What’s better than a classic apple crumble? When you add cake into the mix of course! And caramel… and custard… and ginger…
We created this recipe alongside HelloFresh as part of their blog post about apple crumble recipes with a twist, make sure you check it out! And make sure to have a read of their version of the classic dish where they add dark chocolate (talk about ultimate indulgence right?!) as well as other recipes from Forever Baking and Hello Cuppies!
So to make our twist on the usual (and don’t get us wrong, very tasty) apple crumble, we decided to make this apple crumble cake. A moist ginger sponge topped with sugary apples and a ginger crumble topping. We really love adding ginger into the mix as we feel it really lifts the flavour of the apples.
One of the great things about a crumble is how easy it is to make. A truly hassle free pudding, mix up some fruit whack on the topping and shove it in the oven, then wham, bam, thank you mam! A fantastic dessert on the table. Promise us when we say adding a sponge base into the mix really isn’t that much more effort and is truly worth it.
The sponge recipe is fairly routine, creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs then flour and a little milk. There a slightly higher butter content than a regular victoria sandwich for example as we feel this pudding needs a denser and really moist sponge. Once the batter is made and you’ve prepared your apple, it’s just a case of popping them in a cake tin and baking!
The crumble shouldn’t be added till later otherwise it’ll be baked for too long and can burn, we add it for the last 10-15 mins of cooking so that it can turn a lovely golden brown.
For this pudding we of course needed custard, and seeing as caramel and apples are a great combo (hello.. toffee apples!! in fact we’ve made deliciously ooey gooey toffee apple buns before) we figured what better than to make caramel custard?! And trust us, there is nothing better, we may never go back to normal custard again!
- 220g butter
- 200g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp milk
- 4-5 Braeburn apples
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 30g butter
- 60g plain flour
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- First prepare your crumble by rubbing together the butter with the flour, sugar & ginger using your fingers to create a crumb texture. Set the crumble aside for later
- Peel and core the apples and chop into approx. 1cm chunks
- In a bowl toss the apples with the sugar, cinnamon & ginger, set these aside also until you make your cake batter
- Cream together the butter and sugar together, we used a stand mixer but by hand works just as well as long as the butter is soft
- Next add the eggs and mix until combine
- Then you want to add your flour, baking powder and ginger to create a thick batter
- Finally add the milk to loosen the batter slightly
- Pour your batter into a lined tin, we used a round 8″ tin, pile the chopped apples on top until the batter is fully covered
- Bake at 180 for 40mins or until it looks mostly baked, then remove from the oven, sprinkle the crumble over the apples and bake for a further 10-15mins to brown the crumble. Check it’s cooked by inserting a skewer, if it comes out clean then you’re good to go!
Serve warm with custard, or at least wait until it’s been out the oven long enough it doesn’t burn your mouth although we know that’s not so easy… In particular we suggest this heavenly caramel custard, it’s lovely and sweet but with a rich caramelly flavour instead of the usual vanilla (AKA it’s delicious).
- 500ml full fat milk
- 2 tbsp caramel (we used carnations)
- 3 egg yolks
- 20g sugar
- 15g corn flour
- Heat the milk and caramel together in a pan on a high heat until almost boiling
- Whilst the milk is heating, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn flour in a bowl
- Pour a small amount of the hot milk onto the egg mixture and whisk quickly, then pour back into the saucepan of milk and return to the heat
- Heat until the custard begins to thicken, serve hot or allow to cool
Crumble Bumble
