New York Crumb Cake

The first time I went to New York City, I had this cake. I dreamt about it for weeks. It was in every little tiny bakery. Huge, HUGE sheets of this cake. This recipe is the closest I can get to it! Buttery and creamy, not too sweet, just a little cinnamon! Great for brunch, dessert…. Midnight snacks…

It is loosely adapted from this Cook’s Illustrated recipe that I made verbatim one time and it Stressed. Me. Out. I love Cook’s Illustrated recipes, and I usually read them as a starting place for new recipes I want to make, but I… shall we say, now heavily substitute and simplify this recipe. I’ve been making the recipe that follows for the last several years for Christmas.

Here are my Sloth Shortcuts:

Sloth Shortcut #1: Instead of cake flour (I never have this, seriously who has this) I sub out 2 T of cornstarch in a cup of flour. The quantities below reflect this. Cake flour is a lighter, lower protein flour, and this lightens up the flour texture.

Sloth Shortcut #2: I also never have buttermilk. If you do, for sure use it instead of this substitution, but I have literally not once used actual buttermilk in this recipe. This substitution works great: use about a teaspoon of vinegar with 1/3 cup of regular milk to “sour” the milk to make buttermilk. It will look gross. It will curdle. This is what you want. Counterintuitive, I know.

The topping is what makes takes the cake. I mean, it’s literally half the cake. It has more flour in it than the actual cake. When you pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients, the idea is to make some clumps. Some big, some small. When you add it to the top of the cake batter, add it ALL. You might be tempted to transfer just the big or pretty pieces. Just dump it all on. Don’t be too precious about it. You need all that butter and sugar and cinnamon goodness. As the cake bakes, a lot of those smaller pieces will sort themselves out… and it’s ok if some of the topping pieces fall off when you’re slicing it later because then you can eat them like candy. Win win.

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New York Crumb Cake

Servings: 12

Ingredients

Topping:

• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 c cornstarch
• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 cup butter melted and warm

Cake:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 6 T butter softened and cool
• 1/3 cup milk or use buttermilk, omit vinegar
• 1 t vinegar for buttermilk
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla

Instructions

Topping:

• Whisk the flour, cornstarch, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
• Pour melted butter over and rake with a fork to form clumps- some big, some small. Set aside.

Cake:

• Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper and grease.
• Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
• Mix in butter until it looks like crumbs.
• In a measuring cup, make the “buttermilk” (or use real buttermilk). Add 1 T white vinegar to the measuring cup and fill the rest of the way to 1/3 cup with milk. Let sit 5 minutes to curdle.
• To the measuring cup with the milk and vinegar, add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Slowly add these ingredients to the butter mixture while stirring. Beat until light and smooth and fluffy, about 1 minute.
• Spread the batter into the parchment paper in the pan- it is a thick batter. Add the crumb topping over the batter- large pieces, small pieces, all of it.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 35 – 40 minutes.
• When cool, dust with powdered sugar.