NY Style Vegan Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake

Call them coffee cakes or crumb cakes, I just call them delicious! I’m from NY and one of my favorite bakery items were the crumb cakes with a 2/3 crumb to cake ratio. A lot of the bakeries would have more of a Danish pastry style bottom layer, but there were a few that made them with a yellow cake layer at the bottom with chocolate chips and those were my favorites!

This is a pretty easy cake to make and to start you’ll need a yellow cake. You can certainly make one from scratch or use a boxed mix like I did. There are a lot of good basic vegan vanilla cake recipes out there so if you have a favorite and have the time, go for it. I added some vanilla, almond and coconut extracts to my cake batter to make it taste a little more “bakery style”. Duncan Hines cakes always have that slight coconut flavor.

For the chocolate chips you can use any vegan ones you prefer whether they’re darker or sweeter – that’s up to you. I’ve been buying the large bag from Whole Foods Market lately as it’s a better deal than buying two small bags.

After you’ve got the simple recipe for the crumbs mixed it’s smooth sailing to the oven. I would definitely butter and flour your pan of choice before baking as you don’t want anything to stick and that’s standard practice for a cake of any kind.

Ovens vary so make sure to check often for doneness (is that a word?). Standard baking time for a cake like this is usually just under and hour but if your crumbs are browning too much before the cake is done you can use a tin foil tent over the top to help prevent that. I bake in a convection oven and things are always done before the standard oven baking time.

Make sure to cool completely before adding the powdered sugar otherwise it will melt. This cake will freeze really well and you can even freeze individually wrapped slices for a quick breakfast treat on the go. I hope you enjoy this crumb cake it really brings back memories for me!

NY Style Vegan Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake

Recipe by Kreg

5.0 from 1 vote

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

50

minutes

This is a delicious NY style crumb cake with a tender base and a thick layer of crumbs studded with chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• Cake base

• One box of your favorite yellow cake mix prepared according to the box directions or your favorite homemade vegan vanilla cake recipe batter (see notes)

• Crumb topping

• 1 cup packed vegan brown sugar

• 1/2 vegan cane sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 (or pinch) ground nutmeg

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 cup vegan butter, melted and cooled

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/4 cups vegan chocolate chips

Directions

• Preheat your oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 13×9 inch baking dish or pan. Prepare the cake batter according to the package directions or make your own from scratch.
• Mix the sugars, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Add the melted butter and blend well. Add the flour and mix with a fork until large clumps are formed. Don’t over-mix! Add 1 cup of the chocolate chips and mix in.
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chips on top.
• Add the crumb mixture in thick clumps covering all of the batter. Topping will be pretty thick and that’s what you want.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. If the crumbs start to brown too much, cover the top with a tinfoil tent lightly.
• Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.

Notes

• I used a boxed cake mix and Just Egg and aquafaba for the egg replacer.
  
• You can use any chocolate you’d like including chunks.
  
• I used Earth Balance sticks for the butter, but use your favorite. It might work with coconut oil, but I have not tried it.

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