When the weather outside is chilly, and the inauguration is basically done, you’ve probably got no place to go, let’s bake, let’s bake, let’s bake–a fluffy and mostly healthy crumb cake! Less butter, less sugar, and fun flours!
It is a cold January day here in Albuquerque. We had a dusting of snow, and now it is just freezing outside. When it is cold (and warm and hot and mild and rainy and snowing…), I like to bake. Here’s my take on a classic, the crumb cake. The coffee cake. That moist deliciousness cinnamon swirl crumb cake from Krusteaz. Whatever you call it, it is so tasty and usually not so healthy. Here I go making it a little healthier while still tasting good!

Ingredients
Crumb Topping/Filling
- 3/4 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon (sprinkle till it tastes good)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups flour (mix almond and oat flour)
- ½ cup oats
Cake
- 2 and 1/2 cups flour (that same almond and oat flour mix)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (or warmed up in the microwave because you are like me and always forget to pull it out of the fridge before baking)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- Vanilla extract (I never measure, but somewhere around 2 teaspoons)
- Light (or heavy) dusting of powdered sugar
Recipe
- Make that crumb. Because I went the gluten free route, the crumb was less of a traditional crumb and more of a buttery glob. Either way it tasted delicious and was way less sugary than the traditional stuff. So, mix together the flours, oats, sugar, and that little bit of salt in a small bowl. Add that stick of melted butter (you can probably go even less on the butter if you’d like)
- Start on your cake batter. Cream together butter, vanilla, and sugar until fluffy. Beware, the toddler assistant will encourage you to taste. Go ahead, because it tastes good and you only live once!
- Add more of your wet ingredients (yogurt and eggs) and blend. I used a hand mixer. Stand mixer, spoon, but probably not your hands will work as well.
- Add your dry stuff to the mix (flours, salt, and leaveners) and give another blend with the tool of your choice. Go until you have a beautiful, silky smooth batter.
- Find the pan of your choice. I used a 8in round spring form, but a 8×8 square pan or a loaf pan would work well too. Spray with nonstick spray (use parchment paper if you’d like too) and pour about half of the batter inside.
- Use your hands or a spoon to sprinkle about half of your oat crumble on top of your cake. Once you have a good amount covering that layer, add the rest of your cake batter and top with the remaining crumble.
- Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Once a fork or knife or sword comes out clean, take out of the over and let cool.
- After the cake has cooled for at least an hour, dust with powdered sugar. You can skip this too, but I wanted my cake to look like it was covered in snow, so I dusted generously.
- Slice up into generous servings and enjoy! We are storing what little is left of ours in the fridge. Probably good for a couple of days (if it lasts).
- Put that cake on Instagram and debate whether you want to venture into the realm of reels for your next bake session…
Crumb mixture all together Creamed butter and sugar Final cake batter before going in pan All assembled and ready to go in the over In the oven! Freshly baked and ready to cool Final product, dusted with a generous amount of powdered sugar A view from the top!
So did you make em? Did you!?! Tell me how it turned out and tag me (and follow on Instagram @abqexpert). Let’s connect and talk about baking, WandaVision theories, real estate, kiddos, beer, coffee, whatever!
