Just Baking

Did you ever find a recipe that you fell so in love with at first sight that you just had to make it, and then when it didn’t work out, you were determined to make it work?  I had this happen a couple of weeks ago.  I came across a recipe for Jam Crumb Cake in the December issue of Gourmet magazine, and it sounded so delicious, so interesting, so different, that I just had to make it.  A light coffee cake with a swirl of raspberry jam in it, topped with a buttery sugary crumb topping.  Such a nice change from the usual sour cream streusel coffee cake type of offering, I thought.

When it flopped, I was crushed.  And it flopped big time: the batter ran out of the pan and down into the oven and filled my house with the smell of burning cake, the center was still doughy, the preserves all sank to the bottom of the pan, and there was so much crumb topping you could barely tell there was a cake under it.  I set my teeth and determined that I would make this cake work.

One thing I did consider was that part of the failure may have been my own fault.  I use homemade single-acting baking powder, which can be a shade temperamental.  I reread the instructions for how to make it, and decided that perhaps the cream of tartar and the baking soda hadn’t been sufficiently combined, so I sifted them together multiple times before I tried the recipe again.

The second time I made it, it still flopped, but less dramatically.  The original recipe called for a 9” round cake pan, but when I used that, it was impossible to get the cake out of the pan intact.  When I did manage to pry it out, the preserves had sunk again.  I also decided that the cake itself needed a little pep, so I resolved to add a teaspoon or so of vanilla to the batter.

Don’t they say, “The third time’s the charm”?  Well it was in this case too.  I was extra super careful and took meticulous care with the prep process to ensure that any failures weren’t my fault.  And lo and behold, there were no failures.  And so, here is the Jam Crumb Cake that I made, complete with meticulous preparation instructions.  I’m sure as I make this more and more I’ll relax and be more willing to play fast and loose with the order of the ingredient combinations, but for a little while, I’ll err on the side of caution.  And maybe add just one more teaspoon of vanilla.

Jam Crumb Cake

adapted from Gourmet magazine, December 2007
serves 6-8

For Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (I use single acting homemade baking powder)
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ stick unsalted butter, melted
½ cup milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
½ cup raspberry jam or preserves
Juice of ½ a lemon

For Crumb Topping
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
½ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Make Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 °F, with rack in middle. Generously grease an 8 ½” or 9” springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, and spray parchment paper with cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.

Whisk together butter, milk, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl.  Set aside.
 
Over medium heat, warm preserves in a small pan with the juice of ½ a lemon until almost completely melted. Remove from heat and stir until all jam is melted.  Set aside.

Make Crumb Topping:
Whisk together butter, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Stir in flour, then blend with your fingertips until incorporated.

Finish Cake:
Whisk flour mixture into butter mixture until just combined. Pour batter into cake pan.  Drizzle melted preserves over batter. Using a knife, stir preserves into the batter until well incorporated, but not completely combined (some streaks of jam should still be visible in the batter).  Sprinkle crumbs in large clumps over top of the cake.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, and sides begin to pull away form the pan, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove outer ring of springform pan and let cool to room temperature.