Apple spice cake with crumb topping
By Tali Simon | September 10, 2012
I {heart} my readers. Yeah, that’s you!
But today, I especially {heart} Rena.
I don’t know Rena in real life, but she commented last week with the idea to combine two of my recipes, the apple spice cake and the apple crumb top muffins.
Immediately, almost even before I finished reading her comment, I knew it would be a perfect pairing. So I changed my Shabbos baking plans for the third time and took out my mixing bowl at midnight on Thursday.
Awesome timing? No. Awesome cake? Yesyesyes.
I used double the amount of crumb topping I’d make for a batch of muffins, not because this cake has so much more surface area than 12 muffins but because loading the stuff on is just really fun. And delicious.
Speaking of which, I got a little fancy on you and used vanilla sugar for the topping. Regular white or light brown sugar would also work, but the top of a cake is really an ideal spot for vanilla sugar — direct access to the flavor lets it shine.
Do I even need to point out that a slice of apple cake with crumb topping begs for a scoop of vanilla ice cream?
No? Good.
Thanks, guys.
One year ago: white bean dip
Ingredients Directions 1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and prepare apple spice cake as directed (just the cake, since you won’t be using the caramel drizzle). Combine butter/oil, sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside. 2. Bake cake in a well-greased bundt or tube pan for 50 minutes (10 minutes less than directed). Remove cake from oven, invert the pan, and let cake gently drop down. I have an awesome tube pan with “feet” on the ends (you can see it by scrolling down a bit in this post), and it takes about three minutes for the cake to loosen and drop. If your pan is not as awesome as mine, you may want to try propping the sides up on books to get the gravity effect. 3. Place the cake (facing upwards) on a baking tray and brush the surface generously with the egg white. Sprinkle even more generously with the prepared crumb topping. Use it all up! I did about one-sixth of the cake at a time because I wasn’t sure how long the egg would stay “sticky,” but you may not find this necessary. 4. Return to oven for 10 minutes. Remove, let cool, and admire. Keeps well in the fridge for five days (maybe longer, but we wouldn’t know). Why not just top the batter with the crumb topping when you first bake the cake? I guess you could…but if you’ll need to invert your creation, this method is a lot neater (and gives you more control).
Yield: 12-14 servings
10 Comments
malka on September 10, 2012 at 11:56 am.
This looks delish — and methinks that’s a tube pan you have, not a bundt. And I wanted to tell you that this week I did make a menu plan, bc there was no way I was going to the store more than once for everything for the week, shabbos, and yuntif, no way when its on Sunday Night!!
Tali Simon on September 10, 2012 at 12:58 pm.
Shoot. You’re right, it is a tube pan! Off to make some corrections.
Rena on September 10, 2012 at 4:53 pm.
Aw…
Glad it worked out so well! I am going to make it to bring along with us to our family for Rosh HaShannah.
Yiska Ben Avraham on September 12, 2012 at 5:51 pm.
Briiliant. Just brilliant. And I love the part about the surface area!
Rena on September 14, 2012 at 7:20 pm.
Ack! This totally flopped! When I tried inverting and flipping, the whole cake fell apart!! This might have to go into the freezer for home consumption while I try to find another cake to bring for Yom Tov that I have ingredients for!!
Tali Simon on September 15, 2012 at 8:35 pm.
Oh man! Did it seem to be cooked through? Was the pan very well greased?
Rena on September 16, 2012 at 4:06 am.
I thought so on both accounts…in the end I am just going to bring all the pieces along. It still tastes good! I think next time I would just put the crumb topping on before baking!
Tali Simon on September 19, 2012 at 4:09 pm.
The issue of when to top with the crumbs just depends on your cake pan. If, for example, you use a springform, then you could definitely put the crumbs on before baking. It’s only if you’re going to invert the cake that it would make sense to do it the way I describe in the post.
Rena on September 16, 2012 at 4:07 am.
PS- how did you manage to flip the steaming hot cake back to right-side up? Only a little broke on the way out of the pan, but when I tried to flip it is where the trouble came in.
Tali Simon on September 19, 2012 at 4:19 pm.
Here (in what is possibly too-great detail) is what I do:
1. Place upside-down tube pan over a pizza sheet (I like this because it’s round and has plenty of room, but you can use any round plate that’s at least a little bigger than your cake).
2. Wait a few minutes to see if the cake drops down on its own. If not, turn the tube pan over to run a knife around the edge of the cake, then turn it back upside-down and bang gently until the cake drops.
3. Now you have an upside-down cake on your plate/pizza sheet. Place a second plate on top of the cake to hold it in place, and turn the whole thing (the cake between the two plates) over so that when you take the now-top plate off, your cake is right-side up.
4. Continue as directed with egg white and crumb topping.