Buttermilk Crumb Cake with Cream Cheese Drizzle

This was Marie Curie’s 2014 Blooming Great Tea Party Campaign Cake! A great American style coffee cake (a cake to have with coffee!) 

Ingredients

For the cake: 

250g plain flour
230g golden caster sugar
Pinch of salt
150g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2 large eggs
120ml buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
140g light brown sugar 

For the drizzle: 

120g full fat cream cheese
60g sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4-5 teaspoons milk

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C (170°C for fan ovens).

2) Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.

3) In a large bowl carefully combine the flour, golden caster sugar, salt and butter until you have a coarse sandy texture.

4) Take out 150g of this mixture and set it aside (this will be part of the crumb topping).

5) In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs with the buttermilk and vanilla.

6) Add the large bowl of sandy dry ingredients, along with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, to the liquid mixture. Mix thoroughly until you have a smooth cake batter.

7) Spoon the batter into your cake tin and smooth the top down.

8) Add the brown sugar to the reserved bowl of sandy dry ingredients. Carefully mix and don’t worry if there are still lumps – lumps are good for a crumb topping!

9) Sprinkle the crumb topping over the cake batter, making sure the entire surface is covered.

10) Put the tin in the centre of your oven for 45-55 minutes until the top of the cake is springy to touch, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 15 minutes. During this cooling time you can make the drizzle.

11) Using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer, beat together the cream cheese, sifted icing sugar and vanilla until smooth.

12) Gradually pour the milk in until the drizzle drops off the back of a spoon. (You may need more or less milk to get this consistency.)

13) Remove the cake from the cake tin and drizzle the cream cheese glaze over the cake.

This cake can be served warm or at room temperature.