Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake

I had been absent from the blog for a long, long time! Work schedule had been bad and killed my mood for baking or decoration. It has been quite a long draught for me until recently when I tried a couple of recipes from new books that I bought.

This cake was done just after Christmas last year. I bought a Christmas present for myself - 'Rose's Heavenly Cakes, by Rose Levy Beranbaum'.

This lady is exceptional! I had never seen such 'wordy' recipes! Every recipe is like an essay, with so much detail. Measurement for ingredients are provided both in volume and weight, and for weight, its available in both ounces and grams. So matter what your preference is, she's got that information for you. And if you should visit her blog, you'd read about the amount of experiment that each cake went through, you'd be amazed.

My first cake from this book (and till date, I'm ashamed to say.. the only cake) is the Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee cake. I was longing for a coffee flavoured cake but it was only after completing the batter did I realise that there was no coffee in there. It was meant to be eaten with coffee.. what a muddle head I have, haha.

According to Rose, to make the crumb/streusel stay crispier longer, is to make it with melted butter rather than softened butter. Also, it was put on top of the cake after the cake has set (half baked). The resultant crumb is indeed crispier. And the cake is so moist and soft. A total delight on the tastebuds, even if without coffee.

Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake
(adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Ingredients for Cinnamon Crumb Topping

walnut halves 100g
light brown sugar 72g
granulated sugar 25g
cinnamon 1 1/2 tsp
all purpose flour 65g
unsalted butter, melted 57g
vanilla extract 1/2 tsp

Method
Use a food processor to pulse all dry ingredients except flour until walnuts are coarsely chopped. Remove and set aside half for the filling. To the remainder, add flour, butter and vanilla and pulse to form a coarse, crumbly mixture. Refrigerate the mixture for about 20 minutes to firm up the butter and make it easier to crumble.

Ingredients for cake batter
1 small tart aple such as granny smith 155g
lemon juice 2tsp
2 large eggs
sour cream 160gms
vanilla extract 1 1/2 tsps
all purpose flour 200gms
caster sugar 200gms
baking powder 1/2 tsp
baking soda 1/2 tsp
salt 1/4 tsp
unsalted butter 170gms

Method (Minus many useful tips from the book)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree celcius
2. peel, core and slice apple 1/4 inch thick, sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside
3. In medium bowl, whisk eggs, 3 tbsp of sour cream adn vanilla until just lightly combined
4. In a mixer with flat beater, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add butter and remainly sour cream and mix on low spead until dry ingredients are moist. Raise the speed to medium.
5. Gradually add the egg mixture in 2 parts, beating for 30s after each addition.
6. Put 2/3 of the batter into a 9 inch springform pan, smoothen surface, sprinkle the suface evenly with the reserved 1/2 cup crumb topping and top with 2 rows of overlapping apple slices.
7. Put in remainly batter over the apples and spread evenly.
8. Bake cake for 35 minutes
9. Meanwhile, take crumb topping from fridge. Break up the crumbs. They should be no larger than 1/2 inch balls.
10. Take cake out of oven and strew crumb topping evenly on top.
11. Continue to bake for 20-30 minutes
12. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cool completely.

This is the cake batter, looking so creamy-licious.

The crumb filling and apple slices.

Crumb toppings, prepared while cake is in the oven.

Finished product.

Finished product enjoyed, throughly!