Best… Crumb Cake… Ever

Here’s the third installment in my Best Ever series!  What’s it all about?  Click here to get the scoop.

Today I’m sharing with you the, Best… Crumb Cake… Ever.  If you like big crumbs then this is the crumb cake to end all crumb cakes.

I’ve made roughly a bazillion (roughly 😉 ) crumb cakes and coffee cakes.  Wait, can you really compare crumb cakes to coffee cakes?  They are similar but definitely different.  Which one is better?  I’m getting side tracked.  Let’s save that debate for another day.  For the purposes of today’s post it doesn’t really matter because this crumb cake trumps them all.  Says me.

There are some truly awesome… “breakfast cakes” on my blog.  (Don’t get my husband started about dessert is not breakfast.)  However, this crumb cake is by far and away the best I’ve ever made for two reasons.

First and most important, it’s all about the crumbs.  This crumb cake has a about a 50/50 crumb to cake ratio.  I don’t know about you but when I want a crumb cake I want CRUMBS and lots of them.  This crumb topping is seriously delicious and moist.  Maybe they steal moisture from the cake, maybe they are moist by magic, who cares.  They are delicious and there are a ton of them.  I love these crumbs so much that I’ve even made them as a stand alone mini-dessert!  Oh so yummy.

The second reason why this crumb cake is the bomb digity is that the cake is dense and moist. A proper crumb cake has cake that is strong enough to hold the weight of the all the crumbs.  Meaning that the crumbs don’t sink.  Trust me, I’ve tried to use this crumb recipe in other cake recipes (many times).  They either sink or you have to bake the cake a little bit before you add the crumbs on top.  Naturally that doesn’t make the crumbs any less awesome, but it’s not going to win “easy recipe” or “style points” awards.  I’ve still posted some of those recipes because they still totally worked.

I don’t make this crumb cake often.  It’s got two sticks of butter on it.  Yes, two.  I make no apologies about it, but let’s face it, my butt would hate me if I made it a lot.  Speaking of butt, the other reason why I don’t make it often is because the crumbs are sort of a pain in the butt to make.  It takes a while to roll the little suckers out even if individually they aren’t hard to make.  By the time you’ve made a whole batch of them you’ll be glad you’re done making them for a while.  It was my mom’s birthday recently and she loves crumb cakes.  My mom is the best ever (lol… how appropriate for series) and she’s totally worth the work.  🙂

I highly suggest that you sprinkle some powdered sugar on top of the crumbs when you are ready to serve it.  And when I say “sprinkle” I mean dump a bag on top.  Okay, probably not ideal (and would definitely leave my husband choking to death) so maybe a bit less would be good too, but I like to not even be able to see the crumbs.  Well, that’s how I do it anyway.  I love my precious powdered sugar.  I held back on doing that for purposes of photographing them because I wanted you to see the crumbs in the pictures.  I added more once I was done taking pics.  😉

I don’t normally beg that you make something.  It’s just not my style.  But this crumb cake is absolutely something that you need to make.

Grab the recipe here, hit the store if you have to, and make some for breakfast (dessert?) this weekend.  You’ll thank me later.