When I first discovered crumb cakes, we were living in Oregon, and there was this little cafe in Lake Oswego, that had the most incredible breakfast menu. It was a tiny little place. A cute white cottage, that locals knew to be a sweet slice of heaven. They had crumb cakes, or as they called them, coffee cakes, American scones, which a grew to love, and of course the usual breakfast food.

I’m sure those breakfasts were lovely too, but that’s not why everyone was lined up out the door, in the middle of winter, waiting patiently to get a tiny table in this tiny place. The pastries, and the baked sweets were all you could think about the whole drive there. I got quite used to Jon and I going out for breakfast every Sunday morning. When we had Hunter, we wondered if we could actually manage to keep our Sunday date. But she was one of those angel babies. She just smiled and laughed, and hardly ever cried. She was the perfect brunch companion.

Once we become a brood of four, things got a little harder to manage, so I started trying to create crumb cakes at home. Coming up with a recipe is harder than it sounds. Getting that perfect balance between fluffy sponge, fruit and crumble took quite a while to achieve. Adding the cream cheese, I must admit, while it takes a little longer, costs a little more, and may make this recipe sound quite intense,  it makes the whole thing even better than any I’d tried before. And that, dear friends, is the story of how a cake decorator fell in love with baking.