Coffee Crumb Cake Muffins
What did you think?
Challenge Accepted
There are a few things that I have learned since moving to the Midwest from New England. The first thing is that you cannot find a good cannoli… anywhere. When I asked where all the Italian bakeries were, they chuckled at me and said that there was a block downtown that they considered the “Italian block”. Sigh. That being said, we haven’t found a bakery that makes coffee cake like we love from back home. So, what happens when we can’t buy something we want out here? My fiancé challenges me to make it at home and make it just like what we are used to back home. Challenge accepted.
Fantastico!
It was a rainy Sunday morning and I spent hours reading all the different ways people did coffee cake, crumb cake etc. I’m not a cake person, but the coffee cake back home had a different texture than normal birthday cake. It was moist and squishy and never dry and heavy. It had this very specific flavor that everyone loved, and I just needed to figure out what that taste actually was to make it work.
Two hours later (and closer to lunch time at this point) I had figured it out. Fantistico! I trudged to the store, got everything I needed and set out to make the best coffee cake ever! Oh, and that flavor? Butterscotch. Genius, I know!
Adding the swirl
Food Appearances Mean Everything
I decided that I wanted to make muffins instead of a full cake because I needed the fancy gold wrapper to really seal the deal. Appearances are everything when it comes to food; don’t let people tell you otherwise.
Adding the Crumb Topping
Picky? Who are you calling picky?
Not only did it need to have that decadent strip of cinnamon filling, it needed a very specific topping. It couldn’t be too dry or crumbly, but it definitely couldn’t be an icing consistence. Now are you realizing why we are so picky about our bakeries?
Can you smell them?
Perfection
And most importantly it had to have the right balance of flavors paired with the perfect consistency that is not too dry but not too squishy. It needed to be… well, perfect. Who am I kidding?
Would you look at that!?
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 1 Package Yellow Cake Mix
- 1 Package Instant Butterscotch Pudding
- 1 Package Instant Vanilla Pudding
- 4 Eggs
- 2 Tablespoons applesauce
- 2 Tablespoons Salted Butter, Cold
- 1 Cup Canola Oil
- 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa
- 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
What you need to do:
- Preheat the oven 350 and line your muffin pan with cupcake wrappers.
- Mix together the dry ingredients of the cake mix and the vanilla and butterscotch instant puddings
- In a separate bowl beat the 4 eggs adding the Canola oil and apple sauce
- In a third bowl mix together the cinnamon, cocoa powder and brown sugar. Set aside half of this mixture for the topping.
- Mix the egg mixture with the dry ingredients being sure that there are no lumps in the batter
- Fill the cupcake liners half way with the batter
- Sprinkle a thin layer of the sugar and cinnamon mixture on the batter
- Cover the mixture with another spoonful of batter. Be sure not to overfill the muffin tin, these will expand!
- Cut in the cold salted butter with the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture and sprinkle over the top of each muffin.
- Bake for 45-60 minutes and be sure to test the middle to make sure the tester comes out clean.
- Enjoy!
