Apple Crumble Traybake Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
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!
Find my other Cake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Hi, just taken my tray bake out the oven, just a query, I followed the recipe and put the sugar on the apples whist I made the sponge mix..I used cooking apples out the garden so not sure where they are pure Bramley..By the time I got to adding the apples I had brown sugary liquid that had bleached from the apples..was sure whether to add it to the mix..so added a little as sponge mix seemed stiff enough to take it..I’m guessing they sat too long ?? or should I have added all the liquid too..it smells gorgeous by the way😉
I’d like to know this too 👍🏼🥰
I added mine. That ‘sugar juice’ happens because of macerating – covering fruit in sugar to release the juices. It’s how a lot of syrups are made x
This was a hit with everyone. Lovely cake and incredibly easy to make
Can I make this with gluten free flour? Are there any changes I would need to make?
I do a straight swap with Doves GF flour. No need to add anything
Hi! Did you try this using glutenbfree flour? I too
would like to know if we can use gluten free flour🤔
If I were to quarter this for an 8×4 loaf pan, could you or anyone else advise on how I should adjust baking time/temperature? x
If freezing this, would you put the drizzle on before?
Hiya! You can do either. Hope this helps! x
Made this yesterday. Left out cinnamon. It was sbsolutely delicious. Made janes toffee sauce to accompany it.
Hi! Did you try this using gluten free flour? I too
would like to know if we can use gluten free flour🤔
Left to cool overnight and then cut. A bit stodgy but is that due to the apples? Tested cake for being cooked and fine. Also, tastes lovely and heated in microwave for 20 seconds
Hiya! This cake is naturally denser because of the apple – but im glad you loved it! Enjoy! x
Could I freeze this cake?
Hiya! Absolutely you can, for up to 3 months! Hope this helps! x
Could you replace the cooking apples with dried apple pieces?
Hiya! I have not tried this myself – but it is definitely worth a go! Let me know! x
First time making this recipe and the cake is perfect, really scrummy. Had a slice warm with a cuppa and hoping to have a slice with custard! Brilliant recipe – many thanks!! X
Hi Jane , just made this cake now using shop bought crumble. Cake was only in 37 minutes but top is all burnt. Noticed that shop bought crumble says cook 25 mins. If I do this recipe again would it be ok to take cake out halfway and add crumble then?
Beautiful recipe. I added in a punnet of blackberries foraged from my garden (before the birds gobble them up)?as well as homegrown cooking apples and the cake was delicious! Sometimes apple cakes can become a bit dry but this was moist and light as a feather.
I made a tiny version (25% of the ingredients – 2 small eggs – used a loaf tin!) to use up two gala apples that had sat in the fruit bowl for too long. Cut the apple slightly larger to allow for the fact it’d soften more than bramley and it was delicious 😋. Kids loved having squares in their lunchbox this week.