Cake making – Streusel Cake with Fruit Filling – Cooking with Kids

Pennsylvania  Dutch Streusel Cake with a  Fruit Filling

Have you ever made streusel  cake or streuselkuchen?  This is one of  the best.  Like most, this one has a  layer of fruit filling tucked under the streusel top.

Serve  it as a dessert or as a coffee cake.   It’s easy to make with premade pastry  fillings again which I get from Prepared Pantry.  The one in the  picture was made with a cherry filling but you can use any of the following  fillings:

• Cherry
• Apple
• Blueberry
• Lemon
• Raspberry

You  can also mix a fruit filling with a Bavarian cream  filling or a cream cheese filling,  about half of the cream filling and about half of the fruit filling, to make  fillings like cherry cream cheese or raspberry cream. Everything tastes better with music – so be sure to put on some – we like grandma music – which includes Love Song For My Child. By the way – if you click here you can download our coloring books – the first one is FREE!

Premade pastry fillings come in 2-pound tube packages.  Simply cut the corner and squeeze what you  need.  You will use about half of the  filling.  Fold the cut corner over and  put a clip on it.  You can store the  unused portion for six months in the refrigerator.

We  make this cake in a 9-inch springform pan, our Candy  Apple Red Silicone Springform Pan, because it has a double seal that  makes it virtually leak proof and because of the glass base that we can cut and  serve on.  You can use another springform  pan as long as it has a tight seal.

                  Ingredients

• 2  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup butter
•  1/2  teaspoon baking soda
•  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
•   1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
•   1/4 teaspoon salt
•   3/4  cup buttermilk
•   1 large egg, whisked
•   1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
•    2  cups premade pastry filling
•   1/2  cup confectioners’ sugar
•   1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
•   1-2 tablespoons milk

                  Directions

Preheat  the oven to 350 degrees.

1. Mix  the flour and brown sugar together. With a pastry knife, cut in the butter  until the mixture is granular in appearance.   Measure and set aside 3/4 cup of the crumb  mixture.
2. Stir  the baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt into the remaining crumb  mixture. Form a well in the center of this dry mixture. Add the buttermilk to  the egg and add the extract. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well in the  dry mixture. Stir with a fork until combined. Do not over mix. Some lumps will  remain. Set aside about one cup of this batter.
3. Place  the batter (not the cup set aside) in the prepared pan. Spread it evenly across  the bottom and slightly up the sides with a rubber spatula.
4. Spread  the premade pastry filling over the center of the batter. Spoon the set aside  batter on the pastry filling in drops—it will not cover the filling but will  spread while baking. Sprinkle the remaining 3/4 cup crumb mixture over the  batter. (You will have four layers: batter on the bottom, then fruit filling,  then batter, and finally the crumb topping.)
5. Bake  for 45 to 50 minutes or until golden and the cake portion tests done with a  toothpick. Baking times will vary with different pans. Let the cake cool for  ten minutes in the pan on the rack. If you are using a springform pan, loosen  the edges and remove the ring after ten minutes.
6. Mix  the confectioners’ sugar, extract and enough milk to form an icing of drizzling  consistency. Drizzle over the streusel cake.