Not My Grandma's Crumb Cake
I must insist that this is not
my Grandma's Crumb Cake recipe
My love for crumb cake perhaps is found in my genetic makeup. Mix one part Italian with one park New Yorker and you get me a die hard lover of dense crumbs and a little bit of cake.
My Grandma Pellegrino had a tried and true simple recipe that I share above. While she baked with great gusto for any Catholic holiday the other days she still provided something sweet, lest I never fade away and starve to death. Crumb cake was a staple in her house. Perhaps she did it for me? She was diabetic, so one doesn't really know. All of that to say my Grandma trusted her cake batter to Duncan Hines. Not Betty Crocker, Not Pillsbury, Duncan Hines. The crumbs were all her own.
As I got older and began to sample this treat at local bakeries I discovered a crumb dense cake at my favorite local bakery Create-a-cake in Port Jefferson NY.
When my family moved to North Carolina I suffered through crumb cake withdrawal. I still had Grandma's trusted recipe in my pocket so I forged forward changing up the crumb recipe to make it my own.
Suddenly I found that "Make Crumb Cake" was repeatedly on my Trinity Commercial Cleaning Task task list (thank you Brian), along with invitations to visit provided I bring a crumb cake.
Don't feel bad for me, I am happy to bring a little bit of my beloved Grandma where ever I go.
In my quest for the perfect crumb, I stumbled on a recipe that was perfected by Cook’s Illustrated. It is super easy and made me step out of my box cake into a "from scratch recipe". I still resort back from time to time but this recipe is fantastic and I’m so excited to share it with you today! No more searching Mooresville bakeries, we have you covered. Now if you need the crumbs cleaned up afterwords we at Trinity Commercial Cleaning are here for that too! You need only call.
For me it is all about the crumbs.
Is there such a thing as TOO MANY CRUMBS?
HOW TO MAKE CRUMB CAKE
There’s no big secret to making a great crumb cake wether using a box cake or from scratch.
But, there’s a little trick in how to create the perfect crumb topping.
To make this cake, you’ll start by making the crumb topping. Once you mix the crumb topping together, it’s going to look a bit dry. This is how it should look so trust the process. If you add more butter it will lend to crisper crumbs. Put the butter down!
Then you’ll mix up the batter of butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and liquid buttermilk. The cake flour is necessary here instead of all-purpose flour to make the cake super soft and tender.
Once you’ve got the batter in the baking pan, you’ll start to crumble the crumb mixture on top. Gradually work your way around the edges and make your way to finish with the last of the crumbs in the center. THIS IS THE TRICK!
This trick will prevent the heavy crumbs from sinking into the light cake when the cake bakes. It will also ensure that the crumbs are evenly distributed across the top of the cake.
It works EVERY time!!
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING:
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (2 ⅔ oz)
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar (2 ⅔ oz)
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick or 4 oz), melted and still warm
- 1 ¾ cups cake flour (7 oz) (see Note #1 below)
FOR THE CAKE:
- 1 ¼ cups cake flour (5 oz)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (3 ½ oz)
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp table salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter (¾ stick or 3 oz), cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup liquid buttermilk (not dried buttermilk powder)
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
INSTRUCTIONS
- To make the topping: Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
- To make the cake: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325° F. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.
- In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.
- Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer. Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces between your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center.
- Bake until crumbs are golden and wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang. Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.
NOTES
- If you don't have cake flour, you can make your own. You'll need a total of 3 cups of cake flour for the crumb topping and the cake. So, make the cake flour first and then divide it up for the called-for amounts in the crumb topping and cake recipes. To do this, remove 9 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and replace it with 9 tablespoons of cornstarch. Then, sift it together 5 times before dividing it up.
- It's important to take your time when adding the crumb topping to the top of the batter. Start at the edges and work your way towards the center. This will help prevent the crumbs from sinking into the cake since the heaviest part of the batter (the center) will have some lift by the time you get there. And whatever you do, don't pat the crumbs down - you'll push the air out of the batter and prevent the cake from rising.
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, May 2007 and Grandma Pellegrino's world class crumb cake recipe.
