Using up cake crumbs . . . again!

It seems you have to make more cake in order to use cake crumbs. I still have a bag of broken cake from last week that I froze for future reference. Today was the day to give some of that crushed cake a new home. The thing is that in order to use the crumbs, I had to fix a batter for a new cake. This is the one I used and it seems to be a very nice vanilla cake that worked well to support the layer of cake crumbs on top.

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
4 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. This recipe makes two eight-inch layers or one 11x13-inch baking pan. You might be able to get 2 dozen cupcakes out of the batter but haven't tried it with that yet. Use vegetable oil spray to grease the pans.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Mix together the flour and baking powder, put into the butter/egg mixture, add the milk, and mix until just combined.

Spread the batter in the pan of your choice. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes our until golden and top springs back when lightly touched.

If you want to go the crumb cake route, this is how I did it today.

2 cup cake crumbs
1 stick butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Crumble the cake crumbs into fine crumbs. In a mixing bowl or food processor, combine the butter, flour, and vanilla and mix to get rough crumbs. Combine this with the cake crumbs and mix with your hands to make large crumbs.

I found that using two 11x13-inch baking pans worked well for this amount of crumbs. Instead of making a thick cake, you divide the batter between the pans and then divide the cake crumb mixture over the top of each cake. Bake as directed.

When mine came out of the oven, I drizzled them with a thin glaze of lemon juice and powdered sugar. You can go traditional and just sift powdered sugar over the top, too.