Sunday Baked: New York Crumb Cake

Happy Easter to everyone! I hope you enjoy your day with family and loved ones. I am going to keep it short and sweet this week, as my kids are pulling on me to open yet another chocolate bunny to devour.... is it even 9 o'clock yet??  

This week's selection for Baked Sunday Mornings was New York-Style Crumb Cake. A perfectly scrumptious addition to our Easter morning breakfast. It was a snap to prepare, and it baked up beautifully. The best part was the heavenly aroma of cinnamon that filled the house. Delicious! A telling sign for me on whether a recipe is a keeper is how quickly it disappears off the table, and lets just say this crumb cake disappeared faster than the Easter Bunny.

Another fun thing about this week's selection was the clarification on the difference between crumb cake and coffee cake. Pay attention here, as this is very important....

Crumb Cake ≠ Coffee Cake

Who knew? I didn't know, and I have a lot of experience with both. I mean a lot. While I was pregnant with my second child I devoured whole (store bought) coffee and crumb cakes in single sittings. I didn't care what the topping or filling was. I would slather butter all over them and whistle happy tunes while they went down the hatch. I think at least 15 coffee and crumb cakes died this way. It was fantastic in a totally awful sort of way.

So, I was a little surprised to learn that New Yorkers are so very protective of their "crumb cake" identity. According to Matt & Renato (a native New Yorker) of Baked Explorations, there are three cardinal rules every New York-Style Crumb Cake must abide by. They are as follows: (1) A New York-Style Crumb Cake must contain boulder-sized clumps of crumb topping almost as thick as the cake itself, (2) A New York-Style Crumb Cake can never contain nuts in any form or fashion, and (3) A New York-Style Crumb Cake cannot contain a swirl of any sort, ever! If you abide by these simple rules, you can bake yourself one heck of a crumb cake, New York-Style.

If you have a second, hop on over (pun intended) to Baked Explorations to see what my fellow members had to say about this recipe. 

Happy Easter!