Any-Fruit Crumble Cake

After pie crust, this is probably my most requested recipe  Any-fruit Crumble Cake is the Mitchell family Sunday morning, guests are in town, it's somebody's birthday, let's make an ordinary day special go-to recipe. It's a variation on the Any-Fruit Coffee Cake recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook circa 1995 (the year Bill and I were married.) I've basically doubled the recipe and tripled the fruit. We call it crumble cake because for years every time I offered Bill a slice of coffee cake, he'd make this lame joke, "You mean crumble cake, we don't drink coffee."  Ha Ha! Much to my chagrin the name has stuck.  And now even I call it crumble cake and when guests look confused I explain, "It's a coffee cake."

 I like

this recipe best with plums, it's also excellent with frozen mixed berries, tart cherries and apricots. I've been thinking about trying it with cranberries. Because of the sweetness of the streusel topping I like it best with tart fruit; but it's still pretty good with sweeter fruit such as strawberries, peaches or blueberries.

Anyhow, this morning when Will wanted to bake crumble cake and he was struggling to read my illegible alterations in the cookbook, I  decided it was long time I publish this recipe online.

Any-Fruit Crumble Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Make Fruit filling.

4-5 cups fruit or your choice chopped
1/2 cup water 

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup corn starch

In a sauce pan combine the fruit and water. Put on medium-high heat. In a separate small bowl whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. (This prevents corn starch lumps. If you want to be really fancy you could sift them together. When the fruit starts simmering, stir in the sugar/cornstarch mixture. Stir till combined. Continue cooking until the cornstarch and sugar completely dissolve and the fruit thickens slightly. Usually just a couple minutes. Turn off the  stove.

3. Make the cake.

1 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (8 oz.) butter
2 beaten eggs (let's be honest I almost never beat them and it turns out great.)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a mixer with a paddle attachment combine sugar, flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir till combined. Add a stick of butter. It will mix faster if you coarsely chop it up. When the butter is mixed in so that the biggest chunks are about pea-sized as the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. The dough will be thick somewhere between cake batter and biscuit dough.

Spread at least half maybe a little more of the batter until the bottom of the 9X13 pan is covered. Then pour the fruit mixture onto it.  Drop the remaining batter on the fruit in small mounds.

4. Make the streusel topping

1/4 cup butter room temp
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour

Combine the butter flour and sugar in same mixer with the same paddle that you stirred the cake batter and don't bother cleaning it. The remnants of cake batter only improve the streusel. Sprinkle streusel on top of the cake. And bake 45 minutes to an hour. The time really depends on the juiciness of the fruit.

Let sit for about 15 min before serving.