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 : )

Rich Chocolate Cake with Fluffy White Frosting

Every so often at work we have a pot-luck brunch to celebrate birthdays. This week we had one to celebrate the winter birthdays and also to welcome back a co-worker returning from maternity leave. I am always bringing baked godos in to work and everyone seems to enjoy them, so I always sign up to bake something for these pot-lucks. This time I said I'd bake a cake. I didn't have much time this week so I was looking for a simple cake to make but also something I hadn't made before. I turned to a cookbook that my friend gave me featuring all chocolate recipes. I found a cake recipe in there that looked good and the frosting recipe that went with it also sounded good and was a kind of frosting I hadn't made before. I halved the recipe for the cake and for the frosting because the original recipe yielded a 13 X 9 cake and since I work in a small office, we didn't need such a large cake. Everyone said this cake tasted good and it certainly was chocolatey!

The frosting was described as being marshmallow-y and it did taste like that. I've never had a frosting like this before but it was really easy to make even though it required using a double boiler and a candy thermometer. It had very few ingredients and it set up nice.

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Chocolate!)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened (I used unsalted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9-inch round cake pan. (I sprayed with baking spray).

In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar at low speed until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. The mixture may appear grainy.

Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.

Frost with Fluffy White Frosting:

1 large egg white
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a medium bowl set over a 3-4 quart saucepan filled with 1 inch simmering water, beat egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup and cream of tartar with hand-held mixer until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted and mixture reaches 160 degrees F on candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Remove bowl from pan; beat egg-white mixture until stiff, glossy peaks form when beaters are lifted, 5-10 minutes longer.

Frost cake with frosting using a narrow spatula. Enjoy!

Grapefruit Cake

I have always loved grapefruit, but this winter, I've become seriously obsessed. I've been eating a grapefruit a day (will that keep the doctor away?) My grandma used to send our family a grapefruit and orange basket each winter when I was younger. Those Florida oranges and grapefruits are so delicious! They are also so expensive though- I thought about ordering one for myself but it came out to about $3.50 per grapefruit! Instead I bought a 5lb bag of red grapefruit at the supermarket for like $3. The quality isn't as good (the grapefruit are pretty small) but they still taste delicious to me! I've made this cake a few other times before. It's from the Ad Hoc cookbook. I halved the recipe because the original recipe made two loaf pans and I didn't think I needed that much cake. This is one of the few things I bake that my mom just loves and requests more of! She doesn't have a big sweet tooth, which is why she doesn't normally eat the things I bake, but she loves this cake, which isn't too sweet.

This cake also gave me the opportunity to use the awesome Christmas gift my sisters got me- these florist measuring cups from Anthropologie! They are so adorable!

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc At Home cookbook)

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 2/3 c sugar

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil)

1 tbls grated pink grapefruit zest

1 tsp vanilla

 

Grapefruit Syrup:

 

1 cup strained fresh pink grapefruit juice

2/3 cup sugar

 

Grapefruit Icing:

 

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tbls + 1 tsp fresh pink grapefruit juice.

 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 10 by 4 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

 

Sift flour and baking powder and stir in the salt.

 

Combine sugar and eggs in stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes until whisk leaves a trail. Beat in the milk, then the oil. grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate.

 

Spread batter in pan. Bake 30 minutes, turn pan around so cake will color evenly and bake another 30 minutes.

 

Combine grapefruit juice and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar and simmer for 1 minute.

 

As soon as you remove cake from oven, use knife to poke holes in it and immediately pour in grapefruit syrup. Let cake cool for 10 minutes then unmold. Cool completely. Stir powdered sugar and grapefruit juice together in a bowl and drizzle over the top of the cake.