Best Crumb Cake Bake Off

If you love New York-style crumb cake, you will love this bake off! We tested 9 popular classic crumb cakes in search of the best homemade crumb cake recipe!

If you love coffee cake (and particularly the crumbles on top), you will LOVE crumb cake! Unlike coffee cake, New York crumb cake is a distinct style of butter cake that lacks the characteristic cinnamon ribbon through the middle of the cake. Instead, it’s topped with a heavy ratio of crumbs or streusel on top–in some cases, as much as a 2:1 crumb to cake ratio!

Typically cinnamon crumb cake is made with a sour cream cake base for a plush yellow cake-like base to catch all the salty, buttery crumbs. But, armed with 8 lbs of butter in my New York kitchen, I tested a variety of variations. From oil-based cakes to cakes made with buttermilk or just plain milk, there were quite a few deviations on the standard formula to taste test. Read on to find out the crowd favorite of the 9 recipes I tested!

METHODOLOGY // RESULTS // FACTORS // ANALYSIS // RECOMMENDATIONS

Methodology

• 33 total tasters
• All ingredients were measured by weight according to King Arthur (unless the recipe specified weights)
• All recipes were baked the day of tasting
• Recipes were baked in glass 9×13 pans (except Krolls Korner, which specified a metal pan) lined with parchment (except ATK which specified foil)
• Each taster ranked each cake on a scale from 0-10 for flavor, texture and overall as a whole

Ingredients

• Gold Medal bleached all-purpose flour
• Swan’s Down cake flour
• Trader Joe’s unsalted butter
• Daisy sour cream
• Kirkland vanilla extract
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt
• Imperial granulated and brown sugar

Results

After analyzing the data from 33 tasters, results of the crowd rankings are below.

Although I’ll list my top-level recommendations below, I always recommend reading through the entire blog post to decide which sounds best to you. I truly believe all of these recipes are delicious and would be someone’s ideal crumb cake.

Picking your ideal crumb cake is really just a matter of how much crumb you prefer, whether you prefer a more plush or shaggy cake, more of a salt-forward flavor, etc.

Recommendations for the best crumb cake

Erika’s picks: America’s Test Kitchen, Smitten Kitchen

Crowd favorite: America’s Test Kitchen

For crumb lovers: Jessie Sheehan, Krolls Korner

Most plush cake: Butternut Bakery

For spice lovers: Big Oven, Krolls Korner

Easiest to make: Martha Stewart, Jessie Sheehan (with some modifications)

Factors

Crumb method

Of the cakes I tested, there were 3 main techniques to make the crumb topping:

• Cut in method: This requires cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients (either with your hands or a pastry cutter) until you have sandy crumbs. Kind of like making pie dough, but you stop before you form a dough. (Jessie Sheehan, Big Oven)
• Melted butter method: Here, you mix the dry ingredients, then mix in melted butter just until the mixture starts to form crumbs. (All other recipes)
• Dough method: This follows the melted butter method, but you mix in the melted butter until you have a cohesive dough. Then you later crumble the dough to form crumbs. (Smitten Kitchen, ATK)

My least favorite method by far was the cut in method. It took me the longest, I don’t particularly enjoy the task of cutting butter into flour, and I don’t think this method yielded a superior texture. In fact, this method left more loose dry crumbs than the other methods.

The melted butter method was the fastest and yielded decent crumbs! This is a totally acceptable method to me, though it does run the risk of undermixing and leaving more loose dry crumbs than the dough method.

While the dough method takes just a little longer than the melted butter method, I thought this was the best overall method. Mixing everything into a dough ensures consistently hydrated crumbs that you can crumble into a variety of sizes.

Dairy

As I mentioned above, crumb cakes are traditionally made with sour cream. In this bake off, I tested 5 recipes that used sour cream. Two recipes used buttermilk (ATK, Big Oven), and two used plain whole milk (The Baking Wizard, Martha Stewart).

