Mini Apple Crumb Cakes are packed with fresh apples, cinnamon, and cardamom, with a buttery streusel topping. An easy reverse creaming method gives these little sour cream cakes an exceptionally soft, delicate crumb.
Mini Apple Crumb Cakes are tender little sour cream coffee cakes packed with fresh apples, cinnamon, cardamom, and a generous buttery crumb topping.
These mini apple crumb cakes sit somewhere between a muffin and a little coffee cake, with fresh diced apples, warm spices, and plenty of buttery crumbs.
🍏 They’re just as good with your morning coffee as they are served warm with whipped cream for dessert.
🍏 The cake itself is especially tender thanks to a simple baking technique called reverse creaming. It’s one of those little tricks I rediscover every few years and wonder why I don’t use more often!
🍏Packed with fresh diced apple, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, and sour cream, these mini crumb cakes are an autumnal dream.
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The reverse creaming method (it’s so easy!)
Reverse creaming turns the usual cake-making method on its head. Instead of beating butter and sugar together, you mix the butter into the dry ingredients first, until the mixture looks like fine, damp crumbs. Then you add the wet ingredients.
Coating the flour with butter limits gluten development, giving these mini apple cakes an especially fine, soft, tender crumb.
It also makes the batter quick to put together, with less mixing to worry about.
Reverse creaming is surprisingly versatile, and you can use it in many basic butter cake recipes that originally call for creaming butter and sugar. But it isn’t a universal swap. I particularly like reverse creaming for snack cakes, coffee cakes, cupcakes, and simple butter cakes, where tenderness is a priority.
When does a muffin become a cake?
There’s no hard-and-fast rule, but muffins are generally less sweet, and tend to have a coarser, sturdier crumb, while cakes are softer, finer, and more delicate.
These mini apple crumb cakes blur the line. They’re baked in muffin tins, but the reverse-creaming method gives them a tender, cake-like texture. Add a generous buttery crumb topping, and I’d say they’ve earned the title of cake.
Mini Apple Crumb Cakes are packed with fresh apples, cinnamon, and cardamom, with a buttery streusel topping. An easy reverse creaming method gives these little sour cream cakes an exceptionally soft, delicate crumb.
Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease or line a 12 cup muffin tin, and set aside.
To make the streusel, add all the streusel ingredients to a small bowl, and use your hands to rub the cold butter into the rest of the ingredients until it is uniform and crumbly. Set aside.
To make the crumb cakes, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until you have a uniform, crumbly texture.
Add the sour cream, vanilla extract, and egg. Mix briefly to combine. Finally, fold in 1 cup of the chopped apple (reserve 1/2 cup for topping the muffins).
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin tins, filling them about 2/3 full.
Sprinkle the remaining apple pieces over the tops of the muffins.
Finally, sprinkle a generous amount of streusel topping over each muffin, filling the muffin tins to the top. This might seem like a lot of streusel, but it will shrink down as the muffins bake.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until risen and golden brown.
Allow to cool briefly in the muffin tin before gently removing ~ they will be delicate when hot.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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Pumpkin Crumb Cake is a classic New York style coffee cake ~ tall, moist with lots of crumbs! It's a fall and holiday breakfast tradition!
Hey there ~ I'm Sue. I love to make delicious food, photograph it, and write about it, but mostly, I just love to EAT. Isn't that what it's all about? My recipes are creative, vibrant, and totally approachable no matter what your skill level. Let's grab a bite together!
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I want to dive through the screen for these!
I love anything with a crumble on top! I have pears on the counter, can I use those instead of apples?
I’m with you, Wendy, and yes, you can use pears, that would be delicious.
Am I missing where the butter is added in the cake batter?
There was a glitch in the recipe card, it’s in there now.
When do you the butter to the cake batter? I’m missing something.
It’s in there now, sorry!
I’m so excited to try this, I love all your recipes. I’m curious about the reverse creaming method.