New York, New York Super Crumb Cake

It may have been seeing the Cake Boss waxing poetic about the huge palmfuls of crumbs on the crumb cake at Carlo's Bakery on the Food Network, but one Sunday night I was suddenly seized with the feeling that I must make crumb cake.

I had never eaten it before, but I imagined it to be warm, moist, with a hint of cinnamon, and perfect alongside a steaming mug of coffee. Comfort food at its sweetest.

Walnut torte with dark rum syrup

This torte is not for the faint of heart. It is dense, it is sticky, it is syrupy sweet. The recipe for this walnut torte comes from Jill O'Connor's "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey."

I've referred to this book time and time again (Re: Bahama Mama Banana Rum cake; Sticky Toffee Pudding; Cheesecake pops) and this won't be the last time either.

I made this cake for my mother's birthday this year, as she had pointed it out in the book as something she'd like to eat.

Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake

Ever since my trip to Bahamas this fall, I have been resenting the fact that I had to rush out of the airport without buying a box of the famous Bahamian rum cake.
So I had my eye on this recipe in Jill O'Connor's "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" for several weeks after buying the book.
Of course, I didn't realize the night I made this cake would forever be seared into my brain as the night of the "Carbon Monoxide Drama." I had just pulled it out of the oven, and settled in to watch a movie with my sister when the carbon monoxide detector went off, alerting me to call 911 immediately. Sure enough, dispatch put me through to the fire department immediately, and warned me to leave my house. Within minutes, a fire truck with flashing lights pulled up to my street, a dashing firefighter leaped over a snowbank and asked me how I felt. After carefully checking my house, and finding nothing but a faulty detector, the firefighters told me my freshly baked rum cake smelled great. I invited them in for a slice, but they had to get going they said. Their loss, this cake tasted great for several days and my father actually asked if I had any left over.

Sticky toffee pudding

I'm sure the protests will roll in, but I'm a much bigger fan of British puddings than Italian desserts. Despite the innate passion of the Italian people, there is something much more indulgent about a good old warm English pudding, dripping with cream, loads of moist cake.
As they are in everyday life, English desserts are straightforward - what you see is what you get. And so when I was writing my Christmas menu, I didn't realize until later that I planned to make not one but two English desserts: cherry chocolate trifle, and sticky toffee pudding.
My parents beseeched me: Please make something light for dessert. They're keen to keep their cholesterol and weight down. But I told them I had been waiting to make sticky toffee pudding all year. Because it's that kind of dessert - rich, multi-layered, dense, interesting depth of flavour, that you crave on Christmas Day. And so I turned, once again, to Jill O'Connor's amazing "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" book.

Ingredients for the cake:
2 cups pitted dates (about 12 ounces)
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for toffee sauce:
1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

vanilla ice cream for serving

Directions (adapted from O'Connor's recipe):
Butter muffin tin or spray with cooking tray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine dates and water in saucepan. Bring to gentle boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook uncovered until dates have absorbed water. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Let stand for about 20 minutes.

Meantime, sift together all dry ingredients for cake, and then set aside. In another bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and then add vanilla. Stir dates into batter. Gently fold dry ingredients wet batter.

Fill muffin cups and then bake for about 22 to 28 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean.

While baking, make the toffee sauce. Start by combine butter and brown sugar over medium heat in saucepan. Cook until they melt then add cream, vanilla, salt. Increase heat high and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook, stirring frequently until sauce thickens, 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove cakes from oven and poke tops with wooden skewer then drizzle warm sauce atop cake. If you like, add some vanilla ice cream.

Would I make this again?
Yes, I would, but for special occasions that call for rich sweets like this one.

Grade:
Four stars out of five. Yes, it was delicious, and one of my ultimate indulgences. But I can see that it won't be to everyone's taste. My only complaint is that for whatever reason, my oven temperature wasn't staying consistent, and I had to keep a sharp eye on the temperature on my thermometer.
Turns out I should have watched it more carefully because this batter was more sensitive than I thought. The puddings in my older, darker muffin tin burned on the bottom. But that wasn't a big problem as this recipe made about 18 servings, and that was much too much. (If you run into this problem, simply cut away the bottom, you will be soaking it in yummy toffee syrup anyway.

Festive cheesecake pops

These were my contribution to the holiday potluck at my workplace and they were well-received. As one of my co-workers put it, anything on a stick is good. Indeed.
I flagged this recipe for cheesecake pops just about as soon as I cracked open the cookbook "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey," by Jill O'Connor. I've said this before, and I'll say it again, this book is just dreamy. It makes me want to want to roll around in flour and dark brown sugar until I finish every single recipe in the book.

Recipe adapted from "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey"
Ingredients:

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionery coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 170C/325F

2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set on a low speed, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (still on a low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

3. Lightly grease a 10-inch cake tin (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top - 35 to 45 minutes.

4. Remove the cheesecake from the waterbath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

5. When cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the pops, uncovered, until very hard - at least 1 to 2 hours.

6. When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate coating. Place the chocolate wafers in a microwave-proof bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. If the chocolate is not completely melted, microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring until smooth. (Or just melt some chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water.)

7. Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop into the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completly. Hold the pop over the melted chocolate and shake off any excess. Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined tray to set. Repeat with the remaining pops, melting more chocolate if needed.

Refrigerate for up to 24 hours, or until ready to serve.

My substitutions:The only way I strayed from the recipe is in the sprinkles I used for decor - I used festive red-and-green poinsettia sprinkles, bright red sanding sugar, sweetened flaked coconut, and white snowflake sprinkles.

Would I make this again?
These would make a lovely hostess gift and add a bright dash of colour to any sweet table. Already I'm planning the next batch, this time only with white chocolate and pastel coloured confetti sprinkles. While I read that some other food bloggers halved the recipe because they ended up making too many cheesecake pops, I did indeed end up with between 30-40 pops, so the recipe was accurate for me. However, I wish I had bought more chocolate. I bought about one-and-a-half pounds, which was more than the recipe called for, but I used every last drop and became increasingly nervous as it began to run out.

Grade:
Four stars out of five. While these are delicious and pretty, they are also time-consuming. I started two nights before actually serving them. On the first night I made the cheesecake then put it in the refrigerator. On the second night, I scooped out the cheesecake balls, froze them for a couple of hours and then decorated them. Unless you're a veritable Betty Crocker who stays at home, most of us can't finish it in one go.