big crumb coffee cake
It took me almost eight months to make this recipe. It took less than two seconds to regret waiting that long. Let this serve as a warning–it doesn’t have to happen to you.
This is the Big Crumb Coffee Cake of my dreams, and oh, I have dreamed about this for a very long time–like, 15 years, I’m afraid to say. It dates back to the bakery where I worked in high school that used to fill a sheet tray with gorgeous, cinnamon and brown-sugar clustered buttery crumbs, spread a thin layer of cake doughnut batter over it and, once baked, flip it out onto a tray where it was showered with an avalanche of powdered sugar. The proportions were perfect every time: one-third cake to two-thirds of the kind of rubble that were impossible to walk by without pulling off a piece of crater-leaving telltale sign. Not that I would do a thing like that. Of course not. But I sure did think about it. Honestly, I still do.
I haven’t found an acceptable substitution since, and please do not even waste my time with these so-called excuses for crumb coffee cakes from the Seinfeld-hoarding Drakes to Entenmann’s. I don’t even want their thin, small and barely-adhered crumbs near my Big Crumb Coffee Cake, lest their mediocrity smudge its splendor: a tangy, impossibly moist, vanilla-flavored cake base ceilinged with hefty crumbs that will make all streusels that came before pale in contrast.
Oh, and rhubarb–or the reason it took me eight months to make this. Before I knew it, the rhubarb were gone from the store last summer and I was stuck waiting until this year’s rhubarb season, which is still months away. I tapped my feet. I marked my calendar. I pondered alternative fillings, ones I think you will enjoy as well, but I really wanted rhubarb. Then last week I saw some at the store–not even great-looking ones, mind you–and I snapped. I had Melissa Clark’s Rhubarb Big Crumb Coffee Cake in front of me in a matter of hours, and even though it is gone–foisted on coworkers and friends and anyone who promised to get it out of my arms reach–I can still smell it. I can still taste it.
I miss it so.
‘Big Crumb’ Coffeecake with Rhubarb
Adapted from The New York Times 6/6/07
Not rhubarb season? Don’t fret. I think this cake would be amazing with a blueberry, raspberry, sour cherry or any other tangy fruit filling you can think of. Simply adjust the sugar level accordingly–most of these will need far less than rhubarb does to make them palatable.
Time: 1 1/2 hours, plus cooling
Butter for greasing pan
For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups cake flour (I was out and used all-purpose and it worked great)
For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (ditto on the all-purpose flour–worked just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces.
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.
2. To make crumbs, in a large bowl, whisk together sugars, spices, salt and butter until smooth. Stir in flour with a spatula. It will look like a solid dough.
3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.
4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.
5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
Oh god, this I think tops the Babka as too too much. I LOVE crumb cake, and rhubarb, and this just has the two great tastes that taste great together thing written all over it! I thought I had reached the pinnacle in crumb cake with the CI’s ultimate crumb cake, but I think I’ll have to try this just to be sure…uh huh…
That looks fantastic! I grew up with 5 rhubarb bushes in our yard and while I love rhubarb crisp, this certainly looks like a fabulous alternative :-)
Actually, Clark mentions that she adapted the big crumbs from CI! I bet there are more similarities. However, even though my nostalgia is not for a fruit-filled crumb coffee cake, I loved this and think I will only make it with fruit for now on. (Or chocolate chips, if Alex continues to beg.)
This is one of my fav. tea time treats - reminds me of summer. too bad im still living under 4-feet of snow!! My recipe is slightly different, but this one is definitely worth a try. Bring on summer!!
Oh yum. This is making me excited for rhubarb season. My dad’s family is from England, and around this time of year, he always reminds me about this crazy festival in honor of rhubarb in Wakefield, England. He’s coming to CA to visit me next weekend. I’ll have to make this coffeecake for him. thanks!
Oh my…I’ve totally made this exact recipe, per my mother’s request for a way to use up rhubarb. It was delicious. You’ve made me want to go dig out the recipe and make it again. Yum yum!
Oh my. Bring on the rhubarb!
That looks SO good!
Long time reader - this looks fan-freaking-tastic. It also happens to be very similar to my husbands dream cake, so as soon as I pick up some rhubarb I will be making this right away. Thanks for posting :)
Wow! This looks fantastic! I just bought raspberries and was wondering what I was going to do with them! (Of course, I *wish* I could get my hands on rhubarb!!!) Thanks for the idea! Yum!
