Warm, moist Apple Crumb Cake is brimming with sweet, spiced apples and a thick layer of buttery streusel. Perfect for welcoming guests or an overnight breakfast to look forward to, this cake is moist and soft, perfectly spiced, and drizzled with caramel sauce.
The season of warm, fuzzy feelings is here! Mittens, fireplaces, and family traditions always bring out the cozy vibes-and nothing completes a fall morning like a slice of Apple Crumb Cake. If you love sweet apple recipes, check out Apple Crumb Bars, Southern Fried Apples, or a glass of Caramel Apple Sangria.
Rustic and piled high with a crunchy cinnamon streusel, this crumble cake might just make you want to get out of bed early. It's soft, buttery, and incredible warm with a drizzle of caramel. Best of all, it comes together easily using the reverse creaming method-a simple technique that creates a fine, velvety crumb to perfectly balances the crisp topping.
Ingredients and Notes
Below is an overview of what you will need to make these with notes to making the very best apple crumb cake.
For The Cake:
- Apples – Green Granny Smith are the quintessential baking apple, but you can also use other, sweeter apples like Gala or Honeycrisp. You can slice or dice them, but dicing makes the cake easier to cut.
- Sugars – The combination of white and light brown sugar in the batter helps keep things sweet and moist.
- Butter– Softened butter in the batter is reverse creamed, while melted butter in the crumb gives us that crumbly texture on the top that we all love. Unsalted butter for both is preferred.
- Milk – Any percentage of milk balances with the baking soda/ baking powder. Buttermilk will cause more rise but may sink some after baking.
- Flour – If your all-purpose flour is particularly lumpy, it can be sifted but not otherwise required.
- Cinnamon – Don’t skip this, but if you can’t have cinnamon, the closest substitute would be nutmeg. You can also add a dash of nutmeg if you like.
- Caramel Sauce – This is optional, but it makes the cake look fresh and pretty plus it’s great against the apples and cinnamon flavor.
For the crumb topping:
We don’t use any additional ingredients, which is nice. Like my Lemon Blueberry Muffins recipe, this uses my never-fail streusel topping, except we are doubling it for even more amazing crumb!
Visual Recipe Guide
The full recipe is below in the recipe card, but this visual guide helps answer questions and give tips to create the best crumb topping ever!
- Make the Crumb Topping. The butter should be very soft or even melted. Mix together with a whisk. The topping should clump together if you squeeze it in your hands.
- Reverse Cream the batter. Rather than creaming the wet ingredients first, we are going to mix the butter with the sugar and dry ingredients first. Then, add the wet ingredients (milk, eggs, vanilla) to the mix. While it will look crumbly when mixed with the flour, everything smooths out nicely after it is all together.
- Alternate layers…or not. Layer a bit of the apples and cinnamon topping into the middle of the cake to spread the cinnamon flavor throughout. However, you can pour all batter in and top with the apples and crumb topping if you wish. (photo is after the middle layer added)
- Crumble the topping. I prefer a well textured topping. To get that varied texture, squeeze a handful of the mixture and then break it up and sprinkle over the apple layer. (Photo is the cake ready to go in the oven)
Reader’s Note*: The caramel sauce is optional, but I highly recommend it. I like a thicker caramel topping like you find in jars as opposed to the syrupy squeeze bottle variety. Drizzling a simple glaze is another option but it won’t add anything beyond looking pretty.
Serving and Storage Suggestions
Serving: After allowing it to cool for a bit, slice it up and top with caramel topping sauce if desired. It is delicious warmed slightly or at room temperature.
Storage: A doomed cake travel carrier at room temperature is perfect. I store it in the microwave, so I don’t eat the whole thing, haha. Lasts about 4 days.
Make Ahead: Because of the creaming method, this recipe stays moist and soft longer than others. So, yes, it is perfect to make the day before for breakfast or overnight guests.
More Delicious Make Ahead Breakfast Recipes
- Zucchini Muffins
- Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Old Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts
- Yellow Squash Muffins
- Overnight Oatmeal- 7 recipes to try!
Frequently Asked Questions
Although similar, the main difference is the amount of streusel topping. Coffee cake has less streusel topping and more cake. Crumb cake has a thicker, chunkier layer on top. Both are delicious as breakfast options.
If you don’t love cooked apples, you can leave them out and will be delicious as a simple cinnamon cake. You could also add nuts, such as pecans, to the streusel topping or make a simple vanilla glaze with vanilla, milk, and powdered sugar.
