double pecan apple crumble cake

double pecan apple crumble cake

• 24 Aug 2025

If you go back through the archives, you'll see I've made this cake before, way back in 2009. I didn't type up the recipes back then. As well as a full time job, my weekends were spent photographing weddings and there just weren't enough hours in the day. 

I copied the original recipe from a magazine so when one of my readers asked for the recipe, I searched through 2 dusty boxes of recipes. Some of the recipes I'd pulled from magazines whilst others were handwritten on scraps of paper, the things we did pre-mobile phones. Despite my best efforts, the recipe which should have been in one of the boxes, was nowhere to be found.

This was how I described the cake in 2009. 'The Pecan Apple Crumble Cake is a simple butter cake with grated apple folded through it with a surprise crumble layer in the middle consisting of brown sugar, chopped pecans and cinnamon'. From that description alone, I figured I could recreate a version of the cake. The base I adapted from here whilst the pecan crumble topping I winged.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17-cm cake. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Double pecan and apple crumble cake - makes a 17-cm cake

Pecan crumble
100g brown sugar
75g chopped toasted pecans
1 tbs plain flour
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
30g unsalted butter, melted
  
Cake
1 Granny Smith apple, (mine was 200g) peeled, cored and coarsely grated
1 lemon zested
110g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar 
2 eggs
75g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
50g almond meal

Pecan crumble
In a bowl, combine the brown sugar, chopped nuts, flour and cinnamon. Using a fork, stir in butter until crumbly; set aside.

Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Grease and line a 17cm round tin with baking paper. 

Beat the butter, sugar and rind together until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat together. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and then add the almond meal. Stir to combine. Add to the mixture in two or three lots alternating with the grated apple.

Spoon half the cake mixture into the prepared pan; level and then spoon over half the pecan crumble. Top with the remaining cake batter before smoothing the surface. Scatter the remaining pecan crumble on top of the cake and bake on the centre rack for 50-60 minutes at 180°C, conventional or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out moist but relatively clean. If the crumble browns too quickly, then cover with a piece of foil halfway through whilst it finishes cooking through.

Cool in the pan for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I'm really glad I made this cake because it's absolutely delicious and after tasting the cake, my neighbours sent wildly enthusiastic messages. The cake is definitely a pecan cake though; the apple makes the cake nice and tender but it's not a major player flavour wise. The pecan crumble however is fire and if the cake is stored in an airtight container the topping will stay crunchy for 2 days, thereafter it will soften.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian