Apple Crumble Cake

Can you believe this is the first apple cake I've ever tried? I could eat apple crumble all day long, but the thought of apple cake never really appealed to me. But when I came across The Best Apple Crumb Cake from Crunchy, Creamy Sweet, I just had to give it a go. The apple and cinnamon flavours sounded beyond perfect for fall and there were so many new baking techniques in the recipe that I've never come across before that I just couldn't say no.

How do you make your normal crumb topping? I usually combine flour and sugar with cubed cold butter. But for this cinnamon apple crumble cake, you use melted butter. I thought that in order to get the perfect crumb consistency, you needed to have the butter cold and solid so it would melt in the oven, but if you're aiming for the best apple crumble cake recipe ever, you're going to want to melt the butter. It makes all the difference in the world, I swear!

So that was the first baking technique that was new to me. The second was that you basically pile everything into the cake tin and bake it all together. So you've got cake batter on the bottom, raw sliced apple in the middle and uncooked crumble on the top. I never thought the whole thing would bake in 45 minutes, but it did! Better still - the cake batter on the bottom rose up the side of the cake tin, almost making a sponge cake bowl for the rest of the ingredients.

Cinnamon, apple, crumble and cake - does it get any more comforting than this? Yes - it does! Serve it along with a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream and a drizzling of one-ingredient caramel or salted caramel sauce and you've got a dessert you'll be dreaming all day about.

We've only got a couple of wonderful fall months ahead of us before we delve into everything peppermint and white chocolate for Christmas, so get into the kitchen and whip up this apple and cinnamon crumble cake recipe before it's too late!

📖 Recipe

Apple Crumble Cake

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

for the crumble topping:

• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup melted butter

for the apple filling

• 2 medium apples washed, peeled, cored and sliced
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

for the cake

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup + 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 egg

Instructions

• Grease or line an 8"/20cm round cake tin and preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
• To make the topping, stir together both sugars, cinnamon and flour. Pour in the melted butter and fluff it up with a fork until you've got a crumb-like mixture. Leave to one side.
• For the apple filling, toss together the apple slices, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Leave to one side.
• For the cake, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, oil and egg until smooth.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently combine with a spoon until the mixture just comes together - don't over-mix.
• Pour the cake batter into the lined/greased pan.
• Layer the apple slices on top of the cake batter.
• Sprinkle the crumble layer on top of the apple slices.
• Bake for around 45 minutes, until the crumble topping is golden brown. Leave to cool completely in the tin before slicing and serving or covering and storing in the fridge for up to five days.

Notes

Lightly adapted from The Best Apple Crumb Cake from Crunchy, Creamy, Sweet