Back to the Kitchen

When I was home this past weekend, my parents were hosting a large brunch for the many members of our family who were visiting and various people with cute children that I wanted to hang out with (because I like kids). My dad (who reads my blog) requested that I make my corn puddtata, so I made a big one (which was eaten in about 25 minutes. Seriously). I thought it would be nice to also make a classic crumb cake (or as my dad calls it, a bubka), to which my parents said "Cake? For brunch? Are you sure?" It took me a while to convince them that crumb cake with coffee would be a perfectly acceptable addition to brunch, but I did it, and I shall now show you the results of my labor.

I got my recipe from Abigail Johnson Dodge's The Weekend Baker. It reminds me of the coffee cake that they used to serve at my middle school's food service. I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but it sure makes me happy.


For the Topping:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I put in 1/2 tsp by accident - but it was fine)
pinch of salt
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

For the Cake:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

First make the topping. Melt the butter over medium heat.


Here's my butter all melted. I like the blue spatula. Take it off the heat and add the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Stir with a spatula (that's what the recipe says, but I imagine you could just use a spoon and it would be fine) until there are no lumps. Here's my lack of lumps:


Add the flour and mix well.


Set aside. Here's what mine looked like!


Next you make the cake! First preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan with butter. Lots of butter. Your goal should be to use a full pound in your recipe (just kidding. But there's a lot of butter here. That's what makes it great).


Combine your dry ingredients and whisk until blended.


Combine your wet ingredients! Whisk until blended. My mom bought this new pretty whisk to replace the rusty metal one she used to have. It's Le Creuset. Very fancy. Plus, it's a cool color.Make sure your butter is cooled, otherwise it could curdle your eggs and that would be gross.


Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently stir until it's just blended.


Pour it into your pan and spread it evenly.


Then comes the best part - you break up the topping over the cake. Try to make pretty crumbs. And use your hands! That's the fun part.

See my pretty manicure? I'm such a stylish baker. Here's my topping all spread out nice over the cake.


Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack and eat. Yum!

I wanted to take pictures of it once it was cut up, because the layers look really cool, but I forgot and then people ate it too fast.

I saw my dad eat this cake for breakfast on Sunday. I thought this meant that my cake was really good, since he usually eats hockey pucks (health disk-y things) or healthy cereal for breakfast.