What a great idea for rhubarb! Brilliant.
Can’t wait to try it!
Mary
This has got to be your best post…every word perfectly describes what will be a delicious tasting coffeecake!
Oh, yummmy… i was just cleaning out the freezer and found one lone leftover bag of rhubarb from summer… I think this will be the perfect use for it… weekend breakfast. (sigh)
Rhubarb!? I’m in love. I’m making this recipe. This week!!
That looks so good. I am always on the lookout for new ways to enjoy rhubarb. Bookmarked.
Hmmm so in Australia currently the only way to get berries or rhubarb is frozen. (tropical fruits on the other hand are awesomely fresh but not so nice for baking - no kiwi or mango coffeecake I think) Usually when I sub I just pretend they are fresh and things tend to turn out fine - I don’t know quite how I would deal with the cornstarch ginger messy frozen fruit step. How would you prep frozen fruit for this cake guy?
Wow, wow, wow — this looks SO GOOD. I can just taste the crumb topping, yum! I’m definitely making this. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
I came across your site about a month ago, and each time I visit I end up making whatever recipe you post. Needless to say, they steal the show every time. You are amazing.
As a Midwesterner transplanted on the East Coast I was intrigued by the “CRUMB CAKE.” As with you, the store brought brands never lived up to the original bakery made cakes. I also finally came up with a worthy recipe (mine included apples), and I’m going to give yours a try. Thanks!
AAAAAAAAAH just the word rhubarb makes me think of spring time! Fan-damn-tastic looking recipe and photos!
I have never had rhubarb before. This makes me want to try it. I’m not a fan of crumb cakes, but they’ve never looked like yours. Maybe I didn’t like them because they weren’t the real deal.
Rhubarb just started appearing a week or two ago at the organic grocery store here and I could not resist buying the beautiful bold red stalks. I had never had rhubarb before but found a delightful rhubarb custard recipe to try. Its ruby red color cooked down to a lovely magenta sunset. And the final custard showed streaks of bold & soft pinks. A wonderful tart custard I will always remember as my true first rhubarb experience. Now I’ll have to get some more & try this delicious crumb cake. Thanks for the story, recipe & enticing pictures!
Deb, That looks amazing. I have rhubarb in my freezer and I’ve been looking for the perfect recipe. Looks like I found it. Now, I have a question. I can’t figure out how to do that cool “Continued after the jump” thing on my blog. Since my posts are long, I have resorted to posting only one per page, but I’d rather do what do you. Any words of wisdom about how to accomplish that on blogger? Thanks!!
Nice photo and great looking recipe. looking forward to trying your version!
I am absolutely in love with this dessert! I’ve just discovered rhubarb and this would really hit the spot for me, thanks so much for sharing.
OH. MY. This looks beautiful. Rhubarb grows like a weed around here–if you looked for it in the grocery store, the workers would get quite a chuckle. Everyone except me seems to have a rhubarb patch–the good thing is almost no one I know can use all that grows so people are dying to get rid of it. I am out of my frozen stash from last season, but this will be the first thing I make once I get my hands on some.
oh. my. lord. i would like to devour my screen. every holiday my parents get the same blueberry coffee cake from michael’s in brooklyn. every holiday I, without fail, eat the entire crumb topping before the cake makes it to the table, and i don’t even like cooked blueberries. rhubarb though, now we’re talking.
Scrumptious. My favorite memory as a kid was waking up on Saturday and eating literally the entire box of Entemanns Coffee Crumb Cake. It was the best thing in the world, but I have a feeling this is better. Thanks!
- The Peanut Butter Boy
Can you work on doubling this fantastic recipe for a 13″ x 9″ pan or perhaps a 9″ or 10″ springform pan?
Oh, yum! The strange thing is, I’ve been dreaming of rhubarb also, and have scoured all the supermarkets here (unsuccessfully)… How is it that you guys in NY have it and we in LA don’t? :) I want to immediately pick all the crumbs off that cake. I think the all-purpose flour is the way to go in this case anyway because it makes for a rougher crumb which just fits this eat-with-your-hands mood of the cake.
http://confessionsoftart.blogspot.com
And I just managed to get rhubarb for the first time today, can’t wait to make this along with some homemade tart YUM!
I bought some rhubarb this week also and made tartlets with it. It tasted like heaven. This coffee cake looks amazingly good!!!
