Crumb cake
This recipe was adapted from Cooks Illustrated. I must say I’ve been using their website, magazines and books for a while now and every recipe was always a success. For someone who is still learning (read: me) trusting a recipe is very important. I just hope that one day I will be able to come up with baking recipes completely on my own. How fun would that be! For now I am practicing that without any witnesses 😉
The Crumb Cake I am presenting today 🙂 is very delicate and moist, and cake flour is a must in this case. If you substitute for all-purpose the cake still will be edible, that’s for sure, but it will lose its fluffiness and delicacy.
Ingredients:
Crumb topping
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick butter, melted and still warm
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
Cake
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons butter (3/4 stick) cut into 6 pieces
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions:
Crumb topping
- Mix all ingredients, except flour, in a bowl until well combined.
- Add flour and keep mixing with spatula or wooden spoon until the mixture comes together and resembles cohesive dough.
- Set aside for 10 to 15 minutes until it reaches room temperature.
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Prepare 8-inch square baking dish by lining it with parchment paper.
- Place flour, sugar, baking soda in a mixing bowl and mix on a low speed until combined.
- Add butter and continue mixing until the mixture resembles moist crumbs.
- Add wet ingredients: buttermilk, egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Pour batter into baking dish.
- Crumb topping: with your hands break apart crumb topping into pea sized pieces. Spread them evenly over the batter.
- Bake until crumbs are golden brown, and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. About ~40 minutes.
- Cool for at least 30 minutes.
- Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
Yield: 12 portions
Nutritional info: Cal 303, Prot 4g, Carb 40g, Fat 14g, Fiber 1g
Crumb cake – portion.
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This looks devine, I must try it.
Thank you Vicky! Let me know how you like it 🙂
how long can this cake stay in an airtight container?
Hi Meera! Thank you for your question – I am not sure, as it disappears here very quickly, but I would say up to 3 days if it is cool, maybe you could stretch it a little longer if refrigerated (but would need to be sealed well in plastic to prevent absorption of the fridge odors 🙂 ) Hope that helps!
Hi, i’m trying to figure out where you use the 6 tablespoons of butter. In step three it just says place flour, sugar, baking soda and “four” in a mixing bowl. I’m guessing that might be 4 tablespoons of butter but I still don’t see where the other two come in to play. Also in step five I’m guessing you also add the whole egg at that point?
Hi Lisa,
My apologies for so delayed(!) response – I just found a couple of comments buried in spam for some reason.
And thank you for catching that – step three is just flour, sugar and baking soda. In step 4 you add all six tablespoon of butter. And yes to the whole egg in step 5.
I am sorry for confusion. Hope you give it another try, if you haven’t already.