Classic New York Crumb Cake just like the kind you would find in your favorite coffee shop, a tender cake topped with large chunks of cinnamon sugar goodness!
Like my Easy French Toast Bake and Blueberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, this recipe is a perfect breakfast option for a crowd!
New York Crumb Cake
New York Crumb Cake is a copycat recipe of the old NY Crumb Cake Starbucks used to sell years ago. I don’t mean the current Classic Coffee Cake that they’ve transitioned to. I mean the old school giant squares of cake with the most amazing large crumb topping pieces.
As employees we would snack frequently and this was definitely the favorite baked good for the whole staff. Any that was left by the date we needed to rotate in new pieces was generally argued over.
The cake portion of the recipe is a very simple one, but the topping is special. With a unique topping that you break apart into pieces before baking, it is worth the effort.
This is THE crumb cake you will want to make for any and all brunches or treats you bring into the office. I made the tray just for myself and froze the remaining 8 pieces so I could enjoy them with my morning coffee. If wrapped invidually well with saran wrap then placed into a ziploc bag with the air pushed out, this cake is delicious even if defrosted.
This isn’t exactly an old fashioned crumb cake recipe, but it is a delicious option you’ll love in place of the standard coffee cake.
How do you make a Crumb Cake:
- Use very cold butter, this will preserve the large chunks.
- As a taller single layer cake, cook on lower temperature.
- If you find the top is browning too much tent it with some foil.
- Keep cake covered to avoid drying out.
How do you make the topping for a crumb cake:
- Look at the ball of topping in the below photo, this is the consistency you’re looking for in the ball and the broken apart pieces.
- Keep the topping cold until baking or it can melt.
- Keep the chunks larger and sprinkle gently over the top of the cake.
Additional crumb topped desserts:
- Pumpkin Crumb Cake
- Apple Crisp Crumb Cake
- Fresh Strawberry Crumb Bars
- Creamy Lemon Crumb Bars
- Triple Berry Sour Cream Crumb Cake
Tools used in the making of this New York Crumb Cake:
8×8 Baking Pan: This allows for the signature square pieces, you can also make this in a Springform Pan.
Stand Mixer: A workhorse, I’d avoid a hand mixer here for the crumble if you can.
8×8 baking pan with Cover: Keeping this cake moist is important and this covered baking pan is great.
NY Crumb Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter , (3/4 stick, cut into small pieces, softened)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
Crumb Topping:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon table salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter , (1 stick, melted and still warm)
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
Additional:
- powdered sugar , for garnish
Instructions
Crumb Topping:
- Add sugar, dark brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter into a bowl.
- Whisk together and add in cake flour until combined. Form into a dough ball.
- Let sit until you are done making the cake.
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Use baking spray or butter and flour a square 8x8 pan.
- In a stand mixer, add flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt
- On low speed, add butter in pieces.
Mix for 1-2 minutes, or until you no longer see the butter and the mixture looks like a crumble.
- Add in your remaining cake ingredients, egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk
Mix until light and fluffy, another 1-2 minutes.
- Pour and spread cake batter into greased baking pan.
- Take the topping dough and break apart into chunks about the size of marbles over the dough in a uniform pattern.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a knife is inserted and comes out clean.
Let cool, then dust with powdered sugar.
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated
Thank you Sabrina,
Baked it, followed your recipe to the “T”. It was a beautiful cake. Looked like my Mother’s version. Lovely crumb. Would like another piece but getting late. It has a great smell while baking. I think my Mother liked her cake a little sweeter, so next bake will add a tiny bit more sugar to cake and crumb topping, maybe a touch more of my vanilla extract, they are all a bit different. And yes tomorrow morning with one of my delicious lattes. Ciao
That is the one I have been searching for. I must be one of the old time Dinner, then
Dessert guys. I am almost 80 years old and this really looks like my Mother’s cake.
Will bake tonight and fall asleep a very happy dessert person.
Ciao Carmine
So glad you found it! Enjoy!
tasted so amazing!
