Summer's here, cue "SkinnyBoy" Banana Bread

Inspired by a recent binge on Bravo shows (how can you not love Real Housewives or Top Chef?), I have been trying new ways to make my cooking and baking a little lighter.

One of the "Real Housewives" of NYC, actually, I should say, a former 'real housewife', Bethenny Frankel, who now has her own hilarious show, "Bethenny getting married?", is the successful natural foods cook and author behind the SkinnyGirl Margarita and a line of books on dieting and healthy eating.

Jason is a lucky man. Lucky and brave.

Chocolate Almond Upside-Down Cake

While still home on break, I turned to another of my recipe books, Chocolate and Vanilla by pastry chef Gale Gand and  Lisa Weiss, for some excellent recipes that illustrate the versatility of those two classic flavors. Not in combination, mind you. The book is literally split between vanilla and chocolate--you need to turn the book over to switch from one to the other. Each flavor gets its own introduction and historical background, followed by a group of recipes employing the flavors in all their forms, from Dutch-processed cocoa powder to vanilla beans.

One of the recipes that I've become particular fond of celebrates the classic combination of  chocolate and almonds. The Chocolate Almond Upside-Down Cake is a dark, moist chocolate cake that is topped (once you flip it over)  with rich caramel and toasted almonds. omgah so good. Gale Gand flat out rejects the traditional upside-down cake with those cherries and pineapple all up in it. Blah. This cake looks much better. Dark and sexy, even, to use my friend's words.

New York Style Crumb Cake

"Piece of cake. Piece of crumb cake."  -  ???

Anybody?  For some reason, I've always remembered the movie Casper (with Christina Ricci) with this line spoken by the priest/exorcist who attempts to empty the house of the friendly ghosts.

But besides clever writing, crumb cake reminds me of the trips my family used to take to a resort/lodge in Pennsylvania every Columbus Day Weekend. Each morning, breakfast in the enormous dining hall would start with a fresh-baked crumb cake brought straight to the table as we sat down. Seeing this recipe's photo on Tastespotting (an awesome site if you feel like window shopping for recipes) took me right back to those brisk October mornings where the smell of wood burning in the fireplace gave way to that of butter and cinnamon wafting up from the still warm dish sitting on our table. ...So as you can tell... I needed a piece of crumb cake. Luckily, being home for the weekend, I had  most of the ingredients on hand, even the cake flour, and was ready to get to work.

First, many thanks to Shauna from Piece of Cake for posting the recipe with such great pics. They definitely caught my eye and inspired me to make this.