Description

A rustic, casual cake to gab over, because it’s been ages since we had coffee. Come on over, Chai Apple Coffee Cake is fresh out of the oven!

Ingredients

Units Scale

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sunflower or light vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sour cream
3 medium apples, diced or slightly chunky
1 lemon, juiced

Chai Spice Crumble

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
11/2 tablespoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup salted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Prepare a 9 x 13-inch pan, coating the inside liberally with non-stick spray and lining (fully, or partially) with parchment paper (see notes).
CHAI SPICED CRUMBLE: Combine ground ginger, nutmeg, clove and cardamom in a bowl with 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and lightly whisk to mix. Add a 1/4 cup of salted butter and blend together using a pastry blender, a wooden spoon or your fingertips until you have a coarse, crumbly mixture. Then add honey, and mix again. Reserve until needed.
APPLES: Peel and chop apples into chunky cubes. Toss lightly with lemon juice and reserve.
CAKE: Using a mixer on medium setting (or wooden spoon and some elbow grease) cream together softened butter, oil and sugar until smooth and light; about 3 minutes, then scrape down the bowl. Add eggs and vanilla and cream again until light and fluffy, and scrape down your bowl again.
Add dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt – directly on top of your butter mixture and lightly whisk to combine before mixing again, on low speed until JUST combined.
Remove your bowl from the stand mixer, and lightly fold in the sour cream using a spatula, to make a smooth, creamy, but dense batter.
Scoop batter into your prepared 9 x 13-inch pan. Sprinkle with approximately half of the Chai Spice Crumble, evenly distributed (you can swirl it in with a butter knife if you like, going smoothly from side-to-side of the pan in a figure-eight motion). Top with apples, gently pressing them into the batter below, then top with the remaining Chai Spice Crumble.
Bake at Chai Apple Coffee Cake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 – 35 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake removes clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. Before serving, loosen edges with a paring knife around the outside, to be able to remove cake, slice by slice from the pan. Slice and serve, with ice cream (vanilla or coffee!), crème fraiche, or whipped cream. To avoid your cake crumbling under the knife, use a serrated knife and cool completely before cutting. Reserve at room temperature, in its pan, covered with plastic wrap. No fancy cake plate needed. Frankly, this cake improves with age, so it’s a great bake-the-day-before cake. If you can resist it!

Notes

This makes a BIG cake, so if you’d like to cut back on how much cake you have on hand, halve the recipe, using two eggs, and bake in an 8 x 8 pan.

For me, coffee cakes are too casual for cake stands or platters, they should live on the stove, still in the pan they were baked in, covered with plastic wrap until they’re done! Just in case we get company! You might notice in the video that cover the bottom of the pan with two overlapping pieces of parchment that run up just the two ends of the pan. This way, once it’s baked, I can easily remove the parchment without disturbing the cake. I heart easy!

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Category: Cakes
Method: Baking
Cuisine: American