Cream Cheese Crumble Cake

Cake, Crumble and Cream Cheese rank among my favourite things to eat so when I came across a recipe that combined them I just had to make a few tweaks to turn it into the perfect Cream Cheese Crumble Cake! I did think that the recipe needed a couple of further tweaks to make it a little lighter but the ladies of my Quilting Group assured me it was perfect as is. Given that they are fairly expert in both baking and tasting cake who am I to argue so no further changes were made!

This traybake is a little fiddly to make as you need to gather your ingredients and prepare them in groups before combining them but it is well worth it. The finished cake is moist and creamy with the topping having a hint of caramel in taste. When I took it for tasting I challenged the group to identify the mystery ingredient, all sorts of things were suggested but no one identified Cream Cheese as a major ingredient. It gives a richness to the cake without it being cloying or sickly.

Don’t forget to make the Crumble topping first so you have it ready to spoon onto the batter. Try and sprinkle it as evenly as possible so that the cake can rise evenly. If you have a really sweet tooth you can dust the top of the cake with a little Caster Sugar when it comes out of the oven but I would try it first as too much sugar would detract from the flavour in my view – and that comes from someone with a really sweet tooth!

Lovely on it’s own with a cup of Tea, it is also very good warm with a spoonful of cream either on its own or with some stewed fruit as a really comforting winter dessert.

Ingredients

• Crumble Topping:-
• 60 gms / 2 ozs Caster Sugar
• 80 gms / 3 oz Plain Flour
• 60 gms / 2ozs softened Butter
• 1 tsp ground Cinnamon
• Cake:-
• 120 gms / 5 ozs Butter
• 200 gms / 8 ozs Cream Cheese - softened
• 250 gms / 10 ozs Caster Sugar
• 120 mls / 5 fl ozs Milk
• 2 large Eggs
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Paste
• 250 gms / 10 ozs Plain Flour
• 2 Tsp Baking Powder
• ½ Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• ½ Tsp Salt

Method