Icing on the cake...

The last few weeks have been something of a rush as we've scrambled to fit in birthdays, vacation and the dreaded back-to-school shop. (Is that just a boy thing? Because I used to love back to school shopping. My two fellas hate it with the passion of a thousand blazing suns.) Bottom line, I'm a bit behind in terms of keeping this food journal up to date. First order of business - birthday cake. I can't believe I have a nine year old, but it's true. Daniel requested a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his cake this year and I was happy to oblige.

Raspberry Crumb Cake

This past weekend was busy. Busy in a 'what fun thing do we get to do next' kind of way, not busy in a 'what do we have to do now' kind of way. Always prefer the former.

After making a rather large quantity of raspberry jam for my doughnut hole experiment I realized I was going to be eating raspberry jam for breakfast every day for a month (or two) unless I could find a creative way to use up a large quantity of raspberry jam. One of our weekend activities was entertaining family after a rousing game of t-ball and I wanted an easy fuss-free treat to serve on the patio. The raspberry jam was staring at me from the fridge all week so Thursday night I pulled it out, set it on the counter and determined to bake it into something delicious. Solution: Raspberry Crumb Cake. Found on a lovely little blog called The Corner Kitchen:

Raspberry Big Crumb Coffee Cake

(Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2011)

For the crumb topping:

1 3/4 cups flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

For the cake:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 buttermilk

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

3/4 cup raspberry jam (or any other flavor you fancy)

Crumb topping

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugars, cinnamon & salt.  Pour melted butter over the mixture, and mix using your hands, until large clumps form.  (Mixing with your hands, versus using a wooden spoon or spatula makes for bigger crumbs).

Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line an 8x8 baking pan with tin foil (or you can butter the pan).  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl (or mixer), beat butter and sugar on medium speed until pale yellow and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  Beat in egg and egg yolk, one at a time.  Beat in vanilla.  Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of buttermilk (beginning & ending with flour).  Continue to beat until well combined.

Spoon batter into pan, and spread evenly.  Evenly spread the jam across the top of the batter.  Sprinkle crumb topping over the jam layer.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.  Dust with confectioners' sugar.

This cake really delivers - large crumbly topping, fresh raspberry jam, moist cake...it was great with lemonade and iced tea on the patio and it was great with a latte the next morning. You could likely substitute any jam you like for the raspberry. Blueberry strikes me as something I'd like to try. Next time....

Birthday Cake

While I always enjoy the opportunity to make a cake I must admit I don't love cake decorating. Maybe it's because I tend to look before I leap. I'm the type of person who gets an idea and thinks "How hard can that be?" and mid-way through the execution of said idea, I discover just how hard 'it' actually is. Birthday cakes are my baking Achilles heel. They either look good or taste good - rarely both. A brief history of birthday cakes my household has known:


This I made for my son's first birthday. It's a 3-D cake and it doesn't look bad but it was unremarkable in terms of taste. As I recall it was also difficult to serve. Watching your mummy set fire to then dismember a duck doesn't make for a happy first birthday. Next.