This simple apple and pears crumble is a mouthwatering fall treat that no one can resist! It pairs wonderfully with vanilla ice cream.
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 50 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 (4-layer, 9-inch) cake |
Ingredients
- 3 ¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups white sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk, at room temperature
- 2 drops green gel food coloring
- 2 drops blue gel food coloring
- 2 drops purple gel food coloring
- 2 drops pink gel food coloring (Optional)
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 7 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 drop pink gel food coloring (Optional)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup assorted candies
- 1 cup multicolored candy sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and lightly flour 4 (9-inch) cake pans.
- Whisk flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Beat butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in sugar on high speed, scraping the bowl with a spatula as needed, until fully incorporated, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-high; beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
- Mix flour mixture into creamed mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk, until batter is smooth and slightly thick.
- Divide batter evenly among 4 bowls. Tint each portion of batter with green, blue, purple, or pink food coloring; stir until smooth. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of cakes comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Place the pans onto wire racks to cool completely, about 25 minutes.
- Make frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer fitted with a clean paddle attachment until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla; beat on low speed for 30 to 60 seconds. Increase speed to high and beat frosting until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in salt.
- Cut a 4-inch circle out of the center of 2 cake layers using a round cookie cutter.
- Place one of the intact cake layers on a cake stand or serving plate. Use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread frosting over cake layer. Position one of the cake rings on top. Spread frosting over the top and inside the circle. Repeat with second cake ring. Fill the hole with candies and sprinkles. Place remaining intact cake layer on top. Frost the top and sides of entire cake.
- Tint any remaining frosting with pink food coloring and pipe decoratively over cake.
- Cut cake into slices; spoon any candies that spill out over the slices.
- You can add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another tablespoon of cream if frosting is too thick.
- You can add an extra pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet.
- If you don’t have a large cookie cutter, you can cut a piece of parchment paper into a circle and use a sharp knife to trace and cut the circles out of the cakes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 913 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 127 g |
| Cholesterol | 164 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 25 g |
| Sodium | 327 mg |
| Sugars | 99 g |
| Fat | 43 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
In not a pinata. We Spanish know what that is. The cake has not been touched other than cutting it open. Such a shame.
Pretty good tasting, REALLY pretty presentation!
Looks great but way to much sugar. I made this cake for my cousin’s birthday and it was great! Since we have been in quarantine, we could not spend it together, so I was looking for a cake that looked really bright and colorful. Normally, I don’t like a bucketload of sugar in my cakes but I was focusing on the looks this time. This recipe had 7 cups of sugar in only in the frosting. It was way too much and didn’t taste good in my opinion but the looks were amazing!!!
Fantastic cake. Made it for my 6 year olds birthday and it went down a storm. I did add about three times the amount of food colouring and probably could’ve added more!
So great, but WAY to much sugar for kids !!!
I just made this it’s super good! A lot easier to make than you think. When you divide the batter into 4 parts it’s 2 cups of batter for each layer. Also, make sure you use gel food coloring for the batter. The colors come out much more vibrant with gel food coloring. Side note, if you’re a perfectionist the layers may not cook evenly causing the cake to be slightly lopsided. If you want to avoid that buy a cake shaver thing (it looks like a wire held tightly at both ends that you can pull your cake layer through to shave off any uneveness). Last thing, she says to use buttermilk in this recipe and I accidently bought and used cultured buttermilk- it still came out good, but I still wonder if it would’ve come out better if I had just bought regular buttermilk or maybe even used regular 2% milk?
IT WAS AWESOME, from the original recipe, I added 2 cups sugar. I used food dye and it worked great; I used a several drops of color based on other reviews .
I didn’t have gel food colouring, so had to use water-based colours. I guess that’s why the colours don’t stand out so much. Other than that, the recipe is lovely!
Cake turned out great. Made it for a 4 year old birthday. Was not too sugary in my opinion and actually tasted like pancakes or birthday cake ice cream. I did add more buttermilk and vanilla than suggested. Added more buttermilk because recipe said batter needed to be “slightly thick” and my batter was thick.
This was an absolute hit at my daughters birthday party. I only made 3 layers of cake and change the colors of frosting between the layers to add more color. Was a lot easier to make then I thought it would be.
I think there’s a little too much butter for the cake recipe and too much sugar overall. It’s a fun idea, but before going to the trouble, really think about it. If your pancreas starts to hurt at the thought, don’t do it. It looks great though, and I might use the cake recipe again but without any frosting or candy.
This turned into a great base for colorful cupcakes. I did not make the piñata portion, but after preparing the batter as follows (besides making my own buttermilk with milk and lemon) I separated into 4 bowls and dyed with neon colors. Made probably 30 cupcakes generously, baked for about 20 minutes at 350 and frosted with a cream cheese frosting.