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Brown Butter Caramel Apple Crumb Cake
Tender vanilla brown butter cake infused with cinnamon with a layer of cinnamon apples baked in and topped with buttery brown sugar crumble. This cake is not too sweet, yet perfectly sweet and full of flavor. It's so wonderful during the Fall season when we all celebrate apples! Don't forget to top it with my Salted Caramel Sauce.
Ingredients
Crumb topping:
- ¾ cup (105g) all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoon (40g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon (30g) packed light brown sugar
- 5 tablespoon (70g) salted butter, melted and cooled (or add ⅛ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)
Cake batter:
- 6 tablespoon (84g) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80ml) full fat sour cream
- 1 ¼ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup (80ml) whole milk
Apple layer:
- 2 medium apples very thinly sliced (as thin as possible!)
- 1 tablespoon (12g) granulated sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup (60ml) Easy Salted Caramel Sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper leaving a 2-inch overhang at each side.
- First brown the butter. Follow the instructions in this post here to learn how to brown butter. It’s easy!
- Make the crumb topping. Combine flour, both sugars and salt (if you’re using unsalted butter) in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly so that there are no lumps of brown sugar. Add melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until evenly combined, then toss with your fingertips to form large crumbs. Cover with a tea towel and set aside.
- Make the cake batter. Combine cooled brown butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl and whisk until pale and creamy-looking. It should fluff up a bit if your brown butter is cooled well enough. Whisk in eggs one at a time until very light and creamy. Mix in sour cream.
- Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a small bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add it to the butter mixture and fold it in by hand with a spatula until mostly incorporated. It will be thick at this point. Pour in milk and fold it in until it is combined.
- Prepare the apples. Place thinly sliced apples, sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl and toss gently to coat the apples.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Place the apples evenly over the batter, fanning them out with your fingers. Then, scatter clumps of crumb topping evenly on top to cover the apples. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the crumbs are lightly golden and the cake feels firm to the touch. A toothpick inserted into the center should comes out without any wet batter. Do not over-bake. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes. Drizzle salted caramel sauce on top and serve with vanilla ice cream if you have it!
