Cake Day

I’ve mentioned the fact that Saturday is baking day in my house before. Every Saturday, I pick something from the endless list of recipes for cupcakes, brownies, quickbread, muffins, and other desserts, and I make enough to feed an army. Then I spend the next few days trying to find a way to get rid of them.

It’s a fun little ritual that I have with myself. Baking was not a big part of my lie growing up: my mom is an incredible cook, but she never really launched herself into baking. For me, baking was the first way I learned how to give my cooking to other people, and so baking every Saturday is something I look forward to all week.

What I didn’t realize was that other people look forward to it too.

I know that people notice that I cook. A lot. Just another day, we had an orange-themed dinner party (it wasn’t on purpose) because some friends wanted me to make this pumpkin tarte tatin that appeared at my Thanksgiving. But I didn’t realize how many people look forward to baking Saturdays as much as I do.

When some friends started to filter in for a party we were having Saturday night, one of them mentioned the fact that the last time he was there on a Saturday, I had provided peanut butter-frosted chocolate cupcakes. Now, this was a party for the Boy, but it was also a Saturday, and so of course I had baked (with him in mind). But someone else noticed. And that made me smile.

But my favorite comment about Saturday baking happened earlier that day, right when I woke up. The first thing the boy said to me? “Mmm… it’s cake day!”

This Saturday, “cake day” was all about orange, just like yesterday’s dinner (which I promise to outline soon). I took a recipe for crumb cake that I found over on Vanilla Sugar and doctored it to make it a little bit healthier and a little bit more orange by using pumpkin in the cake base. If you want to use brown sugar, use an equal proportion of white and brown sugar. I didn’t have any, so I used all white, which made for a bit of a crunchier topping. Not bad, but definitely atypical.

Make sure to push the crumb mixture well to adhere to the cakes. In the first batch, I didn’t, and as Alex said, the crumbs “cassent la geule:” break their faces. Have I mentioned how much I like visual French expressions?

Pumpkin Crumb Cake (Adapted from Vanilla Sugar)

Topping:
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp quatre épices (a spice-powder including cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup butter, melted and cooled

Cake:
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup fromage frais

Combine all the ingredients for the crumb topping except the butter in a large bowl. Slowly add the butter, combining with a rubber spatula. When all the butter is added, the topping should be crumb-like and sandy. Set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients for the cake. Set aside. Cream the purée and sugar together until light (it won’t get as light as if you used butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and add the vanilla and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture and fromage frais alternately in three to five steps, adding the flour first and last. Stir just until there is no flour streaking.

Grease a muffin pan or add paper liners. Fill each tin halfway with muffin mixture and then top the other half with crumb mixture, making sure to push down so that the mixture adheres. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the cakes spring back to the touch.