Recently I have spent dozens of hours reading a number of different Paris food blogs in preparation for our trip to Paris at the end of May. Most of the blogs are dedicated to the Parisian restaurant scene, but David Lebovitz's blog is dedicated to dessert and Paris. All of the blogs get me all worked up like a little kid on Christmas Eve or like Alex after eating dessert too late at night (i.e. bouncing around and unable to sleep). We currently have reservations at a few restaurants and I'm pondering my options for our remaining meals. I'm having trouble narrowing it down because I want to eat everywhere, but I'm going to have to make some tough decisions soon. I can't wait. But enough about that - back to David Lebovitz. I stumbled across his Gooey Cinnamon Cake recipe a few months back but the number of steps/layers that it involved was sufficient deterrent to keep me away. But I kept coming back to it. I'm not sure what it was about this cake recipe that kept bringing me back for another look but after my 10th visit I decided that I had had enough. And that is the story behind this cake. It's not much of a story, but this cake was inspired by our upcoming trip to Paris (in a rather backwards and roundabout way).
I'm not sure what I expected the cake to taste like, but it strongly reminded me of coffee cake. And I'm not a huge fan of coffee cake, but I found this cake to be strangely delicious. Other bloggers have said that these cake squares reminded them of snickerdoodles, which makese sense given the prevalence of the cinnamon. I expected the upper layer to be a little more buttery and gooey-er than it actually was, but that didn't bother me. And it did become gooey-er after a day or two. All in all I considered it to be a very pleasant cake. It tasted (and looked) homemade and just struck me as a very simple dessert (notwithstanding how long it took me to put it together). I could see making it if I ever had people over for brunch. It didn't blow me away and I wouldn't make it the centerpiece of a dinner party, but I think brunch would be the perfect opportunity to make it again. Then again, I might prefer a french toast bread pudding, which would be equally brunchy and potentially more scrumptious...
Recipe after the jump!