I loved this cake! My only issue is that some of the cake batter rose up over the crumb part. What did I do wrong? How can I prevent that from happening again? (FYI, I followed the recipe exactly and used the correct 8×8 pan) I plan on baking another one tomorrow. I would love your feedback!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Next time you make it, make sure the crumb topping is the right consistency and is able to be broken into bigger pieces uniformly covering the top. Hope this helps. Thanks for the 5 stars.
Easter was different this year with everyone staying home (#socialdistancing) I had a lot more time on my hands since there was no big dinner to be created and no uber-cleaning to be done. I decided to make coffee cakes for my also at home kids and neighbors I found this recipe and decided to give it a try! One word … AMAZING! Eight coffee cakes later, the verdict by all who tried it is that it’s the best coffee cake out there. One tweek … I only used 3/4 – 1c cake flour in the crumb topping and the cake flour should be loosely spooned into the measuring cup for both cake and crumb mixture. I used an 8 x 8 inch square foil pan with a plastic dome cover purchased on Amazon. It was exceptional.
This cake was a hit at our prayer meeting last night. Thank you!
Cake flour such as SWANS CAKE FLOUR OR KING ARTHUR CAKE FLOUR both in SQUARE 32 oz boxes it’s more expensive but will make a difference in CAKES/CUPCAKES etc. This is a REGULAR FLOUR not a cake mix In a box… TOTALLY DIFFERENT! Swans or king Arthur are actually flour like the flour you buy in traditional packaging only CAKE FLOUR IS PACKAGED IN A LARGE SQUARE 32 OZ BOX.. RIGHT WITH ALL OTHER FLOURS. ALL GROCERIES STORES /WALMART HAVE IT.. HOPEFULLY THAT COVERS YOUR ??? RESPONSE.
I am uncertain about that last ingredient in the topping. “1 3/4 cups cake flour 7 ounces” is confusing. Is it 1-3/4 cups cake flour or 7 ounces cake flour? The 2 measurements are not equal. Please make clear how much cake flour to use in the topping. Thanks!
I measured it out correctly at 7 ounces, but for your needs go ahead and just use 1 3/4 cups. Be sure you are spooning into your measure and leveling off so you don’t use too much flour. Hope you like the cake!
I made it and it was fantastic. I didn’t have buttermilk so I used fat free and I used all purpose flour and it was still great! I’ll plan ahead next time and use the exact ingredients. I’m sure it will be even better! This will be the new favorite in my house!
Thanks so much for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it!
I made this today, and I used a 9×13 glass pan. Worked beautifully. I really mixed the batter a lot,so it was very fluffy. Was thinking this won’t fill a 9×13, but it did. It didn’t burn. I didn’t see the 8×8 pan in the instructions till after I put it into the oven. Wish I could post a picture. Taste test to come later.
Thanks for the feedback. I hope you enjoyed it.
You seriously used a 9×13 pan with this recipe? Seems like you’d be baking a cookie instead of a cake?
Yes, I used a 9×13 pan for this.
Lol, I see you’ve given up.
I’m going to double the recipe, make in 9x 13 and see how it turns out. I will make the topping first and put in freezer while I make the cake batter, then top with the very cold crumbs. I’m sure it will take longer to bake so hopefully that will offset any overbrowning of topping. It will be an experiment, so we’ll see if it pays off.
THERe seens be a be discrepancy on one. oF the tools needed. 9×13 or 8×8 baking pan.
So sorry about that. This recipe calls for an 8×8 pan.
you might want to take the 9×13 off this recipe completely. doing that size at the temp/time indicated literally burns everything. since this is one of the top search results for this type of recipe, it’d be much better if it was less confusing about the pan size.
The instructions state to use a 8×8 pan to clear up any confusion. 🙂
Help!
I attempted to make this. Th. Dumb part was good ! But my cake part was rigid lol. When you say to use cake flour – do you mean all purpose flour ? Or an actual cake in the box type?…
Please excuse my typos.
What I meant to say is that the CRUMB part was good. However the cake part came out rigid. Not cake like. Are u using actual all purpose flour to make the cake. Or an actual cake in the box type of flour.
So frustrated !
You should use cake flour NOT all purpose flour to make this cake. You’ll find it in your baking aisle but it is different from all purpose flour.
Thank you ???