Crumb cakes are a brilliant concept, taking the very best bits of a cake and making them the main event. Love the crunchy, curly top on your slice of cake? No problem. Here, we double down on the crumb. Simple, and so good.
We’ve been baking our crumb cakes for years, and we insist on baking them throughout the day because we never tire of the smell of toasted pecans, cinnamon, butter and brown sugar drifting out of the oven.
Underneath all that crunch is a soft sour cream cake, swirled with ribbons of pecan and cinnamon streusel through the middle. It looks and sounds impressive, but it’s surprisingly simple to make and deeply rewarding to pull from the oven.
At GAIL’s we bake these as individual cakes, but we’ve adapted the recipe for one large family-sized version using a springform cake tin, easy to make at home and perfect for sharing.
Pecan & Cinnamon Crumb Cake Recipe
Makes one large 20cm cake, or 6 smaller muffin-sized cakes like we make at GAIL’s.
INGREDIENTS
Pecan & Cinnamon Streusel
50 g finely chopped pecans
60 g light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
30 g butter, softened at room temperature
Pecan Crumble
100 g plain white flour
25 g cornflour
1 tsp cocoa powder
80 g butter fridge cold and diced
40 g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
40 g pecan halves
Cake Mixture
100 g plain white flour
2 large eggs at room temperature
120 g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
90 g sour cream
25 g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
60 g butter melted and cooled, plus more for greasing your cake tin
METHOD
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Preheat the oven to 170°C (160°C fan).
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Start with the streusel. Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until you have a texture that looks and feels like wet sand. Cover and place in the fridge while you prepare the rest.
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Next, make the crumble topping. Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl, using your fingers to rub everything together and break up the pecan halves slightly as you go. You’re looking for large buttery clumps and crumbs. Cover and chill in the fridge.
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For the cake batter, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale, light and fluffy. You can do this with a stand mixer, hand mixer or simply by hand with a whisk. Add the melted butter and sour cream, then mix again briefly until combined.
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Sift in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Fold gently until no dry patches remain, being mindful not to overmix.
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Take the streusel out of the fridge and loosen it slightly with your fingers. Fold it through the cake batter just enough to distribute it evenly, creating little pockets of cinnamon and pecan throughout the cake.
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Butter your cake tin well, then spoon in the batter. Scatter the crumble topping evenly over the surface.
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Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
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Leave the cake to cool before removing it from the tin.
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Finish with a dusting of icing sugar. Serve in thick slices with coffee or tea, or warm slightly and serve with vanilla ice cream for pudding. Very good either way.
