Apple Crumb 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.

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

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. Add the vanilla.
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!