Frankly, I was surprised a non-sour cream recipe (ATK) took top honors in the bake off! I think this could partially be explained by ATK’s creaming method and crumb method. The top 3 recipes afterwards are all sour cream-based, which was more in line with my expectations.

One of the milk-based cakes ranked pretty low (Martha Stewart). But interestingly, The Baking Wizard fared decently, fudging my hypothesis was that the milk-based cakes would fare the worst. This might be due to the extra fat and flavor lent by the two added egg yolks, or perhaps the strength of the salty, buttery crumb helped lift its score.

In any case, I think either sour cream or buttermilk is key in a crumb cake recipe for the signature tang that gives yellow cake interest. (But you actually don’t need very much–the top 2 recipes use ~1/2 cup of sour cream/buttermilk!)

Oil vs. butter

Jessie Sheehan and Martha Stewart were the only two oil-based cakes (the rest were butter-based). While I think Martha was marked down for the very low overall amount of fat in the cake, Jessie shows that a simple oil-based cake can still perform well.

I loved the ease of the oil-based cakes–no mixer needed! The trade off comes in the lack of butter flavor (but do you need it when the crumb topping is so buttery?!). There’s also a texture trade off: oil-based cakes generally have a slightly coarser crumb than creamed butter cakes. However, if you don’t mind these minor trade offs, an oil-based cake base can be a great option!

Creaming method

Of the butter-based cakes, most cakes called for the regular creaming technique (beating butter and sugar together first). This typically yields a fluffy, airy cake that is perfect for crumb cake.

However, I’m always a big fan of reverse creaming, which ATK uses (and Big Oven, kind of). By mixing butter into the dry ingredients, this coats the flour molecules in fat and limits gluten formation, leading to a really tender, close-crumbed cake. To me, this was a key technique that made ATK a winning recipe.

Analysis of the best crumb cake recipes

Martha Stewart: a thin, Entenmann-like but slightly forgettable cake

Martha’s recipe was one of two oil-based cakes. This cake did have a bit of a handicap (by far the lowest ratio of fat in the cake), but I was curious to see how an oil + milk cake would fare against traditional butter + sour cream cakes. This called for the melted butter method to make the crumb–simple and easy!

Unfortunately, this cake fared about as well as you could expect against full-fat butter + sour cream cakes. It was by far the thinnest cake (which still yielded a ~1:1 cake to crumb ratio!) that was a bit drier and bland. While I liked the soft yet slightly crisp consistency of the topping, I also found it a bit bland and pastry–I wanted more sweetness or salt.

The only way this cake really stood out was in its modest size (perfect if you don’t want an overwhelmingly tall/huge volume of crumb cake). However, it was fairly forgettable overall.

Taster comments:

• I like how moist, but not the most flavorful sample. Loved the crumb/cake ratio here.
• The sample was a bit short (literally), but it reminded me of an Entenmann’s crumb cake (in a good way) and I appreciated how distinctly crumbly the crumb was
• Not overly sweet. Very nice balance of flavors. Cake was a little on the drier side compared to others. Crumble was perfect, not too soft nor hard. Just melt in your mouth
• This one is so much crumb (lack of cake) that the main flavor I get is butter. I do love butter but I’m missing the plushness of a cake.
• This guy was almost all streusel. The cake portion was so thin that I was kind of surprised it was there at all. That may be part of why the cake part felt a bit dry to me. Dry, floury texture to the streusel, my nemesis as far as streusel textures go.
• The cake was bland and kind of dry. I like the texture of the crumb but it was also sort of flavorless.

Sally’s Baking Addiction: a fluffy yellow cake with a thick, sandy, cinnamon-y crumb

Sally’s recipe is essentially a doubled version of Smitten Kitchen but with slightly more flour, an additional egg and added baking soda. It also has less flour and butter in the crumb (leading to a lower overall volume of crumb). With a creamed butter base and sour cream, this cake gets topped with crumbs using the melted butter method.

This cake had the perfect flavor I want from a crumb cake–a good hint of tang to offset the sweetness. The crumb is on the more fluffy, airy side that veered a little dry, which could be baker’s error on my part. I loved how thick, sandy, salty and cinnamon-y the crumb was!