Wow, do I feel ignorant. I had no idea what rhubarb was. When I saw it in the supermarket, I thought it was a funny colored celery. Cake with rhubarb? CRUMBCAKE no less? I have to find a dark quiet corner. I am very confused.
wait… wait..
it only makes an 8 inch square? and you actually had some left to give away? OMG do i admire your willpower.. im afraid to say the bf and i probably would have scarfed it down in 1 sitting. Well - the square i hid away for breakfast the next day.
delish.
Hello Brooklyn
New York New York it’s a hell of a town
The Bronx is up and I’m Brooklyn down
They don’t know my name they only know my initials
Building bombs in the attic for elected officials
I quit my job I cut my hair
I cut my boss cause I don’t care
You tried to get slick you bust a little chuckle
You’re gonna get smacked with my gold finger knuckle
The best crumbs I recall were on the cheese horn(a family size cheese danish) at Rizzi’s Bakery on Jericho in Commack NY. That would have been about 40 years ago.
I loved seeking the best crumbs off the cake, as we drove home from the bakery on Sunday morning after mass.
Thanks for the memories–I can’t wait to try your crumbs!!!
Would it be shameful to just make a big bucket of the crumb topping and eat that?
Sorry, but to me the rhubarb sounds gross. Could this cake be made without any filling, but keeping the rest of the recipe the same?
I’m sure it could be made leaving out the rhubarb filling, but that’s the whole point! Use strawberries instead, or nothing I suppose. Personally I would use either peanut butter or cream cheese.
- The Peanut Butter Boy
Gorgeous. I may or may not have licked my screen. - Lisa
I saw some rhubarb at the store the other day. Dang, I almost bought it but had no clue what to make! I’ll have to go back and then try this recipe.
I’m not a rhubarb fan, but I’d love to try a sour cherry version of this. I don’t know if it’s just that it has ‘BIG in the title, but something tells me this cake means business XD.
A friend once gave me a cake just like this but made with plums instead of rhubarb. After slow progress in re-recreating the (lost) recipe, I am so delighted to see this. I know that this will be an equal (if not better) to that cake. I can tell from the photos that the texture is the most unctuous and satisfying and the fruit adds the perfect moist squidge. Thank you.
wow! this looks amazing! gorgeous photos- as usual! i would love to make this with choc chips instead of rhubarb- we dont have rhubarb over here- how much less sugar do you think i should use?
I am rarely tempted by sweets these days, but as soon as I saw this I had to make it. I didn’t have rhubarb and was too impatient to buy any, so made without any fruit. A delicious, perfect crumb cake, better than any I remember from childhood. But the rhubarb, I’m certain, would make it even better.
Cake looks lip-smackin’ — never made it with rhubarb before. I’m gonna have to try that. Now I don’t usually sing the praises of entenmann’s, but their deluxe coffee cake has similar proportions to yours (little cake, lots of crumb) and it’s to die for.
OH. YUM!! tis one amazing looking crumb cake. You sound like me with muffins…. don’t foist any cupcakes on me when I am searching for a lovely rustic muffin!
Highlight…copy, print…. and bake…must give it a go.
I tried it. I loved it. I’ll try it again!
I think I have some frozen rhubarb in the back of the freezer! I’ve wanted this recipe my whole life! Thank you for inventing it! (grin)
I have so enjoyed reading your blog for over a year now. I just recently started my own and have added your site as a link. I think my friends should visit your blog, too! Anyway, it would be lovely if you would do the same for me. I hope that’s not too forward - I’m new to blog etiquette.
It’s at breadbutterpress.blogspot.com
Thank you!
I can’t stop drooling! I’m a fan of Rhubarb pie, so I will surely love this-looks fantstic!!!
This is not a quick breakfast cake!! It’s very good, I made it with sour cherries, but my crumb was not a solid dough (I pressed handfuls together and broke them back apart) the batter creeped up through the crumb and covered more than half of it (I will try NOT using cake flour next time) and my stupid oven over cooked the top and the bottom was still soggy! PLUS, don’t make this if you still have dinner pans and dishes unwashed from the night before and you have a screaming baby!!! Yikes! This took lots of time and bowls, but my we still liked it and I’m going to try it without fruit next time and put al foil on the bottom of my oven for a more even bake, hopefully…
So I am smitten, and I know I am not the 1st nor the last - your blog is a little bit of heaven, and I knew I had found a kindred foodie when you talked about your ‘pastry shrinking ordeals’ - which by the way I asked Chef Krebs about when I went to his in-house cooking class in Montreux and he said the best solution was a long chilling time - over night when possible, and then the use of cooking paper & weights (I use apricot pits). Please drop by to say hello
YUMM! I’m wondering how frozen raspberries would work….I LOVE me some raspberry crumb cake…..
