A cake made with pantry basics, flavored with seasonal fruit and your favorite spices.
Text and illustration by Carol Egbert
An afternoon snowfall inspired me to make a pot of tea and organize my books. I began by uploading three cookbooks to the virtual bookshelf in my eReader, then, I moved on to the actual bookshelves near the wood stove in the kitchen.
The first book I pulled from the shelf was the 1930 edition of the Chicago Daily News Cook Book that had belonged to my mother-in-law. Tucked inside, I found a grease-stained piece of paper with a hand written recipe for “Crumb Cake with Fruit”. It read “Use fingers to mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter and a pinch salt. Add spice. Save 3/4 cup of crumbs. Put rest into bottom of pan. Put sweetened fruit on top. Sprinkle rest of crumbs around. Bake until golden.” 
I had flour, butter, sugar, salt, spices and a basket of apples in the pantry. The books could wait until the next blizzard, recreating this cake was a more interesting way to spend the afternoon.
Served warm with a bit of ice cream, it’s perfect for dessert. It can also serve as the centerpiece of a Yankee breakfast. Here is how a Yankee is defined – to a foreigner, a Yankee is an American, to an American, a Yankee is a northerner, to a northerner, a Yankee is someone from New England, to a New Englander, a Yankee is someone from Vermont, and to a Vermonter, a Yankee is someone who eats apple pie for breakfast.
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Apple Crumb Cake from the 1930’s
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
A cake made with pantry basics, flavored with seasonal fruit and your favorite spices.
Ingredients
- 180g plain flour
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100g unsalted butter, diced
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 4 baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 50g light brown sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 220º C/Gas Mark 7.
- Use fingers to combine flour, sugar, salt, butter and cardamom until mixture looks like coarse sand.
- Reserve 75g of crumb mixture and press remainder into a 20cm springform cake tin.
- Combine apples with brown sugar and arrange on top of crumb mixture in tin.
- Sprinkle reserved crumbs on apples.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until cake is golden and fruit juice is bubbling.
- Cool on rack for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Vary this recipe with seasonal fruit and choose a spice to complement the fruit – rhubarb and nutmeg, peaches and ginger, blueberries and lemon zest, etc.
- Serve warm with ice cream or a splash of double cream or as the centerpiece of a Yankee breakfast.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: European
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 290
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where did this recipe come from, and why the name “from the 1930s”?
The author discovered a handwritten recipe for “Crumb Cake with Fruit” tucked inside a 1930 edition of the Chicago Daily News Cook Book that had belonged to her mother-in-law. The original instructions read: “Use fingers to mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter and a pinch salt. Add spice. Save 3/4 cup of crumbs…” — this recipe is a faithful modern recreation of that handwritten note.
Why is cardamom the spice here rather than the more common cinnamon or nutmeg?
Cardamom is the spice written into the original 1930s recipe, and its floral, slightly citrusy warmth pairs particularly well with tart baking apples. The notes encourage you to vary the spice to match the fruit — rhubarb with nutmeg, peaches with ginger, blueberries with lemon zest — so cardamom here is the apple pairing from the original source, not a default.
Can I use other fruit instead of apples?
Yes — the notes explicitly invite you to vary the fruit and match a complementary spice: rhubarb with nutmeg, peaches with ginger, or blueberries with lemon zest are all suggested. Use about 4 peeled, cored, and sliced baking-style pieces (enough to fill the 20cm springform pan) and toss with the 50g of light brown sugar as the recipe directs.
I used this as a recipe for my school project in 7th grade : -)
So happy to hear that!
I love that illustration – and the cake doesn’t sound half bad either ;)