From: Pam
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 1:48 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Ebinger's crumb cake

Hello!!   

I too am a child of Ebinger's delights, that I can still taste in my mind!  

Their yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and almonds 
on the side was my shared favorite with their crumb cake.

Apparently I'm not alone!!!

Barbra Streisand was on Rosie O'Donnell's show twice, BOTH TIMES 
she mentioned Ebinger's yellow cake with the chocolate frosting and 
sliced almonds on the side!! Here you have a enormously famous and 
wealthy woman who could clearly afford anything in the world she 
wanted, still drooling for this cake!!  Rosie had her connections make 
Barbra the blackout cake as a surprise for her second appearance on 
the show, to which Barbra said, " Thank you! But No! It was the yellow 
cake ..."

You posted a recipe from  someone who made her version of this cake.  
She said the cake and the frosting were good, but not really there.  I am 
a very good baker and will try her recipe, and evaluate for myself, but I 
was wondering if you have ever personally tried to duplicate this cake.  
In my child's mind the frosting tasted simply like chocolate, not mocha.  
However, as an adult, and a cook, I realize coffee accentuates the 
chocolate flavor, so does the espresso actually make that frosting more 
chocolate like, or did the cake have a mocha taste?  

I baked for gourmet delis for many years, including making large crumb 
cakes.  I never skimped on my ingredients!  These delis were in my town, 
my friends knew I baked for  them, I wouldn't have embarrassed myself 
with making anything less than delicious.  However, I used a baking 
powder cake, not a yeast cake......I miss Ebinger's !!

Do you have a crumb cake recipe worthy of an Ebinger's bakery?

A good twenty years ago, my brother sat next to the owner of Entenmann's 
bakery on a plane.  This gentleman said his family had bought many of the 
original Ebinger's recipes from the Ebinger family, and they were keeping 
them in ready in case they ever decided to produce a superior line of goods.  
Obviously this was before the Entenmann's sold out to a larger public 
company...which eventually destroyed the quality of the Entenmann's brand.... 
have you tried their crumb cake lately?   DON'T!! 

Anyhow!  My request is for a worthy of Ebinger's yeast of course! 
Crumb cake, and suggestions regarding the yellow cake chocolate 
buttercream cake they made.

Thank You!!

Pam

Hi Pam,

Thanks for an interesting letter.

Actually, I now have a recipe for the Ebinger’s crumb cake from the Vice President of Ebinger’s, Walter Jacobi, that he sent in a 1957 letter. I am attaching a copy of the letter that I found on a blog here:

Letter from Walter N. Jacobi of Ebinger's in 1957

The yellow cake and frosting recipes are still problematic, as they have been for the 15 years that I’ve been looking for them. There is a possible “tastes-like” recipe here: Ebinger's Yellow Layer Cake

Phaed

Thank you for your quick reply!

I'll tell you two other Ebinger stories

33 years ago Ebingers reopened on Hamilton. Parkway, Brooklyn, NY.  
Arnold Diaz, the local ABC reporter, reported on this monumental 
happening!!! Live coverage of people piling into "Brooklyn's finest 
bakery ever has returned to Brooklyn!!!!"
I threw my 6 month old son into the back seat and headed into Brooklyn.

I waited my turn, 20 minutes at least, and bought 6 crumb cakes, and 
knowing I wouldn't be able to wait until I got home before digging into 
one of them, a crumb bun to eat immediately in the parking lot. 
One taste and it was a "Who's kidding who?" Moment.  
Clearly the name had gone back into public domain and some smart 
cookie, all puns intended, had snatched up the name and was trying to 
pass himself off as the real thing....he didn't stay in business very long. 

Then some ten years later some other smart fellow bought the name 
again and sold Ebinger staples in the same green box with brown 
latticework.  That didn't last very long either.

Some 35 years ago, Jacobi, who presented himself as a former Ebingers 
employee, I guess it was true!, also sold boxed goods thru the A &P 
supermarket chain.  That stuff was legit, one taste and you knew he had 
the right recipes.  Sadly that died too after a few years.

My crumbs were very similar.  Equal parts butter and Crisco, pastry flour, 
salt , cinnamon, dark brown sugar, ground walnuts, and ground cakes I 
bought at the discount Entenmann's factory store, either butter  pound 
cakes or Danishes.  Bakeries never throw out yesterday's cakes, they use 
them in the crumbs of tomorrow's cakes, tastes much better than plain 
old flour, plus economical.