Our first patch of Strawberries are here in Charleston, and just yesterday I mentioned I can’t wait till the rhubard is in as I like to cook them with berries.
My daughter lives in Alaska and has an overgrowth of rhubarb every season
which yields a freezer full to last till the next crop arrives.
I am a big big fan of the crumb coffee cake and this looks well…………I am not
making the same mistake you did by waiting. I am asking her to ship me a freezer pack of rhubarb.
Deb, I’ve tagged you for an award. I’m sure you get these all the time, but you’re still one of my favs. http://jenyu.net/blog/2008/02/29/wheres-the-love/
I love crumb cakes, Deb, but have never tried rhubarb (it costs a small fortune here in Brazil). I can tell this is delicious, though! :)
Deb, I am totally addicted to your blog! I made this without the fruit, as all I had in the house were rock-hard pears and bananas, and I think it suffered a bit without the added moisture. It was still yummy, but a tad on the dry side. And like another commenter, my batter rose up over the crumbs in a lot of places.
Mine rose up in a few places, too, but I didn’t consider it a concern. I actually liked that it meant that the crumbs were better adhered in those places.
This crumb coffee cake sounds and looks delicious!
I’m so glad you posted this recipe, even if it meant an eight month wait. I’m actually excited to make this and looking forward to experimenting with the different fruit fillings.
quick question… you don’t have to put fruit in it right? if so, are there any changes I need to make to the other parts of the recipe?
This looks so good, I can’t wait to try it!
I think you can definitely skip the fruit filling, and have a classic crumb cake, skipping of course the cornstarch/ginger/sugar that it is mixed with.
I loved this recipe and have already tried it twice, but sadly, I’ve been disappointed. (I figured I didn’t do it right the first time, so the second was my hope to guarantee the awesomeness of the photos and description).
My crumb mixture is way too dry and looks like just flour. It bakes into an “ok” topping, but the texture is certainly not batter-like before baking and cannot be broken into chunks - it’s just a fluffy mixture that sits on top. I was sad to not get the big yummy crumbs I was looking forward to. I used all-purpose flour, too. Should I decrease the flour? Increase the butter? Please help!
I spotted some rhubarb at my green grocer’s last weekend and I resisted as I had a long list of other goodies to make for the weekend. Now I’ve got my fingers crossed now, that they’ll still be some around this weekend. My picky eater boyfriend happens to LOVE rhubarb, and I’m sure this cake will be making a repeat appearance at our house.
I’m not a big rhubarb fan but I’m trying this as soon as I can get my hands on some. Crumb cake is so wonderfully warming. Now I’m craving some….
I tried this out last night. I substituted blueberries for the rhubarb, I just dumped on frozen berries, without any sugar and threw it in the oven. I was worried about the frozen berries but it was just sweet enough.Now, it’s going to be part of Easter brunch!
Made this for breakfast this morning and it was really wonderful! Substituted cranberries that I had in the freezer, which worked out well. The crumb topping was really dry, as others mentioned. Still, super tasty on a rainy morning.
I made this last weekend and I didn’t have enough rhubard so I added strawberries to the rhubard and it was so amazingly fantastic. The crumb topping was perfect! Big crumbs that completely melted in my mouth…. I SO need to make it again!
Made it. LOVED it. Served with ice cream and blogged about it. Couldn’t stop slicing off bite-size pieces and had to send it to work with my boyfriend. I miss it too.
I just recently found this website (and, accordingly, let every person who loves food know about it immediately and berated people who knew for not telling me about this place sooner), and I LOVE it. Just made these and they did NOT stay long either in my house or in the office — they were devoured. I don’t even particularly like rhubarb and I couldn’t stop eating it. It turned out exactly like your beautiful photos and will surely be a repeat recipe for my rhubarb-loving husband. Great site, great receipes, can’t wait to make more!!!
Deb, I just made this today and it was totally excellent! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find rhubarb, not even frozen! (boo!) Anyway, swapped it for cherries and it is delicious. I cut back on the sugar as you suggested, and it turned our just fine. This was a satisfying recipe to make. And the smell of it cooking–pure love!
Thank you for your wonderful blog and the way you write about food. Very inspirational.
