Raspberry Crumb Cake

This afternoon, I was looking through one of the Taste of Home cookbooks, and I saw this recipe for this cake.  I thought it sounded really good so I up and made it!  After a few troubles with the raspberry part (which was because I WASN'T reading it all the way), everything turned out and it was delicious!  Especially the topping.  Oh my goodness, that is addicting topping.  I just want to snitch, snitch, and snitch some more.  It tastes so good!  It's kind of like apple crisp topping (not the flavor) how I just want to snitch it, too, because it's sooooooo good to eat plain!  Yeah, I'm kind of naughty like that, but then again, that's me:)

As I was preparing the raspberries, I just started to dump stuff in the kettle.  After I had dumped everything in (or so I thought), I looked at the recipe to see what I was supposed to do next.  Uh, oops, I guess I wasn't supposed to dump the lemon in yet; it was supposed to wait until I boiled it!  Then, as the five minutes for boiling was up, and the raspberries weren't thickening up, I start to wonder what was supposed to do the thickening - I hadn't put any type of thickener in it.  I go back and look at the recipe - wowzers, Aimee, you forgot the CORNSTARCH!  Uh, yeah, no wonder the raspberries weren't thickening.  So I quickly dump that in, too.  I start stirring again.  What in the world?!?  Now the cornstarch is all clumping up!  I quickly get a wire whip and try to stir it up and get the clumps out.  It gets some out but there's still some ugly little clumps left.  Grab the spoon; try to get the clumps to the edge and clomp them out.  I get a few, then give up.  If it don't turn out, then it doesn't!  Needless to say, it did turn out, even after all my mishaps with the raspberries!


Raspberry Crumb Cake

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup water
2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice

CRUST:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup cold butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

TOPPING:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cold butter or margarine
1/4 cup sliced almonds

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, water, and raspberries.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil for 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat; stir in lemon juice.  Cool.  Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the first five crust ingredients.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs.  Beat eggs, milk, and vanilla; add to crumb mixture and mix well.  Spread two-thirds of the mixture into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Spoon raspberry filling over crust to within 1 inch of the edges.  Top with remaining crust mixture.  For topping, combine flour and sugar; cut in butter until crumbly.  Stir in almonds.  Sprinkle over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until lightly browned.

*From Taste of Home, 2000*

This is delicious ~ you really should try it!

Reid took this picture:)  He decided to take pictures probably because he always sees me taking pictures of the food I make!

Have a wonderful rest of the evening!

I have something fun coming tomorrow:)