Crumb Buns Instead of Sunday Mass

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Every Sunday morning in my childhood my parents made me go to St. Margaret’s Church with my Zizi Rosie and her daughter JoJo.  No one else in our immediate family went to Church.  Not Mama, Papa or my Uncle Ben.  Zizi had a son; Nickie and when he was a baby he became so ill Zizi thought he was going to die.  She made a promise to the Virgin Mary that she would honor her and go to Church every Sunday if she cured her son.  Nickie recovered and Zizi made good on her promise.  She went to Church every Sunday and I was cursed with having to go with her to Mass. Church was very boring for me. However, I liked the Fashion Show.  Back in the day people dressed to the 9’s when they went to church. My Zizi wore her Mink Stole and best jewelry and dresses with hat and long while cloves. In those days woman had to cover their heads in Church and had a pretty good hat competition going on.  Zizi wore a hat that I liked; it looked like a little green beanie with feathers sticking out of the top.  It reminded me of a helicopter.  Zizi was insistent that we get to church early so she could get to her favorite seat, therefore I was able to watch all the ladies march into church showing off their finery. It was like they were on a fashion show Runway.   Other than that I though the whole thing was a big waste of my time.  The mass was in Latin so I could not even understand what the priest was saying.  All I heard was blah, blah, blah.  At the end of the Mass he would say in English “Go the mass has ended”.   Everyone would reply “Thanks Be Too God”.  What I was thinking was ‘Yeah get me the hell out of here’. Because of that I am probably going straight to HELL.

In 1963 I turned 17 and I was very excited because I was going to get my learners permit and Papa was going to teach me how to drive.  I learned to drive in his 1958 Ford.  Papa always beat the heck out of his cars; driving them back and forth to work 6 days a week.  This one had a coat hanger for an Antenna and it also had an oil leak. Every so often we had to stop and check the oil and if it was low added more. Papa kept a supply of oil in the trunk. I didn’t care what I drove; whatever I was driving was going to give me freedom to get out of our little town and going to church with Zizi.  I was going to be able to explore other towns and meet new friends and new boys. Going to new restaurants was high on my list. New Fast Food Hamburger Joints were starting to spring up and I wanted to sample the burgers, fries and Shakes I was hearing about. One of the first burger joints was Westson’s on Rt. 46 in Livingston.  It was approx. 15 miles from Morristown and I needed to be able to drive to get there. They did have great little burgers for 19₵ full of onions which is a flavor that I love.  McDonald’s had not made it’s debute into our world or at least not in New Jersey. I think that happened in the late 60’s.

Once I got my Driver’s License Papa let me take the car and drive Linda and I to Church. Mama gave me the envelope to put in the collection basket.  I am sure she thought we would not try to cut mass because she got a statement every month that documented the amount of her donations. But Linda and I were smarter than she gave us credit for. I would drive to the Church and Linda  would go into the vestibule and give the envelope to the usher, telling him she forgot to put it in the basket at the last Mass and then off we would go to Danzingers Bakery. The Bakery Shop was a busy place on Sunday mornings and we would have to take a number and wait our turn while looking at all the wonderful, cakes, pastries and breads through the glass cases. 

My sister and I loved the iced crumb buns and bought at least 4.  After we made our purchase I would drive us to a lovely look out spot on Picatinny Road.  It was a secluded back street on the outskirts of town where we were very sure we would not be spotted.  After we ate our fill and we knew it was time that the mass would be over we would head home, and there we would eat Mamas’ big Sunday Italian meal. She always served it at noon on Sundays. We were so good at our deception that we never got found out and we did it just about every week.

My sister loves to bake more than cook and is also a talented artist with an art degree. She can make her baked goods look great. Years ago she had a little cake business and she made amazing custom cakes.  If someone wanted a cake to look like a corvette or a Big Mac with French fries she could do it.  This was back in the 80’s long before the Cake Boss was around.  Currently she owns a Fastsigns Business in E. Hanover, NJ and brings homemade goodies to her shop every day and feeds her employees and customers. Occasionally a customer will call and ask what she had made for that day, this is good for business. After she closes her shop she goes home and bakes. She had a cup cake business for a while a few years ago.  She would make dozens of cupcakes from scratch for weddings, showers, graduations, birthday parties, etc. and she decorated them for the theme of the party.  All this and working all week as well.

I on the other hand prefer cooking to baking and enjoy experimenting with recipes.  I just can’t follow a recipe exactly as it is written. I know I can make it better by adding or taking away ingredients, I call it “making the recipe my own”.  A few times I have forgotten what I did different and my husband would get pissed because he enjoyed it so much he wanted me to make it again.  I have learned the hard way that I must document the changes I make or write down a new recipe when I develop one.  There have been times when I just started adding things together with no recipe and it came out fabulous.  But because I didn’t write it down it was lost in the Culinary Sky forever.    

Just this past weekend Linda went to a cooking class, provided by the Cake Boss at his shop called the Lackawanna, in Jersey City, NJ.  You might have seen his show on Cable TV. There she learned more about using Fondant for cake decorating.  Mama would be so proud. Linda makes the best Crumb Cake I have ever tasted.  It tastes a lot like the crumbs buns we loved so much as kids. But her cake is moister  and the  crumbs are thicker and richer.

  

Linda’s New York Crumb Cake Recipe

                        Preheat oven to 350                
 

13 x 9 Tin Foil Pan, Pam sprayed

 

CRUMB TOPPING 

2/3 cup packed brown sugar 

1/3 cup sugar 

2 teas cinnamon

2 sticks melted salted butter, cooled

3 ½ cups cake flour

Confectioner’s Sugar for dusting

In large mixing bowl using your hands, mix everything together until it makes a cohesive dough. Set aside.

CAKE

2 ½ cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

½ teas baking soda

¾ stick salted butter, softened

¾ cup veg oil

2 Jumbo eggs

2 Jumbo egg yolks

2/3 cup buttermilk

2 teas vanilla

In large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar & baking soda. Mix in everything else with mixer until just combined. Do not overmix. Scrape sides with rubber spatula and finish mixing by hand. Put batter into pan. Drop crumb topping in large chunks on top of batter, starting all around edges then finishing in center bake 45 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

When cooled dust generously with confectioner’s sugar