Been reading you since December and this is the first of your recipes that I’ve tried. I could find no rhubarb in my South Texas H-E-B store so I used plums instead. I probably over-did it on the cooking time as it was pretty dry on top (hard to see if it’s done with gooey plums in the middle and crumble on top) but it was good anyway.
Made this yesterday and it’s delicious! The cake is really moist and tender (used all-purpose flour). The crumb topping is sweet, but not overly so.
Next up is the brown butter cake! :)
Hi Deb,
I’ve been enlisted to bring coffee cake to an Easter brunch, and since I haven’t made a coffee cake since I was about 12, I did a little Google search and now my mind is spinning with all of the recipes and variationsout there. But this one looks like a winner, for sure. As the token Jew-at-Easter next Sunday, I really want to make sure I don’t don’t fall down on the job.
So…QUESTION: Do you think I’d be asking for trouble if I tried to do this in a bundt pan? And if so, should I double the recipe? I’m a stickler for moistness in cake, and this one looks like it won’t dissapoint on that level. What do you think?
Hi Joanna — I’ll be a token Jew too this Sunday! ;) Good question about the cake. A bundt would be much more festive. According to this handy-dandy PDF I keep on my fridge, a bundt is equivalent to about 2 8-inch circles, so I’d definitely double the volume to bake it in one. Good luck!
Deb: thanks for that great-looking conversion chart. I’m printing it out, and based on it, decided to do the cake in a 9″ round Springform instead of a bundt, as the inversion/upside down aspect of a bundt, on second thought, seems problematic - as far as the crumb topping is concerned.
I agree, rounds just seem more festive to me than squares - maybe it’s that egg/circle of life/ springtime renewal thing I’ve picked up from a lifetime of seders. Happy…Vernal Equinox!
.
I made this with blueberries and a preschooler the other day. :) It was delicious! Plus my son loved making it with me. He put together the fruit filling (using half the sugar) and spent at least 20 minutes mixing the crumb topping while I prepped the cake batter. He especially loved molding the crumbs and dropping them onto the cake. Who knew this recipe would not only taste so good, but also entertain my 3 1/2-year-old for at least an hour? I’m smitten!
PLEASE give tips in how to make the crumbs MORE crummy (moist and piecy), i made this today and I had to cook it a few extra minutes b/c the bottom was not done and now the top is harder than I would like it to be. Ay suggestions?
Hey!
I just watched the video @ http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/03/unbelievable-am.html and I must say…these cake pictures are making me drewl like the little doggie in the video.
Love your blog - beautiful pics and always inspiring.
Had a question regarding Cornstarch though. Is there a substitute?
Either I haven’t looked well enough or …perhaps it goes under a different name over here.
I wanna make these cakes for my dear bf* (*FOR him doesn’t mean consumed BY him. It’s the thought that counts eh?! - I mean if he get’s home late or somth :-))
That’s another thing on your site I’m going to have to make. I adore rhubarb and so do my family so we’ll be making this I think.
I’ve made this twice so far…and my crumbs do not look that thick and great! They are almost barely visible. You can taste them, but not see them too well. Next time I think i’m going to put all of the batter in the bottom and skip dolloping the 1/2 cup on top.
I found fresh rhubarb for the first time of the year yesterday, so I wasted no time and made this. De-lish. I like that it was not overly sweet. The crumbs are hugenormous and so buttery-good. I did not have sour cream on hand, so I subbed Stonyfield’s vanilla yogurt. I plan to make again and take this to my IL’s next weekend.
This is now in the oven with raspberries instead of rhubarb. I had a LOT of crumb mixture, so hopefully it will be OK.
I made this cake yesterday and I think that next time I make it I will cut down on the amount of sugar that’s added to the rhubarb so that I can actually taste some of the sourness. It could just be that the rhubarb I used wasn’t particularly aggressive, but the absence of any sour contrast at all was a disappointment. Overall the cake wasn’t too sweet, which is good. I also used nearly double the amount of rhubarb recommended (half a kilo instead of half a pound) and would happily make this using a mix of rhubarb and sour bramley apples, or even just using sour apples if rhubarb is out of season.
I just made this for Mother’s Day yesterday. I used frozen raspberries. It was delicious!!! I even overcooked it and it was still moist and tasty.
When I make it again I might make more crumb topping. My chunks were spread out a lot, and the batter rose up between them. It was still really yummy, but I wanted more crumbs! Maybe a combination of big crumbs and smaller ones would be good?