Bean

Vanilla Crème Fraîche Cakes with Chex Streusel

by:
October 11, 2017
4
2 Ratings
Vanilla Crème Fraîche Cakes with Chex Streusel
Photo by Posie Harwood
  • Makes 12 small cakes
Author Notes

This streusel (a great use for soon-to-stale cereal) adds an excellent textural element to everything from muffins to cake. It's fantastic as a partner for this tender yet dense vanilla crème fraîche cake. Two tablespoons of vanilla sounds like A LOT and it is, so feel free to use less, but I love the flavor that the hefty and generous dose adds to the cake batter. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • FOR STREUSEL:
  • 1 cup corn Chex cereal
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 tablespoons raw sugar or brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
  • FOR CAKE:
  • 8 ounces crème fraîche
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract) -- this seems like A LOT and you can use less, but trust me!
Directions
  1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for streusel (Chex, butter, sugar, and salt). It's easiest to use your hands here! You want the butter to be thoroughly incorporated, and the cereal should be crushed lightly but not pulverized. I like to leave some larger pieces of cereal both for aesthetics and also texture.
  2. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  3. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan (I used a square one!) and line with papers. Beat the crème fraîche and eggs together until pale and creamy.
  4. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and vanilla bean paste and mix until combined.
  5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cups and top with the streusel. It seems like a lot of streusel but go for it!
  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until streusel is golden. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
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See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Millicent
    Millicent
  • Posie (Harwood) Brien
    Posie (Harwood) Brien
  • Amy
    Amy
  • Prathima
    Prathima

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4 Reviews

Millicent
Millicent February 10, 2019
Love the idea of including cereal in a streusel topping! I made this primarily to use up extra creme fraiche -- which is an explanation for why I made it without having Chex for the streusel. For anyone wondering about substitutions in this recipe, I used one "biscuit" of Shredded Wheat, about .8 oz/23g, instead of the Chez and added some whole wheat flour along with half the butter and sugar. It came to about half the amount of streusel the original recipe would have made, and was still tasty, but more topping would probably have been better! I baked the cake in a 9 inch cake pan (instead of making individual cakes) for 30 minutes at 350F, and that worked well.
 
Amy
Amy November 12, 2017
Seems that the butter for the streussel is far too much!! All my streussel melted into oblivion and sank into the cake. Not crunchy at all, but mushy and ick. Is 4 tablespoons right? Or perhaps there was supposed to be flour in the mix too?
 
Prathima
Prathima October 13, 2017
I think the first line should say "combine all ingredients for STREUSAL"
 
Posie (.
Posie (. October 13, 2017
Updated, thanks :)