I was surprised that this cake didn’t score higher among the tasters, but I think some found the flavor a bit forgettable. While the more open-crumbed cake texture wasn’t my personal favorite, I think this would be an excellent pick for a classic cake base with a cinnamon-forward topping.

Taster comments:

• I found this cake very moist and loved the buttery flavor! Reminds me of my mom’s coffee cake, good crumb. A close second for me.
• The cake in this sample had a plush, open crumb while the crumb was pretty powdery and light. The topping flaked off easily when the cake was handled. The main flavor of the cake was buttery and pleasant.
• Like the height and caramelized bottom. The crumb has a nice taste/good saltiness, but the cake is bland.
• A drier, slightly looser cake crumb with not much to say for the cake part for flavor, but the streusel has that gritty bite that granulated sugar has, and I always like that more than a floury texture.
• Not enough crumb to cake! But we enjoyed the cornbread-like flavor
• Initially thought this was going to be my favorite but didn’t have anything that made it unique. Top crumble was good but overall a bit bland.

Krolls Korner: a very rich and buttery cake with a solid layer of crumb

Krolls Korner is an absolute beauty of a crumb-heavy cake! This recipe uses all-purpose flour in the crumb, but cake flour in the cake. I’m always a fan of using a mixture of butter and oil in cake, so I was excited for this cake. The addition of both sour cream and milk into the creamed butter base also seemed very promising. With a whopping pound of butter in a single batch of this cake, it promised to be extremely rich!

Unfortunately, some baker’s error occurred with this cake. When I doubled this cake and baked it in a 9×13, it overflowed a bit and also ended up more baked around the edges with a slightly sunken middle. But I persisted since the essence of the cake remained intact!

Although this cake looks quite spiced compared to the others, I found the primary flavor to be butter (and sugar, of course). The cake texture felt a bit heavy (could be due to baker’s error) and reminded me more of an oil-based cake rather than a creamed butter base. I loved the salt-forward crumb. But the crumb layer was so thick, it felt less like crumbs and more like a wall of grainy sugariness in places (though I loved the gooey texture in spots where the crumb met the cake).

I’d be curious to try making this one again. While I’m not sure the daunting amount of butter is justified, it is undoubtedly a rich cake for crumb lovers!

Taster comments:

• This sample was a clear winner for us. The dark appearance of the cake paired with the more unorthodox crumb was slightly shocking at first, but the cake texture was moist and buttery, and the crumb topping was cinnamon-forward. The salt balance was spot on, and the cake to crumb ratio was pretty much 1:1. Where the cake met the topping, it was lusciously gooey. This piece of cake felt luxurious.
• Very rich and moist, flavor is a bit flat but overall enjoyable to eat
• A bit of a grainy texture. Very oat-forward. Not what I typically associate with coffee cake, but would eat!
• Really good!! I love how it’s kind of gooey where the crumb and cake meet. Flavor is strong but not too much. Great crumble texture.
• I really like the moistness of the cake; the topping is hard and thick which isn’t something I like, but I think the flavor of this is the best of all the crumb cakes; it doesn’t feel like a traditional crumb cake because the middle feels fudgey and thick?
• Way too dense for me. Nice spice in the bite though. I dont think it baked through well. Or the batter may have been too thick
• Aesthetically this one could use some work. Nice to have a little contrast! Very grainy
• It looks very strange, almost like the crumb has sunken into the cake. It’s brown in color and very cinnamon forward. I find the cake texture to be a bit stodgy.

The Baking Wizard: a rich but slightly bland cake base topped with sandy, salty brown sugar crumbs

This recipe came recommended on Instagram and I was intrigued by the fact that the cake uses NO sour cream (just milk). It also calls for 2 extra egg yolks for tenderness. Meanwhile, the crumb topping uses exclusively dark brown sugar and the melted butter technique.

