BAKED Sunday Mornings: New York Style Crumb Cake

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! What is everyone cooking/eating to celebrate today? This New York style crumb cake had a lot to live up to, as my parents are both originally from New York and I have eaten crumb cake many times growing up. This cake came out beautifully!

We haven't actually eaten this cake yet, as it will be our Easter dessert. My family is going to my sister's house today- we're having ham, pot roast, mashed potatoes and asparagus. My mom and sister are very excited for this crumb cake- I hope they can last until after dinner to cut into it!

This cake was very easy to make. I made a half-batch since we're not expecting too many people for Easter. I baked it in an 8-inch square pan and that seemed to work out well. The cake batter comes together easily and the crumb topping was even easier to put together! It was important to follow the recipe directions to let the crumb topping "rest" for awhile before putting it on top of the cake and baking it. I let mine rest for about half an hour and I could tell the difference in how it was a little dryer and came together in big clumps in my hand. The recipe states that big crumbs are integral to this recipe and I certainly had many big crumbs on top! Some of my crumbs came out a little smaller, but I don't think that's too much of a problem.

To hear how everyone else's cakes turned out, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings!

Enjoy : )

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Carrot-Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze

I've long wanted to bake something with carrot. I've never made carrot cake or carrot cupcakes because the idea of having to shred carrots intimidated me and I just never got around to trying a recipe. I'm so glad that Baked Sunday Mornings challenged me to make another recipe that I probably would never have tried. This was a fairly easy scone recipe to make. I didn't have to shred any carrots because this recipe calls for microwaving the carrot in orange juice and then pureeing it before adding it to the scone recipe. The recipe also called for using your fingers to rub in the butter into the dry ingredients. I usually use my pastry cutter for doing this but this time I decided to follow the directions and use my fingers. It seemed to get the job done quicker, although my hands were a lot messier! You then add in the wet ingredients and again use your hands to knead it all together. My dough seemed pretty sticky, but it was workable.

The recipe said to cut the dough into 6 or 8 pieces. I cut it into 8 pieces and froze 4 of them unbaked to bake at a later time. These scones came out so huge that I probably could have cut them in half again before baking! After cooling, you mix up the citrus glaze. The recipe called for powdered sugar, orange and lemon juice. I used only orange juice, because that's what I had. The scones were good but seemed very sweet. I definitely couldn't eat a whole one at once. The recipe used sweetened coconut but if I made them again I might use unsweetened coconut to see if that cut the sweetness at all.

I brought these to work and my co-workers shared them and seemed to like them!

To read how everyone else's scones came out and to see the recipe, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!