Happy Hour

After working all weekend, the last thing I wanted to do on Sunday (my new Friday) was sit around at home watching the Grammys with my family. I wanted to at least have a few drinks and maybe dance for a minute.

Not surprisingly, Dani ended up at my house shortly after I got home. She had other ideas: "Let's watch the Grammys at my house!" I persisted for a short time trying to finagle a night out, but Dani was adamant. "Fine," I finally conceded. "But we are going to bake something." And so came to be Grammy Crumb Cake. Baked Explorations guided me in this endeavor. This guidance entailed a detailed account of the difference between coffee cake and New York Style Crumb cake. This cake is the latter. Now, as I might have already mentioned, I am a coffee cake master (bake-off crowned). Crumb cake, while similar, is different enough that I decided it was worth experimenting with a new recipe and not simply re-creating my tiara winning coffee cake. The result was quite excellent, although Dani had the brilliant suggestion of using the cake recipe I use for coffee cake, and combining this with the crumb part of the crumb cake to make a perfect coffee crumb hybrid. Drool.

Anyway, I branched out a little from the Baked recipe. Since, as always, we had no sour cream, I used yogurt instead. This has never noticeably hurt a recipe, to the best of my knowledge (and yes, I suppose it is better for you). I also substituted in some whole wheat flour for all-purpose, and cut back on some cinnamon in the topping. Cheers to Dani for top quality photography.

Grammy Crumb Cake

Top-part
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 tbsp cinnamon
* 1 cup butter, melted (I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
* 2 1/2 cups flour

Cake-part
* 1 cup all purpose flour
* 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 3/4 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1 1/2 sticks butter
* 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
* 2 eggies
* 1 1/4 cups yogurt
* 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350˚ F.

Make the top-part. Mix the sugars, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter. Gently fold in the butter (mostly to avoid a giant mess). Set aside.

Make the cake-part. Combine the flours, b.p., b.s. and salt in a medium-sized bowl. In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar (I again turned to the beaters, but Dani quickly commandeered this step with a wooden spoon and much vigor). When well creamed, beat in the eggs, then yogurt and vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients in three batches (a common step for cake making). Don't overmix, but don't undermix.

Grease a 9x13 inch glass baking pan. Pour in the batter. Grab a handful of the crumble part and squeeze it together. Break off big chunks of the crumble and drop onto the batter.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for at least 20 minutes (or as long as you can handle) before cutting. Then demolish.