Apple Crumb Cake

April 11, 2009

Apple Cake

It has been a year of chasing aunts, cousins and their friends to get this book to reach me. Sometimes people had excess baggage and sometimes phones calls just didn’t go through. So on my trip to the States, I finally got my hands on it!

I finally have my own copy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking – From My Home to Yours! Now I don’t need to scout the internet for recipes “adapted” from this book or satiate myself with just the first few pages of the online preview copy. At last, I can bake from this book at my whims.

I have gone through the book several times by now and yet each time, I’m intrigued by a new recipe. I think of something to bake when I’ve got particular ingredients at hand, for example figs, and there is not one but a number of recipes for it. How could I ever look at another source?!

The first recipe I was drawn towards was the gorgeous blueberry crumb cake. The crumb topping looked perfectly crisp and golden and the cake looked so soft, velvety and moist. I had to make this! I switched the blueberries for apples because that is something I couldn’t carry all the way here.

Apple cake: Moist interior
soft, velvety interior

Apple Crumb Cake
Adapted from: Baking from my home to yours
Yeild: 6 servings

Crumb topping:
5 tbsp butter, cold
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp salt
½ cup walnut, chopped

For the cake:
1 large apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon, ground
2/3 cup sugar
8 tbsp butter (100g)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup yoghurt

Apple cake: Crumb topping
crispy, golden crumb layer

Making the crumb topping:
Mix together all the ingredients except the walnuts. You could do this either manually (using a fork or a pastry blender) or pulse it in a food processor. Next, stir in the nuts. Refigerate until needed.

Making the cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter an 8 inch square or circular pan.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
  3. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and the butter with a hand mixer until light and airy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition.
  5. Reduce the speed now and add the flour in 3 parts and yoghurt in 2 parts alternately; starting and ending with flour.
  6. You will have a very thick batter. Stir in the chopped apples.
  7. Transfer the batter in the buttered pan and even out the top with a spatula.
  8. Get the crumb topping out of the fridge and break it apart using a fork. Then sprinkle it over the batter.
  9. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the crumbs are golden and a skewer comes out clean.

You will *love* this cake. I can’t wait to bake this again!

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Related posts:

  1. German Apple Cake
  2. Apple Cinnamon Streusel Muffins
  3. Cinnamon Cake with Caramel Apples

{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Varunavi April 11, 2009 at 1:29 pm

Lovely cake,looks delicious……….

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2 Pearl April 11, 2009 at 1:53 pm

mm that crumb looks so nom!

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3 United States Arundathi from Texas, United States April 11, 2009 at 4:58 pm

that does look lovely. bookmarked, for sure.

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4 Momof1 April 11, 2009 at 7:32 pm

This coffee cake looks and sounds amazing! Yum! : )

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5 Shaheen April 11, 2009 at 8:38 pm

Varunavi: Thank you so much :)

Pearl: You must give it a shot!

Arundathi: This was sooo good. I want to bake it right now but my mom’s controlling the family’s sugar levels. Hehe

Laura P.: Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you around more often. :)

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6 Aparna April 11, 2009 at 11:11 pm

The texture of your cook is gorgeous. I know what you mean about getting your own copy. My sister is coming down end of this month and I can hardly wait for a “few of my own” baking books she’s bringing.:0

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7 Zita April 12, 2009 at 4:07 am

Mmm…looks so crispy and yet smooth :)

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8 Shifa Firoz April 13, 2009 at 7:39 pm

**LOVE** ur blog Shaheen.. This cake is baking in my oven right now :)

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9 Shifa Firoz April 13, 2009 at 8:02 pm

**LOVE** ur blog Shaheen.. this cake is baking in my oven right now!

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10 United States Shaheen from Texas, United States April 13, 2009 at 8:57 pm

Thanks so much Shifa! :) So happy you enjoy my blog :D

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11 dhruv July 2, 2009 at 3:50 pm

This is something I an definitely gonna try!!
Have you tried this with Ice Cream?

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12 Shaheen July 3, 2009 at 1:22 am

Dhruv, you must. this is my new favourite simple, everyday cake. This would be great with ice cream but I haven't tried it. Need to plan a little ahead of time and make sure I get myself a tub of ice cream or make it!

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13 Anonymous December 23, 2009 at 10:22 pm

How do I measure cold butter in the TBSP?( for the crumb topping) I googled to see how many grams it wud be and it shows around 70 gms.. is that what u used? Thanks..

umm maryam

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14 The Purple Foodie December 24, 2009 at 12:37 am

Hey Maryam,

If you're in the USA, your butter will have lines marked for where you must cut to get 1,2 3 tbsp tablespoons, etc. However, what you've looked up is absolutley perfect. You should use 70g of butter for this recipe..

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15 Anonymous December 25, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Thanks a lot. Made it yesterday and loved it : )

umm maryam from india : )

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16 Crafted February 4, 2010 at 10:03 am

Oh Shaheen! it turned out just PERFECT. My mom is so proud of me!

SHUKRIYA!

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17 oov February 18, 2010 at 1:57 pm

Well shaheen, i think its time for me to speak up :) .. been a while i have been visiting your blog everyday but never opened up my heart till now! i soooooo love your blog, the pics, they way you narrate things happening around you, your flow of language & everything about it (purple is my favourite color too!). I'm into cooking for the past couple of yrs now (& yes after i was tied the knot!) & also into baking. I always wanted to try some of your recipes out & the right time hit me last evening. I baked this apple crumb cake, thou with slight alterations & it was a big success! hurraay! nothing like tasting the fruit (cake here!) of success ;) . I used 3/4cup of wheat flour+ 1 & a quarter cup of AP flour, for some reason i dont find it comfortable to use AP flour alone ;) & cashews+almonds since there were no walnuts in my pantry. Keep up with your awesome work & thankyou so much for sharing those wonderful recipes with us! btw.. i forgot to tell ya our plan this evening- to gobble it down topped with vanilla icecream !!!

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18 India Ruthie from Maharashtra, India July 26, 2010 at 2:01 pm

Hello Shaheen,

This recipe is great, I am surely trying this one out for my uncle’s birthday :-)

Just a few doubts, when you say 2 cups, which cup measurement are you using? Are you using the standard cups & spoons measurement we normally get? Also for brown sugar, I have the demerara sugar, is that ok to use, can i pwder it and use? thanks a ton!

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19 India The Purple Foodie from Maharashtra, India July 27, 2010 at 2:05 am

Hey Ruthie, 2 cups is approximately 250g. I use standard American measuring cups. Demerara sugar is perfectly fine! Happy birthday to your uncle. He’s lucky to have his niece bake him a cake. :)

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