I’m just going to say it: The best show in the world is “Friends.”
You can fight me on this, but to me there is nothing better than sitting down with my favorite group of friends, imagining I’m sitting on the orange couch in Central Perk gossiping about Joey’s most recent dating adventures.
My younger sister just got back from Atlanta, and she brought back an apron for me that read “Central Perk,” complete with a small button listing Joey’s “moo point” quote.
While working on this week’s column, I tried to think of something they might have eaten at Central Perk. Putting myself in Jennifer Aniston’s shoes, I figured my spirit character, Rachel, would end up serving some coffee cake to the wrong customer.
Cinnamon Crumb Cake
Start off by preheating the oven to the 350 F. (Baking pro-tip: The temperature of the oven is almost always 350 F.)
Take all of the wet ingredients in a large bowl and mix them together. If you have buttermilk, use it instead of regular milk because it provides a richer flavor.
After, pour in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Finally, add cinnamon and nutmeg. Start off with a little nutmeg and add more only after it’s been fully mixed with the rest of the dough. Too much nutmeg causes an insanely bitter flavor.
In a separate bowl, create the crumb topping. Mix all of the ingredients together using your hands.
Make sure the butter is not fully melted and only softened. You will want it to look crumbly, so if it doesn’t have that effect, add more flour. Wet crumb topping will not produce the same final product.
After making it, sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the cake. I like to make it about 1/4 of an inch thick, but add more or less depending on your personal preference.
If you are a cinnamon lover, I definitely recommend adding more than my recipe suggests because cinnamon is everything.
Pop it in the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes. The edges will be darker brown, the top should be golden and a toothpick should come out clean.
Make the glaze/icing. You can pour it on the whole cake, but I prefer moving back and forth over the top, so it doesn’t make the cake too sweet with the extra sugar.
I would like to think this is what they would serve at Central Perk. If not, it’s still a good cake, and I like eating it with my morning coffee.
