Apple Crumble Traybake Cake!
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A delicious spiced apple crumble traybake cake with a sweet apple & cinnamon sponge, and a homemade crumble on top!
Apple crumble cakes
It’s October, it’s getting colder… and I am in the mood for crumble. Again, I have avoided posting an actual apple crumble recipe as I have completely forgotten to, but we will get there! This however… this is epic.
This beautiful recipe is based on my apple crumble cake which has always been a hit at this time of year, with so many of my readers having apple trees and needing to use them up, and the apples being so cheap in the shops… it’s perfect. My obsession is unbeaten, as I even have my apple crumble cheesecake, and my apple crumble cupcakes already.
Traybake cakes
I decided to post a traybake version of the cake, as traybake cakes seem to be so unbelievably popular for me at the moment, so I am going to run with it whilst I can. They’re so easy to do, they are perfect for a crowd, and you can basically just whack it all in the tin!
I love the idea of traybake cakes because you can basically whack all of the cake mix into one tin, and then you can essentially slather whatever decoration you have on top, if you even want to (for example, this one just has a cinnamon icing drizzle)
Baking Tin
I use this amazing tin for my traybakes as I find it’s the perfect size – when you go to a supermarket to buy a ‘traybake cake’ you will find that they are nearly always a rectangle in shape, so that’s what I stick with for my traybake cakes! You will notice that these traybake tins differ from the ‘traybake’ tins I use for my brownies and such like though. This is because for all things brownie, cookie bar, or millionaires, I love to use a 9×9″ square tin.
If you have the 9×9″ square tin, you won’t be able to use that for this, as the volume difference between the two really is quite significant. I often see it where I have posted a cake for an 8″ round tin for example, and someone has put it into a 10″ tin thinking it won’t make too much of a difference… when in reality, it’s 1.6x bigger!
For this cake, it really is much better to stick to the guided tin, and you shouldn’t have an issue! Don’t get me wrong, as long as you use all the rest of the correct ingredients, and your oven is the correct temp, you will be fine.
Apples
Sometimes baking with apples can be a lil’ funky… but that’s why I recommend cooking apples. If you use a regular eating/snacking apple, they will go soft far too quickly. Bramley/cooking apples take longer to break down, which is important when you are baking this cake. The cake is in for an hour or so, so the apples need to be able to withstand that!
When using the apples, I tend to peel off the skin, core out the middle, and then chop the apple into inch size pieces, or about 2cm in size. Roughly around this size is perfect, as it means once the cake has been baked, there will still be a substantial amount of apple in each bite, and it won’t break down too much.
Crumble
For the crumble, I have written a recipe to make it yourself below – it’s best to have cold butter, so it can rub together and create a crumb like structure rather than a smush of ingredients.. you simple add the ingredients into a bowl, and rub the crumble ingredients together with your fingertips to a breadcrumb like texture.
However, despite how easy it is to make your own crumble mix, you can easily switch it to shop bought crumble. There’s no shame in it – it’s so much easier. I just like to make this one all homemade. You can also even add in some rolled oats if you want, or even chopped nuts if you want more texture to your crumble.
Tips & Tricks
When it comes to serving a beauty like this, I recommend having something such as ice cream and a drizzle of caramel, or custard, or even cream! Literally anything that you would normally have with regular apple crumble would work perfectly with this
- I use this amazing tin for my traybakes
- This cake will last for 3-4+ days at room temperature
- You can freeze this cake for 3+ months
Apple Crumble Traybake Cake!
Ingredients
Crumble
- 120 g plain flour
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 g unsalted butter
Cake
- 500 g cooking apples (peeled & chopped weight)
- 300 g unsalted butter
- 300 g light brown sugar (50g extra for the apples)
- 300 g self raising flour
- 6 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Decoration
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1-3 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
For the Crumble
- Rub together the sugar, flour and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, leave to the side for now.
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan and line a 9x13" traybake tin.
- Peel and core the apples, cube the apples into about 2cm pieces.
- Put the apples into a bowl, and cover with 50g of light brown sugar. Mix it up so all the apple pieces are covered and leave to the side.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the flour, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon and beat until smooth. Fold through the apple mixture and pour the mixture into the tin!
