Apple Crumb Cake

Sometimes you gotta cheat a little. Thanks to a certain box of yellow butter cake mix, a green apple and my crumb topping.

*Note, the elusive Apple Crumb is at the far right, it never lasts long enough to be photographed!

This is super simple and I've made it twice last week. It is so easy and perfect for bringing just about anywhere.  A  box of cake-mix makes two 9" round Apple Crumb Cakes. (or 12 cupcakes you can frost with that 'emergency' fudge store-bought icing hiding in your pantry and one 9"crumb cake)

You need:
1 Box of yellow or butter flavor cake mix + required ingredients from the box.
1-2 Green Granny Smith Apples

Crumb Topping
1 Stick of unsalted butter cold from the fridge
1/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Sugar (white)
3/4 Cup AP Flour
1 Tsp Pumpkin Spice

Cut the stick of butter in half, then rotate and in half again length wise. Slice off pea sized chunks.  Add to rest of ingredients in a bowl.  Mush up all ingredients with a fork or your hands until all of the dry stuff has stuck to a large clump. Once you have one large chunk of sugary crumb place in a zip lock bag in fridge for later use or leave in bowl. Place in freezer for the length of time it takes to mix up your cake mix and slice an apple.

Prepare Cake mix as directed. Peel and core apple.  Slice apple in half and quarters for wedges and continue to slice as thin as you possibly can. Pour half the batter into a buttered & floured pan.  Fan the apple wedges all around the center and work your way around to create a pinwheel look. Fill in the gaps barely overlapping the apple slices.  Take your crumb out of the freezer and break chunks off over top of the cake batter. Coat with 1/2 the bag for each pan, (crumbs chunks should be about slightly larger than pea sized) or if you're feeling frisky make a double batch of crumb and just use the whole thing.  Cook as directed for the cake mix. It may need a few more minutes than suggested. It's done when a pick comes out clean and the cake is a beautiful golden brown. Your kitchen will smell marvelous.  The cake mix will ooze up and over the apple slices and the crumb topping will meander its way around the top of the cake. Don't worry, it won't look evenly coated when done but some of the batter makes it's way over top of the crumb and creates pockets of heavenly crumb coated apples.  TRY not to eat the whole thing after it comes out of the oven!