I was on a tear a few days ago to make Rick Bayless’ Mango Upside Down Skillet Cake. It’s from Mexican Everyday, a cookbook a friend gave me before I left. I’ve been reading it in little bites every day.
It was only after I started chopping my mangoes — purchased at the tiangius before we left on vacation, and ergo, slowly rotting in the refrigerator — that I realized I didn’t have enough. By a lot. The recipe called for three cups; I had barely one, after throwing one of the mangoes out. (Lesson here: One mango does not equal one cup chopped. Or, um, check your darn fridge before you start a recipe.)
I’m not usually a daring baker, but I decided to fold the mango into the batter and create my own cake. Adrenaline pumping (because this is the first time I’ve actually done something like this), I creamed the butter and sugars, whisked together the dry ingredients. Then, because I’m currently obsessed with amaranth granola, I decided to make a granola crumble topping.
That’s when the panic set in. I couldn’t remember how to create a crumble. Was it melted butter or softened butter? Or butter cut into 1/4″ pieces? Did you use a lot of butter and a little sugar, or the other way around? The cookbooks that could help were sitting in a box somewhere, and I didn’t have the Internet to consult. That’s getting installed — “supposedly” — tomorrow.
“Crayton!” I yelled. He was in the back room playing Mario Kart. “I need moral support here!”
Because he’s a great husband, he didn’t scream, “Whaddya want, woman?! I’m playing my game here!” Instead he wandered into the kitchen and offered to look up crumbles on his Blackberry. In the end, we mutually decided that finding a cookbook would be better. The Betty Crocker Book of Baking (a Christmas gift when I was 14) lay in the third box he opened. The crumble ratio, according to one recipe: A few tablespoons of softened butter and about 1/4 cup sugar.
The cake turned out pretty good — hearty from a big scoop of whole wheat flour, moist from 3/4 cup of yogurt and not overpoweringly sweet, because I like to use turbinado instead of the white stuff. It’d be perfect with coffee in the morning.
Here’s the recipe, if you’re interested. Although winging it is way more fun.
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