We’re serving crunch cake in our store this week: blueberry lemon, caramel peach, raspberry chocolate, mixed berry. The crunch comes from a layer of toasted, sliced almonds on top of the cakes. The crunchy topping works for muffins and sheet cakes too—as in the picture to the right.
If you don’t know how to make these crunchy topped cakes, this post is for you.
In this post, you will learn how to make:
- Crunchy almond toppings for you cakes and muffins
- Peach Crunch Cakes
- Gingered Peach Crunch Cake
- Double Decker Peaches and Cream Crunch Cake
The Secret Almond Crunchy Topping
You can add this crunchy top to lots of your favorite cakes and muffins. The topping is not very sweet so we add a dessert sauce, flavored whipped cream, ice cream or a combination.
The crunchy topping is really easy to make—slivered almonds, sugar, and an egg white. It’s much quicker than frosting. Your family and friends will like it better.
1-3/4 cups sliced almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg white together
Mix the sliced almonds, sugar and egg white together. Spoon the topping over the batter in the pan.
It’s that simple.
How to Make Crunch Cakes
We’re making crunch cakes this week with our Baby Cakes mixes. Cream cakes are denser and moister and are not as light and airy as store mixes. With more substance in the mix, it held the fruit up so that it wouldn’t all sink so far. It’s perfect. But we made some with store mixes and they were good also.
Peach Crunch Cakes
For these peach crunch cakes, we used our Baby Cakes mixes and fresh and canned peaches and served them with a caramel sauce and caramel whipped cream. For the caramel sauce, we used our Buttermilk Syrup Pancake and Dessert Sauce mix.
You could also use Lawford’s Private Reserve Vanilla Cream Sauce or make caramel sauce from scratch.
1 Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mix
3 1/2 cups fresh diced peaches
For the topping:
1-3/4 cups sliced almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg white
For the caramel whipped cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp. caramel flavor
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the cake according to directions on the package. Add the diced peaches. Gently fold them, in stirring no more than necessary.
- Scrape the batter into a greased 9 x 13-inch pan or one lined with parchment paper. Smooth the batter so that it is no higher in the center than toward the edges.
- Mix the sliced almonds, sugar and egg white together. Spoon the almond topping over the batter.
- Bake for 28 minutes or until done. Different pans and ovens bake for different times. Always test for doneness with a toothpick.
- For the whipped cream, whip the cream, meringue powder, brown sugar, and caramel flavor until stiff.
Gingered Peach Crunch Cake
This is a yummy version made with a box cake mix from the store. We served it with buttermilk syrup and gingered whipped cream.
1 store-bought spice cake mix
3 1/2 cups fresh diced peaches
For the topping:
1-3/4 cups sliced almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg white
For the gingered whipped cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. brown sugar flavor (if you don’t have brown sugar flavor, use a good vanilla)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Preheat the oven as recommended on the cake package.
- Mix the cake according to directions on the package. Add the diced peaches. Gently fold them, in stirring no more than necessary.
- Scrape the batter into a greased 9 x 13-inch pan or one lined with parchment paper. Smooth batter so that it is no higher in the center than toward the edges.
- Mix the sliced almonds, sugar and egg white together. Spoon the topping over the batter.
- Bake for 28 minutes or until done. Different pans and ovens bake for different times. Always test for doneness with a toothpick.
- For the whipped cream, whip the cream, meringue powder, brown sugar, spices, and flavor until stiff.
Double Decker Peaches and Cream Crunch Cake (layered)
We made a two-layer cake with a boxed cake mix. We put a crunch topping on one of the layers. We put Bavarian cream between the layers with a generous addition of peaches scattered in the Bavarian cream.
1 store-bought cake mix
3 cups fresh diced peaches
For the topping:
1-1/4 cups sliced almonds
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg white
For the filling:
2 cups Bavarian cream
1 cup diced fresh peaches
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Mix the cake according to directions on the package. Add the three cups diced peaches. Gently fold them, in stirring no more than necessary.
- Scrape the batter into two greased 9-inch cake pans. Smooth the batter so that it is no higher in the center than toward the edges.
- Mix the sliced almonds, sugar and egg white together. Spoon the topping over the batter in one of the pans.
- Bake for 28 minutes or until done. Different pans and ovens bake for different times. Always test for doneness with a toothpick. Let the cakes cool on wire racks.
- On the cake that does not have almonds, spread the Bavarian cream. Scatter the one cup of peach dices over the Bavarian cream. Place the second layer on the first. Some of the Bavarian cream will squish out.
Drizzle dessert sauce over the cake if you desire.