The resulting cake was quite squat compared to others, but with a respectable 1:1 ratio of crumb to cake. Overall, I was a bit disappointed in the cake. It lacked the tang that I expect from a crumb/coffee cake. It was ultimately a strange mix of rich but a bit bland. The texture of the cake felt somewhat similar to Krolls Korner–a bit more open, coarse and heavy compared to others.

I enjoyed the crumb topping in contrast to the cake. It was a bit sandier than others with lots of loose flour rubble in the crumb mixture, but this could be due to my mixing technique. Most of the flavor in this cake (salt, brown sugar) came from the crumb on top. I enjoyed the crumb and cake together, but would prefer a lighter, more flavorful cake base.

Taster comments:

• Oh this one is very good! An inside-out crumb-cake almost. I love the subtle crunch here and the sponginess of the cake. Very yummy!
• This cake on this sample was yellow, sticky, and moist. It had a nice balance of buttery and cinnamon-y flavors. It’s a solid piece of cake — if not for [Krolls Korner], it would have been my winner!
• This is more of a cornbread flavor. I like the texture and flavor overall. The crumble is in the middle (or bottom?) so the taste and texture of the crumble kind of gets lost. But i really liked this one because its so unique (and i always love cornbread)
• The cake has a really pleasant well-rounded flavor. The texture is almost like a financier? I like the flavor of the crumb too, nice and salty/buttery.
• It doesn’t have much of a crumb topping but it has a decent flavor and texture
• This one looks like the crumb has sunken to the middle of the cake to be a streusel layer and the cake batter is at the top. It’s very brown sugar forward and almost tastes more like a blondie than a cake. I like how this one tastes, it just doesn’t seem like a crumb cake to me.
• This one was nontraditional which didn’t deliver on the vibe & flavor of a classic crumb cake. Flavor was ok, but it’s in my bottom 2.

Big Oven: a lighter, open-crumbed, warmly-spiced cake with a tender streusel

This recipe was also recommended via Instagram and caught my eye for its unusual method. It calls for cutting butter into flour and salt before adding sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon. This mixture gets divided into crumbs (which gets additional melted butter stirred in) and cake (which gets spices, buttermilk and eggs).

While this seems like this could have time-saving potential, I actually found it to be more labor intensive. Cutting cold butter into flour without a pastry blender took me quite a bit of time.

Despite the unusual technique, this cake was quite fluffy and moist! The more open crumb reminded me of a standard muffin or airy quickbread texture. This was actually one of my favorite cake textures–it felt far lighter than most other crumb cakes. But the addition of ginger/nutmeg/cloves in the batter felt a bit too holiday-like for a spring bake. I also liked the way the soft crumbs on top kind of melted into the cake. The streusel felt a bit pasty, but in a good way.

Overall, solid–just a bit too spiced for an evergreen cake. If you want a more classic flavor, I might try using the same volume of cinnamon in place of the other spices in the cake.

Taster comments:

• Favorite overall. I really liked the cinnamon, good level of sweetness and it had a great crumb to cake ratio. The gingerbread/molasses flavor feels unique and exciting.
• Would prefer more crumb on top and height. Texture is nice; really like that the cake is also spiced–tastes like carrot cake!
• Tastes like fall! Spice cake flavor, almost pumpkin esque. Loved the bouncy plush texture. I personally like the flavor but it doesn’t taste like crumb cake to me – hence its low rating.
• This cake was very moist, more cinnamon forward than what I prefer. Almost gave me hints of apple in it. I loved the crumble component as it was very buttery. The topping is softer than I’d like but I do prefer a crumb topping on the crunchier side.
• We liked the ginger flavor, but there wasn’t much textural difference between the crumb and the cake. A little dry.

Jessie Sheehan: an outrageously crumb-heavy cake with an spongy cake base and sandy, salty crumb topping

I was intrigued by Jessie’s oil-based recipe with cake flour and sour cream. In a twist from most recipes, I found the cake easier to make than the crumb. The cake is a simple one-bowl mixing affair–easy to throw together in seconds! The crumb, on the other hand, requires rubbing 3/4 cups of cold butter into a mixture of cake flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. This task took me probably 4x as long as it did to make the cake and left me with very exfoliated fingertips.

