Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Maple Bourbon Glaze

 

Generally speaking, I get a craving for pumpkin in mid-August, which is why you’ll find a lot of pumpkin recipes here on the blog during that time. I got the same craving this past August, bought quite a few cans of pumpkin purée, and then I never got around to using them. That changed last weekend when I was a whirling dervish in the kitchen. Over the course of three days, I spent about 24 hours on my feet in the kitchen experimenting with recipes. This one is delish! It’s good at breakfast, brunch, as a dessert at dinner, or any old time of the day. I found that it tasted better the second day, so that makes it wonderfully make ahead.Pumpkin Crumb Cake with Maple Bourbon Glaze

1¾ c. flour

1 t. baking soda

2 t. ground cinnamon

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

1/8 t. ground cloves

½ t. kosher salt

½ c. vegetable oil

½ c. sugar

½ c. packed dark brown sugar

1 15-oz. can pumpkin puree

2 large eggs, room temperature

¼ c. milk, room temperature

Crumb Topping

¾ c. flour

¼ c. sugar

¼ c. packed brown sugar

1 t. pumpkin pie spice

6 T. unsalted butter, melted

Maple Icing

1½ c. confectioners’ sugar

2 T. pure maple syrup

2 T. bourbon

 Preheat oven to 425°F. Line  an 8” x 8” pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2” overhang on two sides; spray with nonstick spray. .

 For the cake: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cloves, and salt together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs and milk together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, then fold everything together gently just until combined and no flour pockets remain.

 Pour into prepared pan.

 For the topping: Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spice together until combined. Stir in melted butter with a fork until crumbs form.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F and then reduce the temperature to 350°F. Bake for an additional 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 30-40 minutes.

Lift cake from pan using parchment paper overhang and place on serving plate. Slide the parchment out from beneath the cake and drizzle on glaze.

 Make the glaze: Whisk glaze ingredients together until combined and smooth. Cover tightly and store at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. I think this tastes better on Day Two.

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"Vintage" Crumb Cake

I always enjoy it when Wednesdays roll around because this means “Let’s Eat,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s food section will accompany the morning paper.  I’m like a kid in a candy store perusing all of the new recipes, reading the articles, and marveling at the new culinary items about to hit the market.  This past Wednesday I found myself laughing out loud when I read a title that referred to “Vintage Crumb Cakes.”  How old, I asked myself, would a crumb cake have to be to be considered vintage?  Of course I knew they were talking about vintage recipes and not vintage crumb cakes, but it still gave me a laugh with my morning coffee.

Two recipes were contained in the article (a reprint is below), and you know how I like crumb cakes (Check out New York Style Crumb Cake, Starbuck's Crumb-Topped Coffee Cake, New Jersey Coffee Cake, and of course my own Forget the Cake Crumb Cake Cookies.), so I decided to go with the second recipe because of the addition of all of the spices.  It turned out to be a good choice.  It differed from almost every other crumb cake I've ever had in both texture and topping.  The texture of the cake was dense and rich, the topping lightly crumbly, rather than the big mounds of crumbs that I personally prefer, but it was good, and a nice addition to my ever-growing collection of crumb cake recipes.  If you’re a crumb cake aficionado like I am, you’ll want to give this recipe a try.  I made mine in a 9” spring form pan because I wanted a round rather than square cake.  I needed to extend the baking time by about 7-10 minutes.

This post is linked to:

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

What's Cooking Wednesday

Foodie Friday

Sunday's Best Party

Sweets for a Saturday

Forget the Cake Crumb Cake Cookies

If you like crumb cake as much as I do then you'll have to admit that it's really more about the crumbs than it is the cake. The cake, generally an inch or so of dreadfully dry yellow cake (New Jersey Coffee Cake being one exception), is the price we have to pay for that thick layer of flavorful, crunchy crumbs. Well, suffer no more, I've come up with a solution! Cookies made of crumb topping so you can get what you want when you want.  Amazingly easy and with only a handful of ingredients, you can be a bit reckless when making them to give them the rustic look of a crumb topping.


Try them for yourself and see if you don't agree that these quite happily satisfy that crumb cake craving, in an acceptable form.  Excellent with morning coffee or afternoon tea.


Forget the Cake Crumb Cake Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks of butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place all ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and beat together until well blended and large crumbs start to form.  

Using your hands grab walnut-sized pieces of dough and place it rather haphazardly onto an ungreased baking sheet.  These should look unformed and rustic, like the crumb topping on a crumb cake, but sized like a medium cookie.  Bake for 15-17 minutes.  

Remove from oven and allow to set on the baking sheet for three minutes until removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Sprinkle tops with powdered sugar. Makes 24.

This post is linked to:
Mouthwatering Monday

Made by You Monday
On the Menu Monday
Wow Us Wednesday Foodie Friday
Sweets For A Saturday
Cast Party Wednesdays