Pantry Crumb Cake

Behind this door lies all the supplies needed to make Pantry Crumb Cake 

Cook's Notes: Since we all are trying to limit our grocery store runs, family friendly recipes that include using pantry staples are welcome. This one is a winner on many levels. 

This crumb cake is more of a snack or breakfast item than a showy dessert. It’s the kind of thing a small family can devour in a few days, and a single person can freeze in slices, at the ready whenever the urge for brown sugar and butter hits. (Just wrap each slice up separately and store them in a container in the freezer; a slice will thaw in under an hour on the counter.) This cake is also extremely adaptable: Use whatever spices you like. If you don’t have oats, use more flour or chopped nuts. And feel free to use whatever fruit, fresh, frozen and thawed, or canned, you have on hand. I used a pint of raspberries and next go around it's blueberries. I found yogurt worked well for recipe. 
Recipe adapted from Melissa Clark NYT

Ingredients:
Cake Topping

• 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), melted
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon or 1-1/2 teaspoons regular ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice or combination of ginger and cardamom 
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts 
• Dash nutmeg 
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Cake 

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon regular ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sour cream, yogurt or nondairy yogurt, buttermilk, crème fraîche, or milk acidified with 1 tablespoon lemon juice 
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
• 3/4 -1 cup fresh, frozen and thawed blueberries,  raspberries, cherries, minced apple, pear or chopped pineapple or canned fruit, drained

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 square glass pan.
• Add all the topping ingredients to a medium bowl. Use a rubber spatula until they all start to clump together. Squish or roll the mixture into mostly large crumbs with some smaller ones.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until combined, set aside. 
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla extract. Add half of the flour mixture, then beat in the sour cream. Add the remaining flour, and mix, just until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Fold in the zest and fruit, if using.
• Pour the batter into the baking pan and top evenly with the crumbs. Bake for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan.   

Postscript-Remember the last posting that featured cactus blooms?

And remember how I said needed to be quick before gone? Well...did not realize how quick I needed to be and fortunate to get photos. By early morning all blooms in the front yard  had been devoured, a nightly snack raid for a traveling herd of javelins!! They left their footprints behind in the rocks. So sad.