But the prize at the end! I couldn’t believe how thick the crumb layer was when I lifted slices out of the pan. This nearly had a 2:1 crumb to cake ratio, making for quite top-heavy slices. Tasters were split–some loved the crumb, some loved the cake. Similar to Krolls Kitchen, a layer of goo emerged where the crumb met the cake–this softened, salty middle was my favorite part!

I actually preferred the cake over the crumb. Despite the spongy appearance, I loved the squishy texture and tangy flavor that almost reminded me of boxed cake in a good way. For me, the crumbs were almost too much of a good thing. It was hard to eat a proportional bite and the crumb felt a little too crumbly/pasty and a tiny bit too salty. To streamline this cake, I’d try the dough or melted butter crumb method next time. A great pick for crumb lovers!

Taster comments:

• Delicious – cake part tastes like boxed yellow cake in a good way! Nice and moist with buttery crumb topping, almost getting hints of maple. I think this is my favorite!
• The crumb is way better than the cake, love the brown sugar, salt level and dense moist crumb. Cake is a bit doughy
• Love this crumb ratio. Has more of a poundcake texture. Want a bit more flavor in the cake. Crumb has a slight tang to it.
• I’d give the cake almost a 10/10–moist, larger cake crumb, a great “yellow cake” butteriness, and my favorite kind of toasted Maillard-reaction note from the golden crust. The streusel is like a 6–a bit too sweet and salty at the same time.
• Love the height on this one. The layer of crumble may be too thick. I really taste the butter on this one. While I like it, it could be bordering on too buttery. I like the depth of flavour in the crumb.
• Tastes sour for some reason? Also too much crumble – need more cake in the ratio. Crumble also feels like sand, quite salty.

Butternut Bakery: a plush and sweet yellow cake capped with a perfectly crumbly crumb

Just like in the chocolate chip muffin bake off, Butternut Bakery again uses European-style butter (Kerrygold) in her crumb cake for the best results. I was intrigued both by this premise and the fact that the cake itself calls for a lesser amount of butter–just 1/4 cup along with a cup of sour cream. Meanwhile, the melted butter crumb differed from others in that it uses a mix of all-purpose flour and cornstarch (along with brown and white sugar and a generous 3/4 cup of butter).

I doubled this recipe to bake in a 9×13, which shouldn’t have affected the height. But I did end up a with a really tall cake (which makes the crumb ratio look a bit different from BB’s photos). However, I wasn’t complaining! The cake texture is the dictionary definition of plush–so soft and buttery! If I was served this at a coffee shop, I’d be very happy. My only quibble is that the cake felt a tiny bit bland. It was missing that inimitable yellow cake flavor–not sure if it’s tang or salt or something else.

But the streusel nailed a crisp, not-too-pasty texture with a variety of medium-sized crumbs and smaller rubble. Flavor-wise, there were great notes of salt and cinnamon. Overall, a very solid cake that’s popular for a reason!

Taster comments:

• The texture of this sample was very plush — it gave loaf cake vibes. I wondered if maybe the base was an olive oil cake? It wasn’t the most flavorful, but it was pleasant.
• Love the texture of both the crumb (nice and crunchy) and the cake (moist and springy). I was expecting more spice given that the cake visually looks like it has spices in it, but the flavor of the cake is great, it’s just not spicy. To me it tastes specifically like a Magnolia cupcake.
• Really like the texture of the cake; the flavor is not blowing me away though. The crumb is lovely: crunchy and buttery.
• Crumb is buttery but too dry, wish it was darker brown sugar, reminds me of shortbread. Not very sweet and lots of kind of plain cake vs crumb
• The cake feels a bit too dense (like how I feel about a lot of pound cakes). On initial bite, the streusel was crunchy, which I was excited about as I like crunchy streusel, but it didn’t stick the landing.

