Apple & Rhubarb Crumble Cake

Kitty FloridoOctober 25, 2013

This post is also available in / Esta entrada también está disponible en ESPAÑOL (SPANISH)

I made this Fruit Crumble Cake a few months ago for my mom’s birthday. She wanted a cake that wouldn’t be our usual Borracho (Rum Cake), so I took on a hunt to make a fresh fruit cake. She was happy with her cake, and she had a great time in our little gathering as you can see in the picture below. For mom’s cake I stayed true to Zoë François’ original recipe by using plums.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I made it once again, but this time for a friend’s birthday… And since I didn’t have any plums around, I used my last (tiny) batch of rhubarb and 2 diced apples. The best part of this recipe is that this is so versatile, you can use plums, peaches, apples, pears, berries… pretty much any fruit you might want to pair it with. If you want, you could even replace the lemon zest with orange zest for an orangey flavor.

Kitty

Rhubarb & Apple Crumble Cake

Adapted from a recipe by Zoë Bakes
Yields one 8-inch cake

Ingredients for the Cake:
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 yolks
1 ½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 plums, cut in half and pitted*

Ingredients for the Topping:
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup of sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F
Grease an 8-inch springform pan with butter.
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each. Mix in the zest and vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan.
Place half of the cut plums on the batter, cut side up. Spread the remaining batter over the plums.
Spread the batter into an even layer and top with remaining plums.
In a bowl mix together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and melted butter. You may have to mix it with your hands to get all the butter incorporated.
Spread the crumb topping over the plums evenly.
Place the cake on two stacked cookie sheets, to prevent the bottom from getting too brown during the long baking time. Bake for about 1 ¼ hours or until a tester come out clean. Cool on a rack.
Serve it slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes:

For the Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Cake, I used two medium-sized apples and 1½ cups of rhubarb.
If you want to replace it with your favorite fruit, have enough for 3 cups of diced fruit.

Have you made this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture with the hashtag #thefoodieskitchen!

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