Patti Smith Cake

Plus, where to buy crumb cake in New York and a recipe

Oct 17, 2024

Penguin-Random House sent me two books the other day. One was a hipster-ish guide to cleaning and organizing. I set that one aside. I’m too old to be a hipster. And I have zero desire to become better organized.

The second volume—A Book of Days by Patti Smith—I greeted with jubilation. Immediately, I sat down and read it from cover to cover, which you can accomplish in under an hour. A Book of Days features 365 black and white and color photos, marking each day in the year, shot largely by Patti with first a Polaroid and later a cell phone.

The book contains images of Patti’s family, places she’s traveled, and people she admires. A few lines of haunting prose accompany each photo. I’ve always loved Patti’s music. Her debut album Horses and the music that followed helped keep my heart from crumbling when I lived in DC, pining for New York, pining for a city with soul.

Patti, as everyone on the planet knows by now, is a legendary singer-poet, prose writer, and performer. The author of National Book Award winner Just Kids (2010) about her personal and artistic relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, of the autobiography M Train (2015), and of poetry and essay collections, Patti is probably best known for her music, with hits like “Before the Night” and “Gloria.

So what does Patti Smith have to do with New York sweets? Hang in there. I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, more about A Book of Days.

The personal pictures are the ones that moved me the most: Patti and her late husband Fred standing in front of a Detroit church on their March 1, 1980 wedding day; Patti’s bookcase by her bed (The bookcase by my bed, each volume, a journey); Frida Kahlo’s crutches; Patti and her muse Robert Mapplethorpe in Coney Island; Patti’s Thinking Chair.

After I finished A Book of Days, I turned to my copy of M-Train and started thumbing through it.

And now here comes the NYC sweets connection.

Chocolate pear cake. Photo: Popo le Chien

In M-Train, Patti writes about Cafe ‘Ino in the West Village, where she’d sit for hours at a corner table “pretending to write, or writing in earnest with more or less the same questionable results.” (Oh, how I can relate!) At Ino, she drank rounds of coffee and downed brown bread with olive oil.

One day, she confessed to a waiter that she yearned to run a cafe of her own. I wonder what she would have served besides coffee?

Olive oil and brown bread, for sure.

But maybe also crumb cake, that New York baked goods standard, found in delis and diners throughout the five boroughs.

In M-Train, Smith mentions buying a piece of the streusel-topped buttery confection. Then she sits down in Father Demo Square in the West Village and watches a boy help his sister drink from a water fountain.

I was right there with her, munching on cake and drinking coffee, a perfect New York City moment.

Finally, here’s another Patti sweets connection: A Patti Smith Chocolate Charlotte tribute cake from the Sound Eaters blog, celebrating the Easter Day release on March 3, 1978 of “Because the Night.”

Patti must have a favorite dessert. I’m wondering what it is. Meanwhile, back to M-Train.

Where to Get Great Crumb Cake in NYC

Many NYC diners and delis offer crumb cake. It varies in quality, but I’ve never tasted a really bad one.

I’ve sampled all the following cakes:

Crumbly. Several locations. Specializes in crumb cake.

Zabar’s. 2245 Broadway.

Front Street Bakery 51 Front Street, Rockville Centre, LI. This is my favorite. It’s a schlepp on the LIRR to get to RVC, but you’ll be rewarded with a crumb cake enlivened with a thin layer of jam. The slight acidity from the jam nicely balances the sweetness of the cake.