Caramel Apple Crumb Cake
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Caramel apple crumb cake combines soft and tender cake with warm apples, cinnamon, loads of crumbs, and then tops everything with a generous drizzle of icing and caramel sauce.
Much like glazed doughnuts, pull-apart monkey bread, apple danish, or maple walnut coffee cake, this is the kind of recipe that works for breakfast or dessert.
Serve your apple cake with a cup of tea or caramel macchiato coffee for breakfast, or with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream for dessert.
My family loves apples. You will always find an abundance of apples at our house, especially after we go apple picking in the Fall.
Apples are great to grab and munch on as a snack, but sometimes it is also nice to use them to make delicious apple recipes like apple oat muffins or this delicious caramel apple crumb cake.
With a crumb topping, cinnamon apple filling, and caramel drizzle, this apple cake is always a crowd-pleaser.
Ingredients
- apple – Gala are my go-tos but I have used several kinds of apples for this recipe, and it always comes out amazing.
- all-purpose flour
- brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- salt
- ground cinnamon & nutmeg – or use apple pie spice for the perfect blend of Fall flavors
- unsalted butter – if you only have salted butter on hand that works too, just half the salt called for in the recipe
- vanilla extract – I always use 100% pure vanilla extract.
- baking soda
- baking powder
- eggs
- sour cream – makes the cake incredibly moist. Use full-fat for best results.
- caramel sauce – either homemade caramel sauce or store-bought caramel sauce for drizzling over the top
How to Make Apple Crumb Cake
- Prepare the crumb topping
- Make the cake batter
- Add half the batter to the pan, top with apples, then a cup of the crumb topping. Follow with the remaining batter and the rest of the crumb topping.
- Bake as directed in the recipe card below. Allow the cake to cool then remove from pan and drizzle with caramel and (optinoal) icing.
Storage
Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Variations
- Apple Breakfast Cake: For a less sweet cake, perfect for breakfast, skip the icing.
- Homemade Caramel: Have a killer caramel recipe? Use it here!
- Salted Caramel: Drizzle with a salted caramel sauce for a salted caramel apple crumb cake.
More Amazing Apple Recipes
Have more apples to use? You will love these tasty apple recipes:
- Cinnamon Roll Upside Down Apple Cake
- Apple Crisp with Cake Mix
- Apple Pie Egg Rolls (using canned apples)
- Soft Baked Apple Cookies
- Copycat Cracker Barrel Fried Apples – easy crockpot recipe
- Apple and Snickers salad – no-bake dessert!
Caramel Apple Crumb Cake
Ingredients
Crumb Topping/Filling:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large apple peeled and diced
- ½ cup caramel sauce optional
- ½ cup icing optional (see notes for recipe)
Instructions
- Make the crumb topping
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whisk to combine.
- Add the melted butter and vanilla. Stir until it is evenly moist–do not overmix. Set aside.
Make the cake- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prep a 9" springform pan by coating it with non-sticking cooking spray and lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk to combine flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixing and a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the sour cream and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Spread half of the batter into the bottom of the springform pan. Top with the apples, evenly covering the cake batter. Sprinkle one cup of the crumb topping over the apples. Add the remaining cake batter, and sprinkle with the remaining crumb topping.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 20-30 minutes before releasing it from the springform pan.
- Drizzle with icing and/or caramel sauce before serving, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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In step 2 of the recipe for the cake you say to mix the sugar with the flour, then in step 3 it says cream the sugar and butter. The sugar is already in the flour. Now what? More sugar? How much? Too much mixed in with the flour? Now what?
I have 2 bowls of mixed ingredients and no idea what I can do with them.
This regards the recipe for Salted Carmel Apple Crumb Cake
Oh no! It looks like you found an error in the instructions! Step 2 should not have included the sugar with the other dry ingredients and I will fix the recipe ASAP.
Since you have already mixed the dry ingredients and the flour you can do a “reverse cream”. Beat the butter into your combined dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients gradually and mix until smooth.
My apologies for the error and thank you for pointing it out!!
For the glaze, you say if too thin add milk. If too thick add powdered sugar?? Should be reversed…
Corrected now, thank you!
Can you make this in an 9×13 pan or a Bundt cake pan?
I haven’t tried in a 9 x 13, sorry!