Cinnamon Coffee Crumb Cake (and a Giveaway!)

Lately, my mornings have either consisted of going to school to fill in as a substitute teacher, or sitting on the couch with coffee and checking the employment page of the local school district to check for openings.  Sometimes my mornings include putting resumes in envelopes with care and rushing to the post office, wishing them well when I send them off to their destination.  On those mornings, this Cinnamon Coffee Crumb Cake makes the perfect breakfast to go along with my morning coffee and job hunting.  


This is quite possibly the best Crumb Cake I've ever tasted.  It is a glorious combination of a Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake with a thick, buttery Crumb Cake topping.  The cinnamon swirl in the middle makes the cake very moist (an almost under-baked texture in parts) and the high ratio of crumbs to cake balances out that super moistness perfectly.  

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping:
For the Cake (adapted from Epicurious):
1-1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1-1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of fine sea salt


Directions:
Lightly grease an 8x8 or 9x9 square cake pan and line with parchment.  Preheat to 350.  
In a small bowl, mix together 1/3 cup granulated sugar with the brown sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder and salt.  In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt and the baking soda and stir.  Set both bowls aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy.  While mixer is on low, pour in the granulated sugar and continue to beat.  Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Beat in the vanilla.
Stir in the flour mixture in 3 parts alternately with the yogurt mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Stir until well combined.
Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle half of the cinnamon-brown sugar mixture on top.  Then, pour the rest of the batter on top of the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Top off with the remainder of the cinnamon sugar mixture.  With a knife, gently swirl the cinnamon sugar mixture into the batter (not all of it will get swirled in and that is ok).
Over the cake batter, squeeze handfuls of the Crumb Topping Mixture (see recipe below) together to crumble into small clumps.  Drop evenly over the cake batter, covering completely (the crumb layer will be thick!)
Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean with only moist crumbs on it.  Allow to cool on a wire rack.  


For the New York Style Crumb Topping (adapted from Epicurious):
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
around 1-1/2 to 2 tsp ground cinnamon (depending on how cinnamony you want it)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool slighlty
1 - 1/4 cup all purpose flour


Whisk both sugars, cinnamon and salt together in a medium bowl.  Add the warm melted butter and stir to blend.  Add flour and toss with a fork until moist clumps of crumb topping form.

Yes, each slice of this deserves to be served on its own pedestal.  

And... now it's time for a Giveaway!  Recently, the kind people at Thomas Nelson publishing company offered me a copy of their new book: Dining with Joy.  This book has been a fun and very welcome distraction during my job searching days.  It is a quick, easy read about a woman named Joy who was thrust into the role of TV Cooking show host, following her father's death.  Readers follow Joy's ups and downs in the Television business and foodie world, as well as in her personal life.  


Joy was pretty lucky in that she was named JOY.  I mean, "Dining with Joy" - that's a pretty darn cute name for a cooking show whose host's name is Joy.  
To enter this contest, simply leave a comment below telling me what you would call your own TV cooking show if you had one.  I'd probably have to be on HBO and call my show "The Angry Baker" because I tend to get frustrated (and even curse a bit) while I'm baking.  If anyone has ever made a super silly mistake while preparing (and subsequently destroying) a recipe - one of my trademarks - then you'll understand :)
Want an extra entry?  Mention this contest on Facebook and include a link to this Post in your mention.  Leave a separate comment below telling me you've done so.
Want ANOTHER extra entry?  Mention this contest on Twitter and include a link to this post in your mention.  Leave a separate comment below telling me you've done so. 
Contest will end Jan. 27th at midnight and I'll announce the winner on Fri. the 28th.

Crumb Cake Brownies

I have really been enjoying this small break between classes. There's only a few weeks from the time Spring semester ends and Summer A semester begins, but I have tried to get the most out of this short time. I've been reading (leisure reading, not required class reading-imagine that!), lots of wedding planning, laying in the Florida sun, kayaking, wave runnering, and baking... Sadly, Summer A begins on Monday (already????? ARG) but I just keep telling myself - its only 8 weeks long! And then I'll be DONE WITH CLASSES for my masters degree. All I will have left after that is a full-time, one semester long internship and I will graduate fully certified to teach art. :)