- Sprinkle the crumble mixture onto the cake!
- Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until baked through (Can take a little less, or a little more than an hour - depends on your oven, see tips below)
- Leave the cake to cool in the tins for 10-15 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
For the Decoration
- Once the cake has cooled - stir together the icing sugar and cinnamon, and then as much water as you like - I like it thick and drizzly!
- Enjoy!
Notes
- I estimate this recipe to use about 3-4 apples from the supermarket. From my garden, as they're smaller, I used 5!
- Some oven temperatures can vary even if you set it to the ‘correct temperature’. You can tell if a cake is well and truly done by testing them with a skewer, and seeing if it comes out clean. HOWEVER, you need to also listen to the cake, if its still making a crackling/bubbling sound then its not quite done. Keep baking till that sound goes away!
- I reeeeally would recommend using COOKING apples for this rather than regular eating apples because of the length of time the cake is baking for. If you used regular apples, there is a chance they’d turn to mush, and then the cake wouldn’t bake well either. The lovely bright green cooking apples are the ones you’re after!
- You could also use a ready made crumble mix if you like as well as it does save time, but you’ll still need to bake it on top of the cake in the same way, and bake the spare in the same way as well!
- This cake will last in an airtight container for up to 3 days!
ENJOY!
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J x
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Could I use granny smiths for this and do I need to sieve the brown sugar?
You can try Granny Smiths but they may become too soft – no I never sieve brown sugar xx
Could I half the recipe and bake this in an 8″ tin?
Yes!
Hi Jane, what would the measurements be if I was using a 9×9 tin? Don’t have a 9×13 one in the house. Thanks 😊
I would use 2/3 of the recipe! x
Hi Jane I love your recipes 😊. I’ve done a couple of your cheesecake ones & they turned out lovely.
Could you halve the amount then bake it in a 9×9″ tin .
I would use 2/3 of the recipe! x
This! Just wow! I made this as one of those lockdown leave on family’s doorsteps… Well only 4 of the slices made it out to family… I’m a little embarrassed to say my partner and I ate the rest to ourselves!
We preferred them when they were cool but did also have them with custard. Delicious!
Hi Jane,
I have frozen apple slices, would these be ok please ?
I’m unsure – they may be too thin compared to chunks (and also depends on the type of apple) but it’s worth a go!
Just wondering if this could be frozen for later. I can’t eat a whole tray bake on my own!
Yes it can! X
Very pleased with bake! It looked very similar to picture and tasted great 😋 used apples from my Mums tree and could’ve cut them a bit bigger. The only thing I don’t know is ‘ CAN YOU FREEZE THEM’ ??? before I eat then all 😄 X
Hiya! So glad you loved it! Yes you can freeze this – hope this helps! Team Jane x
Hi I hate cinnamon lol if I just left it out would the cake still taste OK or a bit bland ? Could you replace it with anything else.
Hi Jane,
I’ve just got mine in the oven now but there was way too much mixture for my tin & it was the correct size. I’ve had enough left to make 6 cupcakess with the rest plus crumble. Is that normal?
That’s really strange – as the tin sized listed is correct. It might be that your tin is too shallow!
I made this cake yesterday and it was faultless! I usually don’t like apples in cakes but this was delicious, will definitely be making this again x
Hey Jane, could i add caramel sauce like in your other apple pie recipe ?
Thanks zoe
I wouldn’t to the cake itself – but for decoration yes. x
Hi, the cake cooked before the crumble so that is still like uncooked crumbs what did I do wrong?
My drizzle was very brown because of the cinnamon, not white like in your photos…
As long as it didn’t affect the taste, the colour shouldn’t matter x
I made the rhubarb crumble cake, had none left to freeze in my house 😅
Hi Jane, I unfortunately don’t have cooking apples but I have both Granny Smiths and golden delicious. Which would work better? Thanks! X
Unfortunately both my dissolve a bit too much in the baking (which is why cooking apples are better) but other than that either should be ok!
wouldn’t say apple is my fav dessert but OMG this warm with custard is so comfort food a must xx