Incredibly moist apple cinnamon coffee cake. Cinnamon streusel throughout & topped with just a drizzle of icing. Buttermilk & yogurt keep this mini crumb cake moist and coconut oil is used in place of butter which gives the cake a nice crumb.
It’s the perfect recipe for two but can serve up to four persons.
Happy Fall everyone! I’m kicking off the season with a mini apple cinnamon crumb cake. The only problem is, I don’t know if it’s dessert or breakfast! Does it really matter? Nope!
Since apple season collides with Fall I thought some pink lady apples with their sweet/tart flavor would make a great addition to this cake.
The cinnamon streusel is layered and swirled in the middle of the cake so you get a perfect bite of apples and cinnamon. This recipe is nostalgic of those small Little Debbie or Hostess crumb cakes, but better because it’s homemade.
I posted a photograph of this cake to Instagram and my daughter saw it and texted me. “Sometimes I worry about how in tune we are. I’ve literally been thinking about coffee cake for a week and get on Insta and low and behold…your post!”
We swear we both have telepathy! It happens to us all the time. I mean like a lot all the time. I’ll be thinking about her or getting ready to text or pick up the phone to call and sometimes we’re calling or texting one another at the exact same moment.
We’ve even discovered we have some of the same weird dreams about the house we used to live in. Like a ghost presence that we each felt in the house but never discussed with each other until years later.
It makes me look crazy I know. One particular example is, I used to sleep on the couch a lot when my kids were little and one night I woke up and saw a little girl standing near the foyer stairs. I called out her name thinking it was my daughter and she wanted something.
“Maria.” But then the presence just dissipated. I rubbed my eyes and looked again wondering what in the actual f@ck I just saw!
I was so freaked out I ran upstairs to our bedroom where my husband was sleeping. Maybe it was just one of those times I wasn’t fully awake. Like when you’re caught between dreaming and waking up. I can’t say for certain, but I know what I experienced.
A few years back, I was home in Ohio for a visit. My sisters, mom, and all our kids were sitting around chatting and somehow we got on the subject of ghosts. I relayed my experience to everyone and my daughter and son looked at each other with wide eyes and said they both experienced something similar.
My son described the same girl, with dark long hair but he said he saw her in the basement. My daughter said she used to wake up and there would be a large manly presence in her room. She used to sneak into our room regularly and either climb in our bed or sleep on a love seat we had in our room.
We can’t all be crazy right? I mean in our defense our house was built very close to an old cemetery. I had even heard a rumor once that the land we built on had moved a cemetery in order to develop the land. Again, I can’t confirm that.
Come to think of it, that was what happened in Poltergeist. Maybe someone was yanking my chain. I also couldn’t find anything on Google. So ya know, it just didn’t happen if it’s not on Google or Snopes!
And now that I’ve totally given myself chills while writing this (and you all think I’m gone off the rails,) I need to get to the recipe. But that was a nice walk down memory lane…I think. Ooooffph, I hope I don’t have nightmares tonight!
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How to make Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake:
Mini Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake: Incredibly Moist
Ingredients
- CAKE BATTER INGREDIENTS:
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup peeled cubed apple (sweet/tart variety)
- 1/4 cup buttermilk (room temp)
- 4 tablespoons greek yogurt
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 1 egg room temperature
- 4 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
- Squeeze of fresh lemon juice (to keep apples from browning)
- CINNAMON STREUSEL TOPPING:
- 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon semi cold butter
- ICING:
- 2 Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon soft cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon soft butter
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon heavy whipping cream (or milk/milk substitute)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F
- Grease and flour a 4” inch cake pan
- In a small mixing bowl add all dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine all streusel topping ingredients with a fork or (hands) until it resembles a crumbly wet sand consistency. Set aside
- Peel, cube and give apples a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to keep from browning. Toss to combine. Set aside.
- In a mixing cup add buttermilk, oil, yogurt, vanilla & egg. Whisk until well combined.
- Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients and gently still mixture just until incorporated.
- Fold in apples. Don’t over mix batter.
- Pour half of batter into pan (Wilton 6" cake pan)
- Top with a bit of the streusel mixture and swirl in batter with a toothpick or knife
- Pour remaining batter over top and evenly spread with a spatula.
- Top with remaining streusel
- Bake on center oven rack for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean.
- Cool on wire rack before removing from pan.
- While cake is cooling prepare the icing by mixing all the ingredients together with a hand mixer or whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle on icing while still slightly warm and enjoy.
Additional Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake Notes & Instructional Photos:
When ready to pour batter, pour half the batter in the cake pan. I used a Wilton 6″ cake pan. Then layer half the cinnamon streusel and give it a swirl with a butter knife or tooth pick until it’s nicely incorporated.
Pour the remaining batter and smooth out with a spatula and top with the remaining cinnamon streusel.
You might also like these small batch cinnamon rolls.
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As always, thanks for reading. If you make this recipe or have any questions please leave a comment. Or if you’ve ever had a paranormal experience, heck let me know I’m not the only crazy one.
See you soon!
Looks like great recipe but I was a bit confused on size of pan. It’s says to grease 4″ pan in beginning but later says 6″ pan.