So during this brief break from school work, I've actually been able to bake more often than just once a week which is something that is nearly impossible during the semester. Any break time I get during the semester, I either get a head start on upcoming assignments, or I take a moment to relax. But since I've been able to bake more, I keep getting Baker's Block. Is that a thing, baker's block? It's when I want to bake, but can't think of what to make! I find that I often fall back on a few different desserts. Blondies and Brownies are near the top of that list. Sure, I'll try out new recipes, but its usually a new recipe for a brownie or blondie. I think this is for a few reasons. 1.) Everyone loves them 2.) They pair oh-so-well with ice cream and 3.) They're adaptable - use a different recipe, change up the mix-ins, and you can have a new take on a familiar, old-favorite. But while searching the other day through my oodles and oodles of Bookmarked "Make This!" links, I found something that sounded a little different than just using peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips. Imagine what would happen if a Fudgy Brownie (so fudgy its on the border of being fudge and not a brownie at all) and Crumb Cake. What do you get? A crazy delicious hybrid: Crumb Cake Brownies. I got the idea from Donna of My Tasty Treasures, who got the recipe from Womans Day Magazine Holiday Cookies Jan 2009. Thanks for sharing another great recipe, Donna! I took the idea for this recipe - a bottom brownie layer topped with Crumb Cake or Coffee Cake topping. In the original from Womans Day, it was a Brownie Cake, but I subbed in a regular ol' brownie base to make it even fudgier and indulgent-er. YU-UMS.

For my brownie base, I chose Max Brenner's Brownie recipe, via Anna at Cookie Madness (who did all the work for me and scaled it down!) For the topping, I chose my favorite Crumb Cake topping from Epicurious. For me, it yielded 16 super rich Crumb Cake Brownies.



Small Batch of Max Brenner Brownies, adapted from Cookie Madness
Ingredients:
1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
10 ½ ounces dark chocolate (approx. 70%), roughly chopped
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 generous teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 batch of Crumb Topping

Preheat to 350° and line a 8" square pan with parchment. Put the chopped chocolate in a medium glass mixing bowl.
Set the butter and cream over medium heat and bring to a boil. When it has reached a boil, pour on to the chocolate and let it sit to allow the chocolate to soften and melt. After a minute or two, stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes (now is a good time to prepare your crumb topping!).
Add vanilla to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Whisk in sugar and salt.
Add the flour to the chocolate mixture. Stir gently until just combined, don't overmix! Crumble the crumb topping evenly over the brownie batter.

Crumb Topping, adapted from Epicurious's Jam Crumb Cake recipe
Ingredients:
6 TBL unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool slightly
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Whisk together melted butter, both sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Stir in flour, then blend and poke with a fork until it becomes crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over top of brownie batter. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Cool in the pan on a cooling rack. Remove from pan before cutting.





These came out really, really good. The brownie base is SUPER rich, and SO fudgy that it is on the verge of being called fudge. It is very soft - one of the comments I got from tasters was that it has a consistency totally different from a regular brownie. In fact, I think the crumbliness of the Crumb Cake Topping was a necessary addition to balance out the texture of the brownies. A definite would-make-again!

Individual Mini Coffee Cakes

Coffee cake. Delicious, simple, a classic. I love coffee cake, Daniel loves coffee cake. I wonder why I hadn't made it in so long! I had some time on my hands to kill the other morning, so I decided to make some so Dan could bring them to work for breakfast. I'm so nice, right? I had a recipe that I made quite a bit a few years ago, but since I like trying new ones out, I searched Food Network and Epicurious for a Coffee Cake recipe with a high rating and tons of good reviews. Finally I came across this one and decided to go with it. I only made minor changes, included leaving out the jammy swirl (sometimes, you shouldn't mess with a classic) and baking it in a cupcake pan to make little individual Coffee Cupcakes instead of one big one. Perfect for grab-and-go with your coffee in the morning!

They came out wonderful. The crumby topping, Dan's favorite part, was perfect. And the cake was moist, and not too sweet - perfect for first thing in the A.M. A definite would-make-again. Below is the recipe with my alterations.



Individual Mini Coffee Cakes from Epicurious
Cake Ingredients
1 C flour
1/2 C Sugar
1 3/4 Tsp baking powder
3/4 stick salted butter, melted
Pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter, up this to 1/4 tsp)
1/2 C Milk
1 large egg, room temperature

Crumb Topping Ingredients
3/4 stick salted butter, melted
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 C + 1 tablespoon flour (+ extra if needed)
Cinnamon Sugar

Cake:
Preheat oven to 390. Put paper liners in 11 cupcake wells in a cupcake pan.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Whisk together butter, milk, and egg in a large bowl. When combined, whisk in flour mixture until just combined - batter will be lumpy. Pour batter into the liners of a cupcake pan until ~ 2/3 - 1/2 full.

Crumbies:
Whisk together butter, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth.
Stir in flour with whisk, then stir through with a butter knife to create crumbies. Add more flour as needed to get a crumby texture. The crumbs will crisp up and dry out in the oven. Sprinkle crumbs over top of mini cakes, and LOAD 'EM UP - the crumbs are the best part! Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the top of the crumbs and the top of the muffins/cakes.

Bake cake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, ~ 17 - 22 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool completely on the wire rack.