Are we done with all the healthy New Year's Resolutions yet? What a bore. A balanced life is a happy one. I eat kale by the truckload. Can I have some cake now?

And, anyway, my husband is turning 40 in, like, two shakes. He's Philadelphia born and raised, and he needs some Schmastykake Butterscotch Krimpets. ‘Cause Tastykake won't make 'em for us. What do they expect me to do?

Can you see my recipe development notes underneath the bowl of dry ingredients? You sure you want to peek around that particular corner and talk about recipe development? It's a mess down there. Inside my head.

You'll whisk together the dry ingredients, then mix in most of the wet (see the printable recipe for all the details) and set the batter aside. Clean out the mixing bowl so there remain not a trace of fat (or the egg whites won't form peaks), and beat the 4 egg whites with the whisk until they form stiff, but not dry, peaks form. Like this.

You'll want to bake the cake until it is golden brown all over, especially along the edges and underside. As it cools, it will deflate a bit.

To make the icing, you'll first need to make a batch of this easy butterscotch recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Trust this one. I first made a batch using the recipe from another blog and it was written by some fancy schmancy chef-type, and the proportions were way off. The sauce seized up and was tot-ally useless. I threw a few well-placed expletives in the direction of that fancypants internet source,  tossed the mess and turned to this easy recipe. Sweet success within mere minutes.

Glory be.

Now there are a number of non-GF recipes for butterscotch krimpet clones floating around on the interwebs. They all use butterscotch chips for the icing. That won't do. Chips are waxy. That's how they stay individually chippy. No gracias.

It only takes a few minutes to blend butter and confectioner's sugar with some real butterscotch sauce (which itself takes mere minutes to create), and the result is just the right icing. The kind that feels like it might very well peel right off the pastry if you tugged on it, but instead you bite through it and leave little toothy train tracks behind.

Pour the icing on top of the cooled cake, and spread it with a small offset spatula. If you don't have one, you can use a wide knife, but it would be so much easier if you just got one. I might even consider it a personal favor. They're not expensive and they're super duper useful.

Then chill the iced cake until the icing is set and dry to a light touch. All that's left, then, is to slice it into 9 rectangles and make half-moon cutouts in the sides if you like.

Do me a solid & read through the entire printable recipe before you begin, wouldya? You'll see how it all works. I promise.

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