Peach Crumb Cake
This peach crumb cake is made with a brown butter, spiced cake base, layered with fresh peaches and a brown sugar crumble, then topped with a brown butter glaze.
Ingredients
Crumb topping
- 70 grams Unsalted butter, half melted 5 tablespoons
- 200 grams Brown sugar 1 cup
- ½ teaspoon Ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch Sea salt
- 120 grams All purpose flour 1 cup
Crumb cake base
- 155 grams Unsalted butter, browned 11 Tablespoons
- 150 grams Granulated sugar 1 ½ cups
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract (yes, a whole tablespoon!)
- 185 grams Sour cream, full fat ¾ cup
- 1 teaspoon Sea salt
- 180 grams All purpose flour 1 ½ cups
- 2 teaspoons Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon Ground ginger
- 2 medium Fresh peaches, diced in ½" chunks Peeled if you prefer (280g)
Brown butter icing
- 3 Tablespoons Browned butter
- 67 grams Powdered sugar, sifted ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 Pinch Ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon Milk Any milk should work
- 1 Pinch Sea salt
Instructions
Brown butter and divide
- Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8 square dish with nonstick spray and line with parchment.
- Over medium heat, brown 1 stick + 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter. If you're not sure how to brown butter, check out the post linked in the notes section below.
- In a small bowl, measure out 3 tablespoons of the browned butter. Set aside to make the icing later.
- Transfer the rest of the brown butter into a large bowl to let cool slightly. This will be for the cake base. Be sure to use a spatula to get all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan!
Make the crumble
- While your brown butter is cooling, make the crumb topping.
- Microwave 70g (5 Tbs) of butter until it is halfway melted. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine all crumble ingredients except for the butter. Mix until well combined.
- Once combined, add the butter. Use a fork to incorporate the butter. Once the butter is almost fully incorporated, use your hands to combine the rest. Use your fingers to break apart the crumble to get pea-sized chunks. Check out the picture above!
- Place the crumble in the fridge while you make the cake base.
Make the cake base
- Grab your large bowl that you placed your remaining brown butter into. To this bowl, add the sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream, and salt. Use a whisk to combine until pale and fluffy. About 30 seconds.
- In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Stir until combined thoroughly.
- Add flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix gently with a spatula. Be careful not to over mix! Once almost combined (only a few streaks of flour remaining) add the diced peaches to the bowl. Continue using the spatula and fold in the peaches until evenly distributed and no more flour streaks remain.
Assemble the cake
- Pour one half of the cake batter into the bottom of your lined 8x8 dish. Use your spatula to gently spread the batter to the edges. It does not have to be perfect!
- Sprinkle 1/2 of your crumble over the top of the cake batter in the dish. Be sure to distribute evenly to the edges.
- Add the remaining 1/2 of your batter to the dish. Very carefully, use your spatula to evenly distribute the batter over the top of the crumble. Be very careful not to mess up the crumble layer underneath! Again, it does not have to be perfect.
- Add the last of the crumble topping to your dish, spreading evenly with your hands.
- Bake the cake at 350F for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center and the center of the cake no longer wobbles when the pan is gently tapped.
Make the icing
- Grab your bowl containing the 3 tablespoons of browned butter you set aside earlier.
- Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk, cinnamon, and salt.
- Use a whisk to combine until no more powdered sugar lumps remain.
- You want your glaze at a pourable consistency. If the glaze is too thick, add more milk 1/2 teaspoon at a time. If you want it thicker, add more powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until the cake is ready to glaze.
- Let cake cool for 30 minutes before adding the glaze. Drizzle the glaze in a diagonal pattern using a spoon. If your icing hardened, you can soften it in the microwave using 10 second bursts. Be careful not to melt it completely!
- Let cake cool for at least 2 hours before cutting into it! If you cut into this cake too soon, the streusel layer will not have had time to set and the cake will be a buttery mess.
Notes
Check out this post on how to brown butter if you need help!