My mom, God bless her soul, was known for her epic sweet tooth and her complete lack of skills in the baking department. And no, I’m not telling tales out of school because she was always the first to admit it. It did not, however, stop her from always finding suggestions for what I should bake to satisfy said sweet tooth! Especially if it was any German dessert she spoke so fondly of my grandmother making. So I was thinking of her yesterday when I had a couple apples left over from our weekly Misfits order and I decided to make one of her favorite cakes. Streuselkuchen is the fun German name for crumb cake, but this one takes it up a notch by adding of apples between the cake batter and the streusel topping.

1/2 unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
1/2 cup milk
2 cups of flour

2-3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

Streusel:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter (chilled)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 13×9 pan with cooking spray.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, baking powder, almond extract, lemon peel and milk. Mix well. Add flour into the batter one cup at a time, mixing well after each cup.

Spread batter in greased pan. Add apples over the top of the batter to completely cover.

To make the streusel topping: use a pastry cutter to combine the flour, brown sugar and butter until the mixture looks like course crumbs. Sprinkle (liberally!) over the apples.

Bake for 40 – 45 minutes. Enjoy warm or cooled. Pro tip: a dash of whipped cream is the perfect topping!