New York Crumb Cake
This easy to make homemade New York crumb cake is a gorgeous, tender, and buttery cake that stays exceptionally moist. On top is a very generous topping of delicious crumbs that meld into the cake and have just a hint of cinnamon flavor. It’s HEAVEN and I guarantee you won’t be able to stop eating it!
I really can’t decide which part of it is better – the insanely soft and tender vanilla-flavored cake or the soft, buttery crumb topping?
Or maybe it’s the fact that the layer of crumbs is equally as high as the cake itself.
Needless to say, this is the PERFECT crumb cake; my family always goes back for seconds and it disappears in an instant. You won’t want to skip this one!
Crumb cake vs coffee cake
Classic crumb cake originated from central Europe, most likely Germany, as a flat cake covered with a sweet crumb topping referred to as streusel (meaning “something scattered”).
So what’s the difference between this and coffee cake?
Crumb size, for one thing!
A classic New York-style crumb cake has much bigger crumbs than coffee cake, making the crumb topping layer just as thick as the cake layer! It’s sweeter and denser than a coffee cake.
It’s perfect for brunch, or to serve for dessert, or (if you’re anything like me) you can sneak leftover bites for breakfast!
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Pan basics
This recipe uses a standard 9-inch square metal pan; I use parchment paper to line the pan, which makes it easy to remove the cake from the pan when it’s time to dust with powdered sugar, slice, and serve.
You can double this recipe and bake in a 9×13-inch pan but, increase the baking time to 40 to 45 minutes.
If you use a glass pan instead of a metal pan, the cake may take a little longer to finish baking.
Tips for variations
This is simply irresistible on its own, but if you crave a little extra SOMETHING, or just want to try something different, here are a few ideas:
- Flavors/Mix-ins: Fresh blueberries (gently fold 1 cup into the batter) or mini chocolate chips (fold ½ cup into the batter) would work great!
- Drizzles/glazes: A drizzle of salted caramel sauce or melted white chocolate over the top would be a nice addition, or a cream cheese glaze, as well!
Storing and freezing instructions
This New York crumb cake keeps exceptionally well! Here’s how to keep it fresh:
- Storage: The cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freezing Instructions: Once completely cool, wrap the cake in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a ziplock freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
More Breakfast-Worthy Cakes!
- Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake
- Overnight Cranberry-Eggnog Coffee Cake
- Blueberry-Peach Coffee Cake
- Blueberry Buckle
- Peach Coffee Cake
- Sour Cream Coffee Cake
If you make this cake and love it, I would so appreciate it if you would take a moment to leave a rating below. Thank you so much! ❤️️
New York Crumb Cake
Ingredients
For the Crumb Topping
- ½ cup (73.33 g) dark brown sugar
- ¼ cup (66.67 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon (0.13 teaspoon) table salt
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
- 1½ cups (218.75 g) cake flour
For the Cake
- 1¼ cups (156.25 g) cake flour
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) table salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) buttermilk
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Make the Topping: Whisk the sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Make the Cake: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper or aluminum foil; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.
- Using an electric mixer on low speed, mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt to combine. With mixer continuing to run at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.
- Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer. Break apart the crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center. (Be sure not to push the crumbs into the batter, just sprinkle on top.) Bake until the crumbs are golden and a wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Flour: Do not substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour, as doing so will create a dry, tough cake.
- Buttermilk: You can substitute the same amount of plain yogurt for the buttermilk. Using powdered buttermilk is not recommended; it will create a thinner batter and the crumbs may sink to the bottom.
- Pan: A square metal baking pan is recommended; if you use a glass pan, the cake may take a little longer to finish baking.
- Doubling: This recipe can be doubled and baked in a 9x13-inch pan. Increase the baking time to 40 to 45 minutes.
- Flavors/Mix-ins: Fresh blueberries (gently fold 1 cup into the batter) or mini chocolate chips (fold ½ cup into the batter) would work great!
- Drizzles/glazes: A drizzle of salted caramel sauce or melted white chocolate over the top would be a nice addition, or a cream cheese glaze, as well!
- Storage: The crumb cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Freezing Instructions: Once completely cool, wrap the crumb cake in plastic wrap, then in foil, and place in a ziplock freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
[Photography by Dee of One Sarcastic Baker]
Hi! I noticed that you said yogurt can be substituted for the buttermilk. Would I also be able to substitute a non-dairy sour cream instead? Thanks!
