This Homemade Double Crumb Cake has double the crumb topping for double the flavor! A New Jersey homemade bakery favorite for generations!
HOMEMADE DOUBLE CRUMB CAKE
The particular cake recipe I’m sharing today has roots in New York and New Jersey. Crumb cake or crumb buns can be easily found in most New York and New Jersey bakeries. It is a staple and it is something those bakers have perfected. If the crumb is your favorite part of the crumb cake – then this is your recipe!
TIPS FOR MAKING CRUMB CAKE:
- If you want a thinner cake with a slightly thinner crumb topping then this easily transfers to a 9×13 baking dish. It also will feed more people if you do it that way. I made notes in the recipe for the different pan sizes.
- Use real buttermilk. It is thick and makes a huge difference in how moist this is (don’t substitute with lemon juice or vinegar in the milk, it’s not the same consistency.) If you must, you can substitute with whole milk.
- Make sure to use real butter, not margarine.
- Ensure your baking powder is fresh. Most times when cakes don’t turn out right, it’s because the baking powder or baking soda has expired.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
FOR THE CAKE:
all-purpose flour
sugar
baking powder
salt
large egg
buttermilk
canola oil
vanilla extract
FOR THE CRUMBLE TOPPING:
all-purpose flour
light-brown sugar
cinnamon
salted butter
powdered sugar
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE DOUBLE CRUMB CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray an 8×8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. For a thinner cake, use a 9×13 baking dish.
In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. If you want to go through the trouble of sifting all that together, you can. I just like to take a long-tined fork and stir it all together well. That tends to do the job well enough.
In another bowl, combine egg, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Stir until it’s all combined.
Combine milk mixture with flour mixture and mix well.
Pour the batter into your prepared baking dish.
Now to make the crumble topping. In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Mix it together.
Then pour in melted butter and stir until combined and clumps begin to form.
Sprinkle those clumps (crumbs) all over the cake batter.
If you are using an 8×8 dish, the crumb layer will be very thick.
Bake for about 30 minutes for an 8×8 dish. Bake for about 20 minutes for a 9×13 baking dish. Use a toothpick to check for doneness.
Crumb topping should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted to the middle of the cake should come out clean.
Allow cake to cool. Then dust with a bit of powdered sugar. I think this cake slices up easiest using a serrated knife, like a bread knife.
Enjoy!
Original recipe source: Martha Stewart
HOMEMADE DOUBLE CRUMB CAKE
This Homemade Double Crumb Cake has double the crumb topping for double the flavor! A New Jersey homemade bakery favorite for generations!
Print Pin RatePrep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 6
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup milk, (or buttermilk for more moistness)
- 2 Tbsp canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the crumble topping:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup light-brown sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup butter, melted and cooled (2 sticks)
- powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Spray an 8 x 8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. (For a thinner cake, use a 9 x13 baking dish)
- In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir until combined.
- In another bowl, combine egg, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Stir until it's all combined.
- Combine flour mixture with milk mixture and mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.
For the crumble topping:
- In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Mix it together well.
- Then pour in melted butter and stir until combined and clumps begin to form.
- Sprinkle those clumps (crumbs) all over the cake batter. If you are using an 8x8 baking dish - it will be thick.
- Bake for about 30 minutes for an 8x8 dish. Bake for about 20 minutes for a 9x13 baking dish.
- Use a toothpick to check for doneness (as oven times vary.)
- Crumb topping should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted to the middle of the cake should come out clean.
- Allow cake to cool then dust with powdered sugar and serve.
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Wow! This was perfect! I made it exactly to your directions!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe! I too relish the crumb more than the cake. With that being said, your recipe is exceptional. It sliced perfectly to freeze portions individually. Thank you!
5+ stars
I agree with other reviewers; the crumb is the best part! You hit a home run with this recipe! This is the only crumb cake I will ever make. Thank you for sharing!
I add fruit EVERY time. Usually blueberry or bluberrys and a stone fruit. Peach nectarines plum. Its killer.
Question: I am looking to make a crumb cake for a large group of people. I’ll need a bigger pan but want the raio of crum:cake to be same. How can I do tgat?
Hi Karen, honestly, the best thing to do is just to make two separate pans. It keeps the ratios the same but also the baking times. With crumb cakes, unless you have a convection oven, the center will stay raw while the outside gets overdone when you use too big a pan. Especially since the crumb on this is so thick. Hope that helps!
Hi,
I doubled the recipe and it needed waaaaaaayy more buttermilk than 1 cup. I wonder if doubling it was the issue? A lot of other recipes I read had about 1/4 cup of oil, which would be more inline with regular cake. It’s in the oven now and I’m hoping the extra buttermilk worked.
Hey Mandy! The one thing I have learned since posting this recipe years ago is that not all buttermilk is created equal. Some is super thin and some are super thick. I can buy full fat buttermilk from my local farm and from the store and the farm one may be WAY thicker. In this case, it will sometimes mean that the amount of buttermilk will need adjusting. That’s why I added the pictures of the process so everyone could get an idea of how it *should* look. Hope it helped!????
I LOVE the crumbs this recipe makes! I already had a recipe I liked for the cake, and was in search of a perfect crumb coating recipe- A bit sweeter than the cake batter itself, with nice big chunks. This recipe was it! The crumbs are big, chunky, sweet, delicious, and have been a huge hit with everyone that I’ve had try my mini crumb cakes!