Sure, you can make cute little individual muffins! Mix the ingredients as directed and divide evenly into a greased or lined 12-cup muffin tin. Top with streusel topping and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.
Yes! Once completely cool, wrap the crumb cake in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a well-sealed freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
I use a 9-inch springform pan for this. The cake is a little tall for a regular 9-inch round pan, but an 9×9 square pan will do well. Grease the pan on sides and bottom with butter. A few minutes after coming out of the oven, run a knife around the edges to release the cake easier.
Not Sure
What's For Dinner?
Signup for recipe updates and get a free cookbook of Easy Weeknight Supper Solutions!
More Delicious Make Ahead Breakfasts
PS. If you make this recipe, leave a COMMENT AND A STAR RATING in the comments section at the bottom and be sure to take a photo and tag it #cravingcreative on Instagram! I appreciate you for taking the time to read about me and my family recipes.
Apple Crumb Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ cup White Sugar
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ cup Butter softened
- ¼ cup Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 Granny Smith Apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced or diced
Crumb Topping
- 1.5 cup All Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup White Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 6 tablespoon Butter very soft or melted
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- Caramel Sauce Optional
Instructions
For the crumb topping
- For the streusel, stir together 1.5 cup All Purpose Flour, ¼ cup White Sugar, ½ cup Light Brown Sugar, 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon Baking Powder. Using a pastry blender or your hands, mix in 6 tablespoon Butter until the streusel is crumbly and well mixed.
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 9×9 pan or a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a large bowl for an electric or stand mixer, 1 cup All-Purpose Flour, ½ cup Brown Sugar, ¼ cup White Sugar, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon Baking Powder, ¼ teaspoon Salt, and 1 teaspoon Cinnamon. Mix at medium speed until combined.
- To the flour mixture, add butter 1 tablespoon at a time, not adding the next tablespoon until the previous has been well mixed. Once all butter has been added, mixture will resemble coarse sandy crumbs.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together ¼ cup Milk, 2 Eggs and 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract until mostly smooth. Turn mixer speed to low and slowly add the wet mixture into batter. Stir to combine, scraping the sides and bottom as needed.
Assembly and Baking
- Spread ½ the batter into prepared pan. Layer ½ of 2 Granny Smith Apples (diced) over the top and sprinkle with a few handfuls of the topping mix. Dollop the rest of the batter and spread it out. The batter may not completely cover the apples and that is fine.
- Spread the rest of the apples evenly over the top. Sprinkle the remaining crumb topping. You want a mixture of larger chunks and finer crumbs for the best texture of crumb topping.
- Bake 45-55 minutes or until the streusel topping is browned and the center is firm. After cooling, drizzle with CaramelCaramel Sauce if desired.
Camille Richardson says
I love this recipe. I added toasted pecans on top of the caramel sauce, and, it was a major hit!!!! Thank you .
Chelsea says
Apples, caramel & cinnamon- all my favorite fall flavors baked into a cake we can eat for breakfast! Heaven is real.
Tameka says
I’m a sucker for anything Streusel. Delish!
Eleanor says
I made this for my book club last week and not a crumb was left. Reminded me so much of something my grandma used to make. Thanks for the share!
Cherie says
Delicious!
Linda says
This is good but my husband felt was lacking flavor. Next time I may substitute the water with apple juice, more cinnamon and some nutmeg.
Jan says
This was a real hit! I have a nut aversion, so instead of mixing the pecans in the batter, I sprinkled them on top at the end (leaving a corner free of nuts). Instead of sprinkling the brown sugar etc. on top of the apples in the pan, I rolled the apples in the butter mixture in a bowl (including the vanilla). I later rolled the nuts in the same bowl, so that they were coated with this tasty delight, before sprinkling the nuts on top. Worked well! Kept an eye on things during baking, because the nuts brown from the butter so it’s a fine line between browning and burning.
Sony Sherpa says
This coffee cake recipe seems really delicious, I’ll definitely try it for weekend snack. I’ll be adding lion’s mane mushroom powder for the protein and health boost.
Megan says
Delish!
Meredith @ The Palette Muse says
I made this last night for a dinner party dessert and added ice cream. It was amazing and everyone asked for the recipe! Thanks for making me the party hero!
Roxanne says
Love the apple cinnamon flavor! The streusel topping is the best too!