the crumb cake recipe I never share
To mark the auspicious and awesome occasion of the Carmel High School Girls Swimming and Diving team's 25th consecutive Indiana state championship I am sharing my crumb cake recipe that I never share. Twenty-five state championships in a row, how cool is that? Kelly was part of the team that won championships 19, 20 and 21 so she came home to cheer on Carly, a future Boilermaker swimmer and little sister of one of Kelly's best swimming friends, Megan.
Back in the day, the swim parents provided a hot breakfast buffet after practice throughout the season and my crumb cake's legend grew with every year. Truly, only high school swimmers burn off enough calories to justify a big piece of this beauty. All the moms would ask for the recipe and for the only time in my life I refused to share it. I simply loved having a lock on crumb cake greatness. My little reward to myself for all of those dark and cold fall and winter mornings of 4:20 first-calls from my alarm clock. I would sometimes come home and go back to bed before waking up Sara, but more often I would just soldier on collecting the newspaper just as the paper boy dropped it off and reading it at the kitchen island until finding myself sound asleep sitting on a cold wooden barstool with my head on the sports section. Good times. Not half as amusing as the days I would go to coffee with my tennis friends and say something I might normally have wisely kept to myself, as apparently sleep-deprivation effects me about the same as two glasses of wine. Oh, boy. I just had to beg off coffee or make a huge effort to stay quiet. I am not too good at staying quiet. Side note: maybe this is how Susan and I truly became best friends, she shared the swim parent experience and remains super tolerant of my saying whatever is on my mind.
Some favorite swim memories generally involve me being a little damp. I failed miserably at sitting in the stands listening to all the swim gossip along with being insanely nervous. So I grabbed my camera, got on deck and took pictures for the team. By Kelly's junior season we bought a mac and the sweet patient Apple genius guys met with me once or twice a week until a 45-minute DVD complete with photos, movies, music and titles was born. Back in the day there would be maybe 6 people in the Apple store and half of them were employees. I don't know about the Apple store near you, but Kelly and I visited ours yesterday along with easily 60 other people and 30 employees. Madness.
And so, despite the fact that a major chest cold had me so down today that my own streak (38 consecutive days of practicing hot vinyasa yoga) came to an end, I cranked out the crumb cake so I could photograph it for my blog and Kelly could take almost all of it back to the Theta house safely out of my striking distance. It is amazing, so good luck with the willpower.
Kristin's Very Famous Crumb Cake
2 T vegetable oil
4 C flour, divided
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 C light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
confectioner's sugar
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 13 x 9 x 2 pan with cooking spray and dust lightly with flour (or just use the baker's ease spray with flour in it).
In a medium bowl whisk together 1 1/2 C flour, the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a measuring cup, measure out the milk and add the egg, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until smooth. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
In a large bowl combine the remaining 2 1/2 C flour, the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the flour mixture and toss until large crumbs are formed. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the batter.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool. Generously dust with the confectioner's sugar.
Crumb cake is best stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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| Megan and Kelly with Carmel's consecutive state trophy #21, there was one before the streak started |
Back in the day, the swim parents provided a hot breakfast buffet after practice throughout the season and my crumb cake's legend grew with every year. Truly, only high school swimmers burn off enough calories to justify a big piece of this beauty. All the moms would ask for the recipe and for the only time in my life I refused to share it. I simply loved having a lock on crumb cake greatness. My little reward to myself for all of those dark and cold fall and winter mornings of 4:20 first-calls from my alarm clock. I would sometimes come home and go back to bed before waking up Sara, but more often I would just soldier on collecting the newspaper just as the paper boy dropped it off and reading it at the kitchen island until finding myself sound asleep sitting on a cold wooden barstool with my head on the sports section. Good times. Not half as amusing as the days I would go to coffee with my tennis friends and say something I might normally have wisely kept to myself, as apparently sleep-deprivation effects me about the same as two glasses of wine. Oh, boy. I just had to beg off coffee or make a huge effort to stay quiet. I am not too good at staying quiet. Side note: maybe this is how Susan and I truly became best friends, she shared the swim parent experience and remains super tolerant of my saying whatever is on my mind.
Some favorite swim memories generally involve me being a little damp. I failed miserably at sitting in the stands listening to all the swim gossip along with being insanely nervous. So I grabbed my camera, got on deck and took pictures for the team. By Kelly's junior season we bought a mac and the sweet patient Apple genius guys met with me once or twice a week until a 45-minute DVD complete with photos, movies, music and titles was born. Back in the day there would be maybe 6 people in the Apple store and half of them were employees. I don't know about the Apple store near you, but Kelly and I visited ours yesterday along with easily 60 other people and 30 employees. Madness.
And so, despite the fact that a major chest cold had me so down today that my own streak (38 consecutive days of practicing hot vinyasa yoga) came to an end, I cranked out the crumb cake so I could photograph it for my blog and Kelly could take almost all of it back to the Theta house safely out of my striking distance. It is amazing, so good luck with the willpower.
Kristin's Very Famous Crumb Cake
2 T vegetable oil
4 C flour, divided
1/2 C granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 C milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 C light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
confectioner's sugar
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 13 x 9 x 2 pan with cooking spray and dust lightly with flour (or just use the baker's ease spray with flour in it).
In a medium bowl whisk together 1 1/2 C flour, the granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a measuring cup, measure out the milk and add the egg, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until smooth. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
In a large bowl combine the remaining 2 1/2 C flour, the brown sugar and the cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the flour mixture and toss until large crumbs are formed. Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the batter.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool. Generously dust with the confectioner's sugar.
Crumb cake is best stored covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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| things I forgot (I am sick, after all): salt and baking powder |
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| the batter |
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| pouring into the prepared pan |
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| flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter |
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| ta da! crumbs |
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| in the oven |
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| posing for the camera with Sara behind the lens |
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| my piece |
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| to go pan for the Thetas |
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