Classic Crumble cake

This is the first recipe I have tried from The weekend Baker- by Abigail Johnson Dodge, and so by, my weekend baking has started.

I fell in love with this cake, just by looking at the photo in the book. Looking at the photo that I have taken, I know that I have not done justice to the cake. Anyways , If you try it and have a bite of the crumble topping and the soft layer of cake beaneath it , you'l just know what Im talking about. The crumble topping has a butter scotch flavour to it because of the brown sugar that we use. I have used butter for the topping , but not for the cake. I felt that the topping needed to be rich and heavy.

Classic Crumble Cake

For the Crumble Topping

Butter - 1 stick or 120 gms

Brown sugar- 1/2 cup

Granulated white sugar-3/4 cup

All purpose flour - 1.5 cup

Cinnamon- 1 tsp

Salt- 1/2 tsp

For the Cake

All Purpose flour- 2 cups

Milk-3/4 cup

Oil-1/2 cup

Egg-2 large

Baking powder-1 tsp

Vanilla extract-1tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

To make the Crumble Topping
1. In a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Slide the pan from heat and add the granulated white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Stir with a spatula , until no lumps are formed.
3. Add the flour and mix well until its well blended.
Set aside to cool for 5 to 10 min.

To Make the cake
1. In a large bowl combine, the dry ingredients together. Mix the flour, granulated sugar,salt and baking powder together.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs oil and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and gently blend with a spatula.
4. In a greased 8" square pan, place a wax paper or parchment sheet and then spread the cake batter evenly.
5. Break the crumble topping mixture(see above) into medium lumps and spread them evenly over the cake batter.
6. Prehaeat the oven to 350degree C.
7. Place the pan on the medium rack and bake it for 40 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Serve at room temperature.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container. See more about storage.

Halloween Potluck luncheon

Halloween is here !We have planned a Halloween potluck luncheon in our office, the entrees where to be catered and the rest is to be brought in by employees. That leaves mainly the appetizers and dessert. I have decided to make a dessert. At first I thought of making curried egg puffs, an appetizer. But then the puffs have to be fresh, and cannot be refrigerated. I don’t have the time in the morning, when I am just too busy getting ready to office, preparing breakfast and lunch. So the next best option was to prepare a chocolate cake, which I can prepare the previous day evening and refrigerate. It seemed like I have come upon a good idea. As I was speaking to my friend, she told Halloween potluck lunch has been arranged in her office too. She told me she was going to make gulab jamuns. Now I started thinking, gulab jamuns are easy to make, very tasty and also it is an Indian dessert, so my colleagues who have not tasted a jamun can enjoy it.




Finally I settled on making Gulab jamuns. For those who are wondering what it is, gulab jamun is a popular Indian dessert. It is made with dough of milk solids and put in sugar syrup flavored with cardamom and rose water.


You can make the gulab jamun recipe from scratch or you can make use of ready made packs available. In India, gulab jamuns are made mostly with ready made mix, the most popular brands are MTR and Gits. Using a ready made mix is not something to be ashamed of, it’s easy to use and when you have less time you can opt for this way.


After having made my decision to prepare gulab jamuns for the Halloween potluck lunch, I thought it would be a good idea to test the Gits gulab jamun mix, this weekend.




Gulab Jamun

Gits Gulab jamun mix- 1 pack or Mixture of 1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1 cup Milk Powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda

Milk- ¼ cup

Sugar-2 cups

Water – 1 ½ cup

Vegetable oil-2 cups

Cardomom powder-1/2 tsp

Rose water-1 tsp


1. In a bowl add the gulab jamun mix and just enough milk to form a hard dough.

2. Make small balls using the dough. Make sure that there are no cracks in the balls. Apply ghee on your hands and roll the ball. If you find cracks even after that, then take drops of milk in your palm and then roll the dough ball in it.That should do the trick.

3. In a deep frying pan heat oil. Fry the dough balls until they are brown on all sides. To make sure all sides are brown , hold the handle of the pan and give a nudge, so that the balls roll over.

4. Once the balls are browned over on all sides, take the fried balls and transfer them to the warm sugar syrup(see below)

Sugar syrup
In a pan, add the sugar and water and let it boil for 5 to 10 min. Let it boil until the sugar dissolves in water.Make sure the syrup doesnt caramelize.Add cardomom powder and rose water to the syrup for a nice flavour.


Makes 20 gulab jamuns; served warm after 45 min.