Have you ever had one of those desserts that are so addicting that you could finish off the whole darn thing if no one was standing around to judge you? Every time I make this cake my fiance, Collin polishes the entire thing off within the first night.  It has never made it to see a second day hahaha.

I found this wonderful recipe on Food and Wine and just fell in love with it.  It is so delectable and would be perfect for the upcoming Holidays.  This week I will be featuring Thanksgiving food since it is right around the corner!  I am having my annual feast this weekend with friends and family so there will be a lot of good stuff posted this week Be sure to stay posted!

Ingredients for Berry Filling:

• 3 pounds strawberries, hulled and halved (8 cups) **I used 2 pounds strawberries, 1 pint of blueberries (Thanks Kristan ^_^)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 1/2 tablespoons of water

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large bowl, toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch mixture and allow the berries to stand for 30 minutes, until the juices of the berries have been drawn out a bit.   Pour the fruit filling into a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish and set on a sturdy baking sheet to catch any overflowing cake batter or crumbles.  Meanwhile make the crumble topping.

In the original recipe, it asks to add fresh vanilla bean.  They are quite pricey so I decided to leave them out, you can always use a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead.

Ingredients for Crumb Topping:

• 1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

Mix all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.  Using your fingers, break the butter and form the mixture into a coarse clumps or “crumbles”.

Ingredients for Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cups buttermilk

Mix the flour, baking powder and salt thoroughly in a medium bowl.   In a  beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in the vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk.  If you do not have buttermilk, you can use yogurt as a substitute!

Spread the batter over the fruit filling to the edges of the baking dish.  Sprinkle generously with the crumb topping and bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The fruit filling will be bubbling, the crumb topping should be golden and test the doneness by sticking a toothpick into the center of the cake.  If it comes out clean it is done! Allow the cake to cool on a cooling rack.  You can serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream or eat it plain.

This dessert is an absolute delight — it has a delicious crunchy topping with a moist crumble cake hidden underneath.  After breaking into the crust, the rich fragrance of the mixed berries rushes to your nose.  In every bite you get the warm berry filling with the gooey yellow cake with the nice buttery crunch at the end.

You honestly can’t stop eating it, my fiance is living proof.  He walked up to the empty cake pan last night and looked upon it with sad eyes and said to me ” Why is there never any leftovers for this cake?” — that’s because you eat it all Collin .