Raspberry Big Crumb Coffee Cake

My mornings have been revolutionized!  I'm so excited about this crumb cake, that before I go any further I have to tell you that this is by far the BEST crumb cake I've ever tasted!  The best.  Oh, and I've eaten quite a lot of crumb cake over the years.  I have a couple deal breakers when it comes to crumb cake...(1) Cake that's too dry or too dense.  No, thank you.  (2) Lack of crumbs.  I like crumbs....lots and lots of big crumbs.  After all, this is crumb cake we're talking about.  This cake is everything I love in crumb cake, and more!  Most important, the cake is light, moist, buttery, not too sweet and stacked with tons of big, delicious crumbs.

I got to thinking about some of my favorite foods recently, and I noticed that a lot of my favorites have become favorites almost purely out of nostalgia.  I'll bet a lot of you can relate to this.  This crumb cake is certainly no exception.  While it's completely delicious, it also brings back so many vivid, happy memories from my childhood.  Specifically, this crumb cake brings me back to the countless mornings of having breakfast at my grandparents house.  Looking back, I feel lucky to have had a set of grandparents who lived just a couple miles down the street and who I saw all the time.  Growing up it seemed like there was always a box of Entenmann's Crumb Coffee Cake in their cubbard (as well as a Pepperidge Farm cake in the freezer, but that's another story.)  It felt like such a treat eating crumb cake for breakfast....and by eating, I mean picking the biggest crumbs off the entire cake.  Actually, my grandmother turned me on to a great way to eat crumb cake...she cut my chunk of cake into bite size pieces, cut the pieces in half & spread a layer of jam in the middle.  It was delicious, and this cake reminds me of just that.

The great thing about this coffee cake is that there are so many ways you can change it up.  The layer of raspberry jam is absolutely delicious, but you can change it up and use any flavor of jam you fancy.  I can't wait for the arrival of fresh berries and stone fruits during the spring and summer!  I look forward to swapping out the jam for a layer of fresh mixed berries or peaches or plums.  You know what also sounds great, fresh mixed berries with chocolate chunks!  If you get around to trying this before I do, let me know how it turns out.

Print Recipe

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.

Enjoy!