about it, all I have to do is follow instructions.

This time I made a cake recipe from Fine Cooking Cakes and Cupcakes, which has recipes from multiple authors you might be familiar with. I bookmarked a whole lot of recipes that sounded pretty teriffic, but ended up making a crumb cake from Abby Dodge.

I love crumb cake, but I thought a 9x13 cake would be a little too big for just the two of us, so I cut the recipe neatly in half and baked it in a smaller square pan. Now that I've made it, I realize I should have made the whole thing - it's really good.

But! This cake had a pretty large portion of crumbs compared to cake. Some people might think that's the best thing ever, but I think next time around I'll make the full cake recipe and half of the topping, and bake it in the same square pan I used, so the cake is thicker but the topping is still thick

Although I haven't tried it, I think this would also make great crumb-topped cupcakes. Oh yeah!

Classic Crumb Cake
Adapted from Fine Cooking Cakes and Cupcakes
Recipe by Abby Dodge

For the crumb topping:
12 ounces unsalted butter (plus more as needed)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
12 ounces all purpose flour

For the cake:
9 ounces (2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
Reserved 1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar, for dusting (I didn't use this)

To make the topping:
In a saucepan, melt the butter, the remove from the heat. Pour out 1/2 cup of the butter (you'll use the 1/2 cup for the cake) and add the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the  butter remaining in the saucepan/ Stir well, breaking up an lumps of sugar. Add the flour and stir well. Set aside until needed.

To make the cake:
Heat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x13 baking pan (I used baking spray instead.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla extract.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined. Pour into the prepared baking pan and spread evenly, smoothing the top.

Break up the crumb mixture with your fingers or a fork and sprinkle evenly over the cake batter.

Bake at 350 degrees until the top is lightly browned, the cake bounces back when lightly pressed in the center, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Cool on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving (I didn't.)

I received a digital version of this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Yum