Recipe: Apple Crumble Cake {Packet Cake Mix Hack}

Summary: A while back I wrote a post about how to hack a packet cake mix and make it taste homemade. It’s been a really popular post and a few people have told me that they are looking for more cake mix hacks, especially for the Coles 75c cake mixes. I have quite a few in mind but thought I’d start with this gorgeous apple cake! A layer of butter cake, topped with loads of apples and finished with a crumble topping that is just divine warm with a scoop of ice cream – a la mode as the Americans say. This makes a generous slab of cake, perfect for sharing, which is lucky because my family loved it! I made this Sunday night and it was completely eaten by Monday night! There is something so comforting about a really good apple cake.

I love that this has easy measuring and nothing needs to be too precise but if you are wondering, 6 apples equates to approx 1kg in whole (apples before peeling and chopping). I used the Coles 75c Butter Cake Mix (yellow cake mix in the US) for this but I think you could use vanilla cake mix in a pinch. When I made up the cake mix part, I swapped the milk for sour cream. Partly because I believe it tastes better (find out why in this post) and partly because I used the last of the milk make some cheese sauce lol! I also doubled the butter because as I’ve said before, Coles cake mixes can be a little dry. I like that this is not overly flavoured with cinnamon, the apples are really the focus but if cinnamon is your thing, you may want to add some to the cake batter too. Everything came together beautifully and I am definitely adding this to my list of easy things to bake for morning teas and parties or just because it’s Sunday and I fancy some low key baking.  

Ingredients

Topping

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 125g chilled salted butter, cut into small cubes

Apple Mixture

• 6 apples, peeled & thinly sliced
• 3 tblsp brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp lemon juice

Cake

• 1 pkt butter cake mix
• PLUS ingredients needed to prepare cake

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 180C. Grease a 9” x 13” or 33cm x 23 cm pan or casserole dish.
2. Add all the ingredients for the topping to a medium bowl. With pastry blender or fork or clean finger, cut/rub in butter until mixture has a crumbly texture. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, gently toss together the apple mixture ingredients and set aside.
4. Make up the cake mix, according to the instructions on the packet and pour into the prepared pan.
5. Spread the apple mixture evenly over cake batter, then sprinkle the topping evenly over the apples.
6. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool for a minimum of 30 minutes before serving. Can be served warm or room temperature.