New York-Style Almond Poppyseed Crumb Cake

A soft, tender, easy-to-make crumb cake – heavy on the crumbs!

Hi all! Coming to you live from my bed currently wishing a magical snow storm would appear overnight and school we be out until Christmas. I know wishful thinking, but still. I need a break from school work pronto.

I guess a mere snack break will have to do for now. What snack you ask? THIS extra indulgent, feels like Christmas morning, crumb-heavy, buttery, fluffy almond poppyseed cake with a cinnamon streusel topping and an orange glaze. Ain’t nobody messing around with this recipe. No way no how. Almond Poppyseed Crumb cake to the max in the most deliciously crumbly-glazey way.

Reasons I made this crumb cake….

1. Because DUH.

2. (The real reason) I feel like during the holidays, we are all so worried about perfection (myself included) and all holiday recipes seem to have a billion different ingredients and steps and/or take a billion hours. On top of that, those recipes aren’t guaranteed to work out either. In other words – we need some more simple, fool-proof holiday recipes!!

Mostly this is fool-proof because it has that overwhelmingly delicious topping and glaze that is so phenomenally tasty that you can’t possibly make it taste bad. The topping will be your life.

This cake itself is moist, mildly sweet, full of butter almond flavor, speckled with little poppy seeds and heavy with all the toppings — a soft cinnamon streusel and a warm, thick orange glaze. The best part about this cake is that the outside gets slightly crispy while it bakes in the oven. That reminds me… one important note on baking: Make sure you bake this cake until a knife/toothpick can be inserted and come out clean because it will be raw in the middle if otherwise!

The sweetness is the perfect complement to a hot mug of rich, black coffee. Literally salivating at the thought. Plus, it’s easy to make and it will feed a crowd. I am so sure that if you make this for your ____ club or for Christmas morning, it will be gone in before you will even get a chance to set the platter down!

It’s best served warm, so if you make it the night before, pop that slice in the microwave for a few seconds before serving. I stress only a few seconds in the microwave because cake can get hot fast!

For a fun twist, you could put half of the topping through the middle of the cake to get a yummy cinnamon streusel layer baked right in. I got distracted when I was making the cake and forgot to make the super awesome middle layer, but someone please make that happen.

Enjoy!

New York-Style Almond Poppyseed Crumb Cake

Yield: 9 servings

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 50 mins

Total Time: 1 hour 5 mins

A soft, tender, easy-to-make crumb cake – heavy on the crumbs!

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cups oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon butter flavoring extract (or 1 teaspoon melted butter)

For the crumb topping:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Glaze:

• 2 Tablespoons orange juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon butter flavor extract (or 1 1/2 tsp melted butter can be substituted)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×9 square pan or round pan.

For the Cake:

• Add all cake ingredients to a large bowl and whisk together until completely combined. Pour into prepared baking dish. Set aside.

For the crumb topping:

• Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a large mixing bowl until combined. Cut in the butter in very small pieces. If you don’t have a pastry cutter (I don’t), you can use your hands or mix with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Work the brown sugar and cinnamon into the flour mixture, or squeeze the mixture with your hands, almost like playdough, for 3-5 minutes. I prefer to use my hands. You want the mixture to look like one big brown sugar clump, thats how you get the larger crumbs. Break the large crumb into chunks and sprinkle over the batter, pressingly lightly so they stick. Bake the cake until the center is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40-50 minutes.
• Allow to cool completely before serving, about 1 hour.

For the Glaze:

• Pour all ingredients into a small saucepan and let cook on stove on medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove bread from pans and pour glaze over warm bread. Use knife or spatula to bring the glaze that has run off up and over the warm bread until it stays on.