Hi Paulette, I have not tried to use sour cream, and I’ve never used a non-dairy substitute for any baking, so I couldn’t say for sure how well it would work in this particular recipe.
Bravo Bravo
To much crumb topping with a bland. Taste like lightly sweetened flour.
Made this twice, it was perfect. I added blueberries. This will be my go to recipe for coffee crumb.
I made this crumb cake and it was phenomenal…..totally my new addiction. I have made others but none can compare. I was so happy to find this recipe and it is a keeper! Thank you for the recipe!
Made this today baked for loted time. The cake was very dense and almost tasted raw. Did not come out like a cake should…light and soft. Topping was good but cake fell short of what I was expecting. Maybe it needed more liquid but followed it exactly.
does it have to be dusted right before serving or can i do it earlier in the day or the night before?
Hi Jose, You can dust it earlier, but just know that when you cover something that has a powdered sugar dusting on it, the powdered sugar will tend to melt, so you’ll likely need to dust it again before serving anyway, especially if you do it the night before.
For those looking for a solution to the topping sinking into the cake I made a crumb cake for my wife and in the recipe it said to mix some of the crumb with cake batter to prevent topping from falling in just cannot remember where I got recipe from
Michelle, the sinking crumbs have nothing to do with the temp. when placed on the cake batter. I could see in the baking process how the cake batter came up around the crumb almost like a buckle recipe. We liked it when it first came out of the oven but unless we heated it up after that, it was dense and just not as yummy as photographed look. I would go back to your friends at the test kitchen and ask about the density/physics that go into the baking process (they’re good at that type of trouble shooting). Interestingly enough, when compared to other similar recipes out there, they often say don’t use cake flour because it will make the bottom layer tough as I’ve described mine to
Love your blog and your recipes. Want to try this one but I am little worried about the flour. In Italy we find only 0 or 00
Hi Melania, I’m not sure what 0 and 00 is in reference to, but cake flour has a lower protein content, which makes for lighter baked goods. I hope that helps a bit!
Growing up there was a store that made a coffee cake that had a stiff cream filling. Your cake looks like the one I remember, but I have never found one with the same filling. Any thoughts on how to make that kind of filling? Thanks.
Hi Ellen, Do you have a link or any example you can send over for reference? Sounds delish!
Unfortunately, I have no pictures, just memories of stiff whip cream that holds up to the weight of the top half of the cake. Pretty vague I’m sorry to say. Of well, you brought back memories. Thanks.
Ellen, sounds like it may be a pastry cream with stabilized whipped cream folded in. Most likely 2 parts pastry cream to 1 part stabilized whipped cream.
I’ve been meaning to make this for some time and finally did. I followed recipe exactly except the cooking time was a little longer. No sinking crumbs like other posts. The result was a delicious cake, much like Entemans cake which I can only find back east. Thank you! PS love your site… Especially Friday things.
I know this is an old thread butI had to comment. Thank you so much for the recipe! My husband says it is his favorite by far!
I tried this last week. Followed the recipe exactly. A suggestion I would give is to reduce the amount of cake flour in the topping. It is way too much, and makes it really dry. The topping turned out hard, but with lesser cake flour, it will definitely be fine. Other than that, the cake was HEAVEN! It tasted amazing!! Thank you for the delicious recipe! :)
I just made this because it looked delish! Except… I’ve been baking mine for over an hour now, and it’s still liquid. I even turned the temp up.
I have used this recipe now for a couple of weeks to make for a local coffee shop that I bake for. I double the recipe and make it in a 13 x 9 pan which works well! What I do is make the crumble topping first, put it in the fridge to cool, and work on getting the batter prepared. I find it easiest to just put the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla all in one liquid measuring cup and just pour that into the dry/butter mixture. When I take the crumb mixture out of the fridge, depending on how long it’s been sitting in there, it can be a bit hard, but it breaks up super easy when you use your hands. I tend to put more crumb topping around the edges of the pan than in the middle as I’ve noticed that as the cake bakes, the edges cinch up and the cake is exposed in the corners. I’ve also baked this at both 325 and 350 and it turns out ok either way. For me, it takes 45-50 minutes depending on the temp, and I tend to rotate my pan halfway through as my oven has hot and cold spots. Thanks for a great recipe — the customers in our local coffee shop love it!
