Crumb cake muffins and yet another career idea!

So here's my question for you... say you've been feeling a little down and have begun considering going to a few group therapy sessions, or you've recently lost a family member and you've been thinking of joining a support group, or you and your lover have been fighting a lot and want to give couples therapy a try... would you want to sit in an office, or worse, an empty classroom after hours with a therapist who wants you to introduce yourself so that the rest of the group can echo "hi Frank!" or would you prefer to pay a little extra money to have the session in a kitchen, so that after everything is out in the open, and you've used the chopped onions as the excuse for your tears you can have a great meal with new found friends, a bond created through kitchen nightmare and creating something together? (holy hell that was on heck of a run on sentence.) For me, nothing feels better than cooking a great meal, and it's not even the satisfaction of eating it that I love, it's the process, and for me, the process is made better by cooking something to be enjoyed by others. For me, cooking is therapy and I think it could work for a lot of people. Start by cooking, something that people bond over, because no recipe comes out right without cooperation. Choose recipes with long cooking times so that there is a time for the "therapy" aspect of it, and then end the whole session with a happy light hearted dinner with your new friends! Gosh darn it I am a GENIUS!

Now onto a recipe which I had decided to make because I was driving from Pittsburgh to State College with some water polo girls and I wanted to make friends and nothing makes friends better than food! (see? therapy!) I went nuts and made three dozen muffins; one dozen blueberry, one dozen chocolate chip and one dozen of these babies! So this recipe was not as hard as I thought it was going to be (maybe because I used boxed cake mix because I was stretched for time... please don't judge me...) Well here it is!

Crumb Cake Muffins

Enough yellow cake batter to make 12 muffins (I used boxed cake mix. If you're going to do this, replace the amount of water called for on the box with the same amount butter milk. Now a boxed mix will make 24 muffins, I made 12 crumb cake and 12 chocolate chip.)

For the crumb topping (makes enough topping for about... hmm... 18-20 muffins?):
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 tablespoons salted butter (one stick) melted and still warm
1 3/4 cups flour



For the crumb topping, mix granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter together in a bowl. Add Flour and mix until it forms a dough. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Make your muffins! Assuming you're using a boxed cake, I'm not going to tell you how to make it because you have a box with directions on it... If anyone really wants a good from scratch cupcake recipe, let me know I'll be more than happy to post one for you!

Once you've divided the dough evenly between the muffin cups. Break the now cooled crumbs up into small pieces and divide between the muffins, feel free to use a generous amount, even up to 1/4 cup of crumb per muffin (but if you do this there will only be enough crumbs for 12 muffins) Sprinkle a little cinnamon over the muffins and bake around 18 to 21 minutes until the crumbs are golden brown and a tooth pick comes out clean.

Set aside to cool, top with a little powdered sugar if you'd like (I didn't) and enjoy! And I promise you will enjoy them! They are pretty freaking fantastic if I do say so myself. I may never make normal crumb cake again! Not that I've ever made normal crumb cakes...



Now it may be a little while before I can post again unfortunately. I seem to have misplaced my camera chord and until I can find it I wont be able to post again with pictures. Any how! I hope everyone had a great break (or are still having a great break)!

Cheers!

Bailey