As a cake decorator, one question I am often asked is “oh, I bet you love that show Cake Boss, don’t you?”. Seriously, people ask me that ALL. THE. TIME. And the truth is, I watch the show occasionally, but I really don’t follow it and enjoy it to the extent that people obviously assume. It’s a good show, and Buddy is a really cool guy, but his cakes are so over the top that it really just makes me feel like a big fat crappy cake making loser.

After watching an episode of Cake Boss, I really can’t even look at any pictures of my past cakes for at least like, two days. If he does one of those cakes that lights up or shoots fireworks out of it, three days, minimum. It’s that bad.

The other day though, my stepdaughter had Cake Boss reruns on while I was in the kitchen decorating cookies, doing my best to studiously ignore any and all of Buddy’s fabulous creations. But then I heard something that piqued my interest–crumb cake. Not only crumb cake, but handed down, secret recipe crumb cake. Which we all know is the best kind.

I put down my piping bag and watched as Buddy made his secret recipe crumb cake, using (are you ready?) real cake crumbs as part of the topping. He mixed the cake crumbs with some sugar, cinnamon and whatever else (butter?), clumped it into balls and literally pushed it into the cake batter, instead of just letting the crumbs rest on the top of the cake. And I immediately decided that the Cake Boss just may be my new best friend.

I pride myself on being able to find just about anything on the internet, so I quickly went to work searching Google for a crumb cake recipe similar to the one I had just seen. And I found…..nothing. Not one recipe for a crumb cake using leftover cake crumbs for the topping. NOT ONE. 

There was one recipe that kept popping up though, and that was a recipe from recipezaar.com for New Jersey Crumb Cake. The cake has excellent reviews, and being that Buddy’s shop is in New Jersey, I decided it just might be the next best thing. 

The cake was very simple to make and was absolutely delicious. I actually liked it a lot better than the crumb cake I featured a couple of months back. I am hoping that now that I have found a good jumping off point, I can adapt it to create something similar to Buddy’s. Any ideas/tips/hints/tricks? Ever had a piece of Buddy’s crumb cake yourself? I’d love any help or feedback you can give me!!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups biscuit mix
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar. Whisk together eggs and milk, add to butter and mix well. In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder, then add to butter mixture and mix until blended. Stir in vanilla.

Pour batter into a greased 9×13 pan. 

For crumb topping: Cut butter into sugar, biscuit mix, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over batter in pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Top with powdered sugar when cool.

I’d appreciate any help you can give me on my quest to duplicate Buddy’s crumb cake!!

Happy Tuesday!! 

It has come to my attention fairly recently that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. And I have appointed myself the addressor of the subject.

Lets talk about Facebook. More specifically, Facebook Etiquette. Now, I realize that there are many different opinions about this subject. An entire episode of Dr. Phil was recently devoted to Facebook and the effect that it has on relationships. It is estimated that approximately 20% of divorces cite Facebook as a contributing factor. I personally feel that if we are going to blame Facebook for cheating spouses, we need to  blame cell phone carriers and the entire hotel industry as well. But that is just my opinion. 

Anyways…it has come to my attention that there are many people out there who need to be schooled in Facebook Etiquette. The unspoken rules that obviously need to be spoken. If you know anyone who could benefit from this, feel free to pass it along…..you have my permission.

Things you definitely should not do:


1. Posting an ambiguous insult as your status. For example: “Wow, just stab me in the back why don’t you”, or “Some people need to realize that I want nothing to do with them”.
Do you really need to make all 478 of your friends suddenly paranoid and frantically searching their brains for something they may have done to upset you? If you have a problem with an individual, address it with them personally or if you are too wimpy to do that, just passive aggressively ignore them until they get the hint. That is usually my preferred method, and it works just fine….eventually.


2. Putting “it’s complicated” as your relationship status. 
Really…too much, even for a drama queen like myself.

3. Commenting on someone’s status from like, a week ago.
When a comment suddenly pops up on a status update from a week ago, and has changed about 10 times since, it seriously creeps me out. Helllooooo…stalk much? We all are guilty of perusing certain people’s profiles a little too thoroughly sometimes, but to make that fact known is just not a good thing.   

4. Farmville. 
Sorry, this whole elephant in the room needs to be addressed.  First off, I am not here to judge how you spend your time. And even if I did, coming from the woman who knows more about Britney Spears than George Washington, would it really mean anything? So, all I have to say on the subject, is if a friend of yours has never sent you a request to be a Farmville neighbor, or asked you to send them a cow or participate in a barn raising or whatever else you virtual farmers do, take that as a hint. They are not a Farmviller. And they don’t want to be.

5. TMI status updates. 
“I could really use a nap”…or “Having a great day”…or “Baking cookies”…these are all appropriate Facebook statuses. However, anything involving vomit, being drunk (or both), and especially (ahem) you and your significant other’s private physical relationship is off limits. I mean really…..there are no crowns given out for the winner of the Tacky Prize……so just keep it clean.

6. Changing your relationship status from In A Relationship to Single as a way of breaking up with someone. 
Because everyone knows that moisture and electronics don’t mix…and when those tears start a flowin all over your ex’s computer keyboard, you really don’t want to be responsible for the damages. 

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…..on to something that is never a bad thing–chocolate chip cookies. I came across this recipe about a year ago when I purchased The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and it produces the type of cookie you would buy at a bakery, using simple ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. 

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 (12 oz) bag semisweet chocolate chips


Heat oven to 325. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.


Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.


Reduce the mixer to low speed and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the chocolate chips until incorporated.


Working with 1/4 cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on parchment paper (I didn’t have any and just sprayed sheets with Pam) lined baking sheets, spaced about 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, about 17 to 20 minutes.


Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.


What are your Facebook pet peeves? Leave a comment!!


Happy Monday!!