Chai Spice Crumb Cake

Are you a tea person or a coffee person? Well regardless, crumb cake goes perfectly with both and this fun spin on your typical coffee cake (which doesn't even have coffee in it???) will have your tastebuds singing and dancing!

Chai has always been a necessity in my family. Every morning? Chai. After my parents come hoe from work? Chai. Friends or family come over? Chai. Growing up though, I wasn't the biggest fan. Depending on how the chai is made, sometimes it can be a littleeee bitter. But my grandparents would always have a plate filled with biscuits and other sweets for me and my brother to enjoy. This cake was inspired as I began to drink chai more recently. The beautiful and nostalgic aromas always bring a smile to my face. Baking this cake filled the whole house with the warmth of chai and the smell of freshly baked cake. This cake is a beautiful blend of cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon. Adding a dash of powdered ginger would also taste amazing as well.

Chai Spice Crumb Cake

Servings: 7-10| Prep time: 20 minutes| Total time: around 2 hours

Ingredients

Cinnamon filling

· 1 tsp cinnamon

· 1/2 cup brown sugar

· 3 tbsp flour

· 5 cardamom pods

· 3 cloves

Crumble topping

· 1 tsp cinnamon

· 1 cup AP flour

· 2 tbsp cornstarch

· 1 stick melted butter

· 1/2 cup brown sugar

Cake

· 1/2 cup canola oil

· 8 oz cream cheese

· 1/2 cup yogurt

· 1 tsp vanilla

· 1/2 tsp cinnamon

· 1 cup brown sugar

· 4 eggs

· 1 tsp salt

· 1 tsp baking soda

· 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

· 1/4 cup cornstarch

· 1 3/4 cup flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Beat/whisk 1 cup brown sugar with cream cheese until smooth, then mix in canola oil and yogurt.

3. Once fully combined, beat/whisk in one egg at a time into batter.

4. Mix in vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and cinnamon

5. Fold in baking soda, cornstarch, salt and flour. Stop mixing once batter is just barely fully combined (few flour clumps here and there are okay, this prevents over mixing and as the batter rests the remaining dough with hydrate).

6. For the crumble topping, in a separate bowl mix cinnamon, cornstarch, flour, brown sugar and butter and toss together until large crumbs form and all the butter is combined with the flour.

7. For the filling, grind up the cardamom pods and cloves then mix with the cinnamon, brown sugar and flour.

8. Put half of the cake batter in the baking pan, sprinkle filling all over batter and then cover with remaining batter. Toss the crumble coating on top of the cake batter.

9. Bake cake for 50-75 minutes, or once golden brown and a toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs once poking it.

10. Let cool for around 10 minutes and ENJOY!