This is one of my favorite go-to recipes. It is so easy and works every time. A lovely adaption is to mix the batter with combined lightly stewed apple pieces , a sprinkling of cinnamon and brown sugar. I pop this into cupcake papers and top it with the prepared crumb. Any left over crumb i also put into the oven for a sneaky snack ;-) after baking I drizzle some melted white chocolate over the top. It’s always very popular. Yum!
Can you bake in a heart shaped ceramic baking dish? what changes in time,temp.? Please advise,want to make for valentine’s Day!!
Hi Sloane, You would need to know what volume your heart-shaped pan is, to make sure you wouldn’t need to scale the recipe up or down. I would keep the temperature the same, but the time might be different, depending on the size of your pan.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
The cake was sooo delicious. I don’t know why the topping sinks into the cake sometimes – mine did not, thank goodness.
I suggest to add more sugar to the cake, though. This is my opinion only; my mom said it’s perfect.
Thank you once more!
In defense of an amazing New York crumb cake…
First…the directions do say to cool the crumb topping. You don’t roll the topping into peas, just break it up into small pieces.
The topping is supposed to be much thicker than the cake and it will sink into the cake. The cake doesn’t rise much and the whole thing is quite dense and buttery. You have to take your time with the ingredients…it’s a process to get the cake.
I mix in the butter by hand. I gave 15 out for Christmas 3 years in a row. I think many people are stuck in the ‘cake’ mentality. This isn’t a crumb cake by cake standards. This is more of a pastry in NYC and it’s amazing. This recipe comes out perfect every time.
The 9×13 works but the cake is thicker and I don’t like that. Follow the steps. Don’t cut corners. Don’t judge it by previous standards.
OMG What a delicious cake!!!! I had made 3 differents recipes of similar cakes, because I was trying to imitate a cake I tried at a upscale bakery. And this recipe was perfect! I added a layer of red delicious apple in between the bAtter and the topping, and it was soooooo close to what I was trying to imitate. thank you so much for this recipe!
I made this the other week and it was so good I’m making it again!! I didn’t let the crumbs sit long enough to cool so they sank, but I am weird and thought that made the whole thing even more delicious. I found a different recipe on another website that I tried before I found this and it did not turn out anywhere near as good as yours did!
I made this Saturday night for Sunday church. It is delicious! In my oven it took 40 minutes for any browning, but next time I will probable take out a few minutes earlier. Making those little balls for the topping was a little time consuming, but well worth the time. I had it wrapped then realized I had not dusted with powdered sugar. Still delish. Will make again. :)
I LOVE this recipe. I have made it several times and now its one of my families favorites. I modified slightly for better results; I added a little more buttermilk and doubled the crumb topping. Absolutely delicious!
Thannnnnnnkkkkk you for posting this recipe! I had tried another recipe for crumb cake that just came out horrible. This one was great! I did yogurt sub for the buttermilk. I only had all-purpose flour, so I subbed it for cake flour with this subbing guideline: per cup of flour needed, replace two tablespoons of all-purpose flour with two tablespoons of cornstarch. The last 1/4 cup of flour for the cake I replaced with vanilla pudding powder. I didn’t have any trouble with sinking crumbs. The only thing is that the crumbs were a bit crispy and the bottom of the cake too browned at 35 min, so next time I would check after 30 min. Thanks for the recipe! Will use over and over.
I made this recipe for my MOPS meeting and was a little dissapointed. The topping was a little dry. I think I might try this one again but use more butter and less flour. I made up a glaze of butter, powdered sugar, whipping cream and vanilla for the top and it was a great addition.
Thank you for the recipe! I have baked this cake quite a few times now and it is always a hit! I have been seeing a couple of comments on her about the topping sinking. I have personally never had this kind of problem. I do put a 1/4c less of flour and bake it in a shallow disposable foil pan. Maybe that helps a bit.
I have always loved store bought crumb cakes, but this looks even better! I’m making it for Father’s Day. I know my family will love it! I added some almond flavoring – we are totally almond obsessed. Thanks for the great recipe!
This is a great coffee/crumb cake. Looked great on,one – decided to try it and yum!!!
Great cake and topping – now all I need is a latte.
Thanks!
Patti
I THOUGHT I recognized this crumb cake! As a reader of CI/ATK I tore this out a few weeks ago and made it. I doubled it as suggested and baked it in a 9×13 pan. A lover of crumb cake, ok–almost all sweets, this is the closest to my memory growing up in NY. Thanks for sharing the recipe. Every one of yours I’ve tried has been a winner.