Smitten Kitchen: an airy, close-crumbed yellow cake with a thick layer of crumbs

I highly enjoyed Deb’s apple crumb cake, so I was very excited to try her highly-requested crumb cake recipe. The method is similar to America’s Test Kitchen: the butter-based cake base uses the creaming method and is enriched with sour cream. Melted butter goes into the crumb topping, which uses the dough method to get mixed into a uniform mixture that later gets crumbled over the cake.

I wish I’d picked a better representative photo–the crumb to cake ratio was closer to 1:1 than the above photos would indicate! Overall, this was one of my favorite crumb cakes. The cake was close-crumbed with an almost shaggy texture that melts in your mouth. In contrast, the crumb is appropriately sandy but also laden with bigger chunks that remain moist and tender. I loved both the flavor and texture of the cake, and the crumbs were just the cherry on top!

This is definitely a more modestly-sized cake than some of the others, similar to ATK. Given the simple ingredient list and method, this feels like a great pick for a more “everyday” crumb cake that is near perfection.

Taster comments:

• This is the ideal crumb cake for me all around, both flavor, texture, and appearance. It has a golden cake and a clear distinction between the cake and crumb. It’s a little salty, which I like. The cake has a tight, moist crumb.
• A well executed crumb cake! Enjoyed the vanilla flavor and thought there was a good crumb to cake ratio. If the crumb were a tad bit crumblier and the cake were a tad more moist, this would be a perfect crumb cake
• Very buttery and a good crumble on top. But don’t like that the cake part is so thin and almost can’t taste it. But i love how buttery and smooth it tastes
• Very plush cake. Can taste the salt. Very moist. Crumble could use more flavor.
• Cake to crumble ratio is good. Similar to [America’s Test Kitchen] but just not as good. visually, it looks great. While it had a similar (but not as good) melt in your mouth feel, the flavor of the cake bordered on too buttery.

America’s Test Kitchen: the quintessential crumb cake with a velvety yellow cake base and a perfect crumb topping

This is reportedly a tweaked version of ATK’s favorite yellow cake batter. The butter-based cake uses cake flour, buttermilk and an extra egg yolk for tenderness. Meanwhile, the crumb uses a mix of white and dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and more cake flour. ATK’s method is exactly what I’d want and expect from a crumb cake: the cake uses the reverse creaming method for a dreamily silky batter that bakes into a fine, velvety crumb. Like Smitten Kitchen, this also uses the dough method for the crumb topping.

To me, this is the quintessential crumb cake. I cannot sing enough praises about the cake base–it is my DREAM texture! It’s extremely close-crumbed and so tender, light and velvety. The flavor is lightly perfumed with vanilla and has a subtle tang to keep it from being boring.

It had a decently thick layer of moist crumbs with a good variety of crumb size. As promised, the larger crumbs retained a crisp exterior and moist interior (vs. a consistently sandy texture). While I love the look of the outrageously tall crumb cakes, there’s something charming about a crumb cake that’s a practical, highly eatable size. All around delicious and a solid winner!

If you don’t have an ATK subscription, you can also find the recipe on Shauna Sever’s site.

Taster comments:

• Perfect ratio of cake-to-crumble. There is a melt-in-the mouth feel to the cake. I would say that the crumble maybe lacks A TAD of spice but solid overall. We wiped it clean off after tasting a small bite of every other sample.
• It tastes like a store-bought, but in the best way! Wish there was more contrast between the cake and the crumble top
• I love the crumb on this one. It tastes very nostalgic and reminds me of Entemann’s in a good way. The cake is nice too and it has a strong vanilla flavor.
• Very even texture. I love the aftertaste here. Very buttery and sweet, pound cake like texture to the cake.
• Very soft and plush. Lacking flavor. Could use more vanilla. Almost like a pound cake? Tight structure and crumb. Solid crumbl on top with good balance of flavors
• The flavor score here is split: I didn’t love the cake as much, but the flavor of the crumb was lovely—moist in a good way. The crumb (of the cake) was very tight and solid—a little dry? Had some Entemenn’s energy there

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