Thank you SO much for this recipe!
Yay!! Love hearing that Sarah! Thanks so much for coming back to comment!
Easy to make, easy to eat. YUM!
This is the best crumb cake ever! The only change that I made was I cut the vanilla back to 1 tsp. I spent summers in Ocean City, NJ and we had a similar crumb cake from the bakery every Sunday. I think this recipe is even better than the bakery!
That is high praise indeed! Thanks so m much Mary Kate! Those NJ bakeries are hard to beat when it comes to crumb cake – ha! Thank you!!
I make a very similar coffee cake and use a 9×13 pan and don’t put the powdered sugar on top. I have made it for years a tradition for holiday breakfasts, I even make them as gifts putting in the 8×8 disposable pans using one crumb mixture for 2 cakes.I put them in baggies and put bows on them. I haven’t come across a better recipe.
I love that you give them as gifts – what a great idea!!
I have made this several times and brought this into my workplace and everyone loves it. The last time I added a cup of blueberries to the cake and it turned out great. For the crumb top I did use a little less butter but it worked out great. This is my go to recipe for Crumb Cake YUM!
Oh my gracious – I LOVE the idea of adding blueberries! I am going to do that next time!! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and comment Charlene!
Hi there! I was wondering how far in advance you could make (and bake) this crumb cake? If I make it on a Wednesday would it last till Saturday? Or even the weekend before?
Thank you!!
I wouldn’t do it that far in advance. Like most homemade baked goods, it’s going to dry out pretty quickly so I would try to make it as close to serving as possible. 🙂
Delicious! Reminds me of grammas!! Added blueberry so needed a little longer cooking but well worth the wait
Thank you so very much Heather! I really appreciate you coming back and taking the time to review!
I am from NYC, and I love extra crumbs on my crumb cake. I made this crumb cake, and it came out wonderful. I wanted a little something extra in my cake, so I added blueberries after I poured the batter, and then topped it with the crumbs. Outstanding!!!
Thank you for a Great recipe.
I consider that high praise indeed from a native New Yorker. Thanks so very much Michelle!!
Made this for a group of New Jersey tailgaters – we know from crumb cake and this was the absolute best. I will never make another recipe. Hardly a crumb left (pun intended). Made the 8×8 version – I would not do it in a 9×13, the cake to crumb ratio would be way off. BRAVO!!!
AWESOME I made it today and YUMMY
Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review Maryanne!
I made a Crumb Cake using a recipe from another site. It came out OK, but it did not merit entry into the Recipe Box Hall of Fame. This recipe is a Home Run and worthy of every sports metaphor out there. I’ve lived most of my life in the Metro NY area so I’ve had ample opportunity to sample NY Style Crumb Cake. This recipe claimed to honor those NY traditions and boy did it deliver. Everyone who has sampled it has been impressed with the rich crumb topping and the moist cake below. This recipe will go into my regular rotation and become a staple especially around Holiday time.
I am incredibly honored! Wow – thank you so much!! 🙂
Brandie,
Thank you so much for sharing and posting this recipe. I am originally a Jersey girl and this was the best thing that my Dad and I did when I was young was searching for the perfect Crumb Cake. This is so much like what I remember, it was quick and easy to put together!
Wow! Coming from a Jersey girl, that means the world! I am so happy it brought back happy memories for you too. Thank you, thank you for taking the time to leave a comment!!
I have no idea What happened. I followed this recipe to the T and I really wanted to love it because I’m from Jersey, moved to Florida and haven’t found good crumb cake since. It was completely raw underneath after 30 mins at 350°, even checked it with a toothpick in 3 places… seemed fine. I will be making it again just to see if it turns out on the second time. The outer areas were done and man it was Delicious!!
I am sure it wasn’t you Bethany. Sometimes oven have hot and cool spots. You may have to just increase the cooking time. Or perhaps cover the cake during the first half of cooking so the cake hasn’t plenty of time to cook without the edges burning. Also, sometimes it has to do with the type of pans used. Enamelware, silicone, glass and metal can all have different effects on the cake. I hope you try it again and it works out better for you. Please let me know!
Can this be frozen? Or will that impact the flavor and textire? If it can be frozen, what is the best way to defrost?
Can almond milk be used instead of the milk/buttermilk? Do you think it would be the same amount ?
I don’t think so Donna. Buttermilk is what makes this cake so moist. You could try but I don’t think you’ll get the same texture.
I have made this twice. Once in a 9 x 12 pan and ones in an 8 x 8 pan. Both were perfect. The only thing I changed was instead of canola oil I used melted butter instead and I liked it so much better. I have gotten friend request for me to keep baking this and so I shall. This is a true New York crumb cake bringing me back to my childhood in the old fashion bakeries we used to have. Thank you for this fabulous recipe.
This looks delicious, I have it in the oven right now! Can’t wait . Question about the batter consistency though…mine was quite dense, more like dough than batter. Followed you recipe exactly. Should that be right or should it have been more fluid?
The crumbs came out more like a smooth dough So I added a little bit more flour and placed the crumbs by hand on the cake. I just Pick the little pieces and place them on top. It came out really delicious. I know I followed the recipe to a T so I don’t know why it came out like that. The brown sugar was to be packed correct? And I didn’t over mix it either so maybe next time more flour or less butter.
Delicious and easy to make. My granddaugther and I made this together. It was a big hit.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Love that you made this with your granddaughter! This makes me so happy!!