This cake was inspired by a Milk Street article about a Plum Crumb Cake from Greg and Lucy Malouf’s book “Suqar”. Since it’s October, it’s more apple season than plum, so I changed the recipe into an apple crumb cake by:

• switching the plums out for apples
• switching the cardamom/coriander/allspice out for cinnamon
• switching the almonds out for walnuts
• eliminating the almond extract (just used vanilla)

Overall, this worked. I liked the proportion of crumble to cake, and the technique of freezing the crumble and applying it partway through baking was brilliant. But then, I saw Stef and she gave me a piece of her Smitten Kitchen Apple Crumb Cake, and it put mine to shame! It was so much better. It had a higher proportion of crumb topping to cake and the topping was just better.

So, for Take 2, I used the Smitten Kitchen proportions for the crumb topping (no nuts, more butter, more flour) while still using the Milk Street / Malouf technique of freezing the crumble and adding it partway through baking. You can see I also added parchment. This cake was more successful overall, but, here’s a shocker: I overbaked it and the bottom became too dry.

I suppose this is as good a place as any to note that, through my sourdough bread adventures, I have found a solution for the problem of baked goods getting too dark on the bottom before they’re ready overall. The bread community recommends putting the bread pan on top of a broiler pan (the two-part kind that has a top layer with slots and a bottom pan to catch drippings), essentially adding an “air gap” between the baking item and the heat. Instead of using a roasting pan, I have been using an old “AirBake” cookie sheet, which I otherwise never use (I really hate this pan for baking as it intentionally screws up browning). So, when the bottom is getting done but the top isn’t ready, I just slide the AirBake underneath and the problem is solved.

Of course, one needs to recognize that one needs to do this, or it isn’t helpful. Sigh.

I should put a little information here about the apples. In Take 1, I tried three different kinds of apples (McIntosh, Fuji, and Gala) to see what I liked. In the end, it didn’t matter so much. What mattered more is that I wished I had peeled the apples. The original plum cake recipe had beautiful color from the plum skins, but this didn’t translate well to apples, whose skins are more tough. In Take 2, I peeled some McIntosh and that worked. Unlike with a pie, it was actually nice for the apples to get mushy in the cake.