Lemon-Scented Teaching

As the daughter of a teacher, as the grand daughter of teachers, as the great-granddaughter of teachers, you'd think I'd be a little more tuned in to showing some appreciation to my own kids' teachers.

You'd think.

But generally speaking I'm the one turning up at the last-day-of-school festivities thinking 'cripes! wish I'd gotten a card!'  I'm the one wrapping a Christmas gift for the teacher on December 27 and dropping it off at the school office in the hopes our teacher checks in over the holidays.  You will laugh and think I am making this up, but in all honesty & humility I can confirm that I did wrap and give the Best Teacher Ever ornament to Cecilie's preschool teacher this Christmas - two years late.

But tomorrow is my big chance to make things right.  By the sheer luck of having Head of PTA Hospitality up my street, I figured out that it is Teacher Appreciation Week, and am sending in some coffee cake for the teachers' breakfast.

But not just any coffee cake.

Currently the intoxicating scent of Lemon-Rosemary Crumb Cake is wafting through the kitchen, and the hubs is hinting that maybe the teachers don't need two cakes.  Maybe, he suggests, they'd be just as happy with Dunkin' Donuts.

They might, I reply, but I think my karma owes the teachers this crumb cake.

If the idea of rosemary in a sweet coffee cake makes you nervous, turn away from the fear. Really. This combo is just....transcendent.   The cake is not-too-sweet, but yet not overly wholesome or earnest either.  (Sounds like the description of a great friend, actually, instead of baked goods!)  It is nothing less than perfection when paired with a cup of Earl Grey tea, but also extremely nice with a plain ol' cup of coffee.  If you felt that the recipe was leading you in a dessert-y sort of direction, I would be the last person to argue that a well-placed dollop of lemon curd was de trop. (Or, OR! Blend that lemon curd with mascarpone, and you might not emerge until the pan was empty.)

In the interests of copyright protection and brevity, I'll give you the list of ingredients here and ask you to head on over to the official link for further direction.  I give you.....

Lemon-Rosemary Crumb Cake

Ingredients

• 1 1/4  cups  all-purpose flour
• 2/3  cup  sugar
• 1/8  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  cup  chilled stick margarine or butter, cut into small pieces
• 3/4  teaspoon  minced fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/3  cup  low-fat buttermilk
• 2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
• 1  large egg
• Cooking spray
• 2  teaspoons  grated lemon rind
• 3/4  teaspoon  water
• Rosemary sprigs (optional)
• Lemon slices (optional)

Run off and make this now, you busy bakers.  It is incredibly easy in its lemony goodness, and a sure-fire karma fixer.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

P.S. A happy coincidence occurred on Twitter last night.  As I tweeted about making Lemon Rosemary Crumb Cake, A Southern Fairy Tale was tweeting about making Lemon Blackberry Coffee Cake for the teachers in her little part of Texas. Seems like lemon is the flavor of choice when it comes to teachers.