Spiced Sweet Potato Crumble Cake

Yesterday we were at one of our favorite breakfast spots and Jake ordered a slice of crumb cake. He's never done that before. We usually gravitate towards the heartier fare - eggs benedict, omelettes, or pancakes. He took one bite and left the rest of it; he complained that it was okay, but nothing spectacular. I told him he was a food snob. And he told me that was my fault. Fine.

The boys happily polished it off for him. But, all three of them levied this challenge: you can make a better crumb cake, can't you? Well, I'll give it a shot.

This morning I had some leftover roasted sweet potatoes. So, I decided to make a spiced sweet potato cake with a crumb topping. I added a layer of spiced apples in the middle...for added autumn flavor.

Oh, and a quick note on the name - crumble versus crumb. That's an homage to Riley-ball. The boy is one of the messiest eaters ever. Dylan calls him "Mr. Crumble-Crumble."

Funny story: when Pia and I went on the Carmel Food Tour (read my Edible Monterey Bay piece about food tours here), we left all the boys with food and their bows and arrows. Brian and Jake fed the boys, but didn't clean up after lunch. Pia was wiping the table and sweeping underneath it and made the (faulty) observation, "this is where Dylan sat, isn't it?" Nope, that was Riley's seat. Hence the nickname. Mr. Crumble-Crumble. Poor Dylan was unjustly accused!

Cake
2 C smashed, roasted sweet potatoes
2-3/4 white whole wheat flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 C organic granulated sugar
1 C lightly packed organic brown sugar
1/2 C organic whole milk yogurt
1/2 C olive oil
4 eggs
1 t pure vanilla extract
2 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cardamom

Filling - blend together in a bowl
1 apple, cored, peeled and thinly sliced
1 T butter
dash of ground cinnamon
1 t brown sugar


Topping - blend together in a bowl to form a "crumb"
2 T butter, softened
2 T olive oil
1/4 C white whole wheat flour
1/4 C lightly packed organic brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the cake ingredients together in a mixing bowl until all the dry ingredients have been moistened. Pour half of the batter into a buttered baking dish. Spread the filling over the batter, then spoon the rest of the batter over the apples. Sprinkle the crumb topping over the whole thing. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately one hour.