Cornbread shows up often at holiday dinners. Usually as a stuffing. But did you know this proverbial dish makes a remarkable streusel as well?

Oh yes. And there's a lot to love about this cornbread-inspired cake. I found this idea/recipe on a favorite site, www.food52.com, and was instantly smitten. The cook, Posie Harwood, described it this way: “Using cake flour gives the batter an incredibly tender, moist-yet-light crumb. The cake is buttery and sweet with a hint of vanilla.”

The streusel technique is truly a stroke of brilliance: Instead of oats for crunch, you pulse freeze-dried corn with flour and butter. The streusel is salty and savory and tastes just like cornbread, but it pairs beautifully with the sweet cake.

My family raved about this cake. The sweet-salty combination was a wonderful surprise, and I know I'll be making it for years to come for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners (and lots of occasions inbetween).

You can easily serve it plain, but it’s also amazing with your favorite fruit compote, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a big dollop of sweetened whipped cream.

And one last not before I share Posie’s recipe: You can find freeze-dried corn in the snack aisle of most grocery stores (especially Whole Foods, for instance), but you can also buy it online (amazon.com has it). This is such a good dessert that you’ll want to always have freeze-dried corn on hand.

CORNBREAD STRUESEL CAKE

(yield: 1 9-inch cake)

FOR THE CAKE:

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup crème fraîche (or full-fat Greek yogurt)

FOR THE STREUSEL:

3/4 cup freeze-dried corn

1/2 cup almond flour

1 tablespoon cake flour

6 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat your oven to oven to 350°F.

2. Grease a 9" round cake pan and line it with parchment.

3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (at least 3 minutes in a stand mixer).

4. Add the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk, and beat until well-combined.

5. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and creme fraiche and mix until the batter just comes together.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

7. In a food processor, pulse together all the streusel ingredients until crumbly but not too fine.

8. Spread the streusel evenly over the cake batter.

9. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

10. Remove from the oven once a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

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Here’s one last thought in closing. It’s a question, actually. Can you substitute dehydrated corn for the freeze-dried corn the recipe calls for? The quick answer is sure. (And I’m glad to know this since I have some dehydrated in my storage that I’ll turn to right away.)

However, here’s a case for opting for the freeze-dried over the dehydrated variety. It’s about overall taste and storage length. The corn on the left was dehydrated; the corn on the right was freeze-dried. Both will do the job, but the freeze-dried can be eaten without adding anything to it, including water!

While both dehydrated and freeze-dried foods can have long shelf lives, freeze-dried food is superior when it comes to long-term storage (according to the authorities at the food storage company, Emergency Essentials). They sell both types, by the way, so there’s no bias here. And remember, I mentioned you’ll likely want to make this recipe often, so having its key ingredient always around will be a good idea.

In both cases, however, cooler temperatures will help lengthen their shelf life. Emergency Essentials (www.emergencyessentials.com) recommends storing your food in temperatures below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

And a final thought on freeze-dried corn: It’s a delicious out-of-hand snack. We take it on road trips, when flying, and backpacking and camping. So when you’re not using it in this streusel cake recipe, munch on it.