I hope I haven't bored you!

Thanks again,

Pam
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Ebingers Crumb cake recipe
From: Margaret
Date: 5/16/2023, 12:12 PM
To: Phaedrus 

On 5/16/2023 9:41 AM, Margaret wrote:

Sent from my iPad Good morning! Would love to have Ebingers crumb 
cake recipe .. My husbands favorite and I wish I could surprise him with 
it on Father’s Day.
Thank you
Regards,Margaret

Hi Margaret,

I did a thorough search for this recipe in 2014: 8-11-2014 I'm afraid that the situation has not changed in the ensuing years. An actual recipe for the Ebinger's cake is still not available.

The closest that I have ever found to Ebinger's crumb cake recipe is in a letter from Ebinger's to an individual who requested the recipe in 1957.  Ebinger's did not send her the full, actual recipe, but they sent her what appears to be a possible "tastes'-like" home version. The actual letter is posted on this site: Monday Moanings I have transcribed the recipe part of the letter below.

There are some very good New York style crumb cake recipes on these pages:

Smells Like Home

Fresh Local and Best

Perhaps one of them would be close enough to please your husband.

You might use the crumb recipe that Ebinger's sent in their letter below. That part of the letter might be quite accurate.

Phaed

...Take any standard household recipe for coffee cake or sweet dough
and handle and ferment this dough according to directions. When dough
is ready, roll out a given amount to about 1/4" thickness and flatten
out in the bottom of a round or oblong pan. Prick the dough with a
fork, wash with milk and sprinkle on desired amount of the following
crumb mixture: rub together once cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 granulated
sugar with two cups mixed butter and shortening. Add four cups cake
flour and mix until it results in small lumps. Cinnamon to taste may
be added. Sprinkle this on top of dough in pan, let dough rise in warm
place until double in bulk, and bake at 375 degrees.

From: Cathy 
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 4:28 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Looking for a Baked Bean recipe

Dear Phaedrus:

I am looking for a very particular baked bean recipe.  It was one my 
mother made and I believe it came from a newspaper article in the 
1960s. It is a unique recipe as it uses canned baked beans for the 
recipe.  In fact, I remember the recipe 
saying not to use pork-n-beans.

Here are the ingredients:

4 – 1# cans of baked beans 
6 slices bacon
Onion
Ketchup
Mustard
Brown sugar 
4 drops Tabasco Sauce

They were then baked at 325 F for three (3) hours.

As you can see, I remember most of the recipe.  It is the middle part that 
I can’t recall.  

These beans turn out to stick together and are delicious.  They don’t run 
all over your plate that a lot of other baked bean recipes do.  In fact, these 
particular beans are even good when they are cold.  When cold they really 
stick together.  

I really hope that you can assist me in my search for this recipe.  I have 
tried searching using “baked beans with tabasco sauce”,  “baked beans 
using canned baked beans”, “baked beans from 1960s”, as well as looking 
thru all of the recipe sites that I belong to.  
I’ve had a few that are similar, but the key for me is the Tabasco and the 
cooking time.  

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Cathy 

Hello Cathy,

I had no success finding a recipe that exactly matched your description. I found a few baked beans recipes made with canned beans other than pork and beans that had Tabasco and a few that were baked for 3 hours at 350°. But they either had additional ingredients such as Worcestershire, vinegar, or molasses, or else they differed in some other way. Looking at what you have, I don’t see that much could be missing except the amounts for the onions, ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar, and a few basic instructions, like “chopped” for the onions, “diced” for the bacon, etc.

I’ll post this on my site in case a reader has the original recipe that your mother used.

Phaed

 I found this recipe in my files. I think it came from an old church cookbook.    

Timm in Oregon

 
Home Style Baked Beans
 
Ingredients:

Four 15 ounce cans baked beans
6 slices bacon, cooked, drained and diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 cup brown sugar
Tabasco sauce to taste
Spray oil

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 300F degrees. Combine the baked beans, bacon, 
onion, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar and Tabasco sauce. 
Place in a large casserole dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. 
Cover and bake for 2 hours.

From: Kelsey
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
Subject: Easy Rub Recipes for Grilling
Date: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 12:05 PM

Hi there, 

I wanted to suggest a post for your site: Rub Recipes for Grilling.

Fix.com has just released a list of seven easy rub recipes and I thought your 
readers and followers might enjoy it this grilling season.

Thanks,

Kelsey