Oops Coffeecake

i'm not much of a cake eater, but i do like a crumb-y coffeecake and i wanted one today. i looked at the recipe in TNBR but it actually calls for dried bread crumbs in the crumb topping and that just didn't appeal to me, so i turned to the king arthur flour baker's companion instead. now, i was planning only to blog about recipes from TNBR this year, but i had to blog about this one because...it was a disaster. first, i made a deliberate substitution. my spousal unit recently learned that she is allergic to cinnamon of all things. cinnamon! i can't imagine....so i substituted freshly grated nutmeg, allspice, and a little ginger for the cinnamon in the crumb topping. then i made an tactical substitution: i used my last tsp. of vanilla for the crumb topping, leaving me without the 1 tsp. of vanilla called for in the cake recipe. i could have just gone without, but i decided to use my favorite substitute for vanilla: dark rum. so i made everything, put it all together, and baked it. and went the beeper went off, i checked it and...the topping was dry, uncooked, flour-y--UGLY and UNAPPETIZING. what did i do wrong? i checked the recipe. oh, no....the recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter for the crumb topping, and 1 stick of butter for the cake. i did the opposite. that can't be good. i took a crumb off the top of the cake; it wasn't good. at all. what to do? i really wanted coffeecake, but i didn't want to eat this and i didn't want to make a new one. so...i melted another stick of butter and poured it as evenly as i could over the crumb topping. i put it back in the oven. after a couple of minutes, nothing was happening. i made my final emergency move--i turned on the broiler. after a few minutes, the crumb was lightly browned and crisp. done! but would it really work? and what had the extra stick of butter done to the cake part underneath? i let the cake completely cool, then cut a piece and...gave it to my wife. she won't eat it; she hates everything. wait...she likes it! hey, wifey! i cut a piece for myself and...not bad. a little crunchy on top, a little heavy on the bottom, but....not bad at all. the substitute spice blend was really nice, the rum complemented the caribbean spices perfectly, and..well, there's nothing wrong with buttery. so, i post this as an example of a disaster that was salvaged. baking is supposed to be an exact science--the one genre of cooking where everything has to be precise. don't believe it! that's just a myth perpetuated by the man to keep us down! which man, i'm not sure...probably mr. entemman.

((nevertheless, i'll follow the recipe next time))