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This Chai Latte Crumb Cake is moist, tender, and wonderfully fall spiced with not only chai spices throughout the cake, crumb topping, and glaze, but the cake itself has a cup of chai latte mixed in. Talk about delicious!
The hills are alive.
With the smell of baked goods.
At least, they would be if we had hills in Florida. So it's more like the Everglades are alive with the smell of baked goods.
Especially coffee cakes. Funny thing about coffee cakes: you don't have to have them with coffee. They certainly aren't made of coffee (most of the time), and they sometimes are called crumb cakes when they have that awesome crumbly topping.
Crumb cake, coffee cake, it's still going to be my breakfast. Bring on the stretchy pants.
With this crumb cake, I wanted to bring fall without bringing pumpkin. There are so many pumpkin recipes right now, I feel like all the other fall flavors have been underrated and pushed to the side. But chai needs a comeback.
While I love drinking chai all year long, iced or warm, chai spice, that warm, spicy aroma of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and allspice just bring me straight to pumpkin carving, apple picking, and cozy evenings with the fire place roaring.
If you love chai lattes, especially if you love them as much as I do, you'll love this chai latte crumb cake. Because there's literally a cup of chai latte in the batter, chai spice in the crumb topping, and chai spice in the glaze.
At first, I was a little worried that it'd be too much chai spice. But I learned that there apparently is no such thing. This cake has the perfect amount of spice and doesn't overwhelm at all. And pouring on that spiced glaze is highly suggested.
This chai latte crumb cake is amazing every time, full of warmth and deliciousness and perfect with your cup of coffee or tea in the morning. The cake itself is soft, tender, moist, and the crumb is just so good, it's almost indescribable. I made so much crumb it's basically like â…” cake to â…“ crumb. No such thing as too much crumb.
I almost wanted a half-half ratio of crumb to cake, because it's just so good and really brings that gently crunchy texture that I really love in coffee cakes.
Somehow this cake is simple, delicious, yet could totally be the star of your next fall and winter brunch.
Looking for more classic fall baking goodness? Check out:
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📖 Recipe
Chai Latte Crumb Cake
This Chai Latte Crumb Cake is moist, tender, and wonderfully fall spiced with not only chai spices throughout the cake, crumb topping, and glaze, but the cake itself has a cup of chai latte mixed in. Talk about delicious!
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- ⅔ cup sugar
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chai spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups flour
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Cake
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon loose chai tea OR 2 bags of your favorite
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 â…” cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 3 teaspoon chai spice
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon chai spice
- 2-3 teaspoon milk
Instructions
Crumb Topping
- In a small bowl, combine flour, sugars, chai spice and salt. Add melted butter and stir until combined. Set aside.
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 pan or two 9 inch cake or pie pans with butter or shorteningand set aside.
- Place 1 cup milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat milk until it just begins to bubble around the edges (scalding the milk), remove from heat and immediately add chai tea. Let steep for 15 minutes.
- While the tea steeps, beat butter and sugar for several minutes using a stand or hand mixer, until smooth, creamy, light colored, and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla extract. Add buttermilk and mix in well.
- Once the tea has steeped for 15 minutes, remove the tea bags/strain the loose leaves from the milk and set aside.
- In a separate medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and chai spice.
- To the bowl of wet ingredients, alternate stirring in the dry ingredients and the chai latte, mixing well after each addition. Once the batter is fully combined pour it into the prepared pan(s). Sprinkle the crumb topping over the batter generously, making sure there are no empty spaces.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick or butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk all the glaze ingredients. Add more milk or powdered sugar, if needed, to get your desired consistency. Allow the cake to cool slightly then drizzle the icing over the cake. Serve warm.
- Keep covered and in the fridge for up to 3 days and rewarm in a low temperature oven.
Notes
Chai spice recipe
3 teaspoon ground ginger. 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon. 1 teaspoon ground cloves. 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg. 1 teaspoon ground cardamom. ¼ teaspoon black pepper (optional)
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 676Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 110mgSodium: 402mgCarbohydrates: 104gFiber: 2gSugar: 59gProtein: 9g
All nutrition facts are estimations. Please see a physician for any health-related inquiries.
Eden Westbrook is the recipe developer, writer, and photographer behind Sweet Tea and Thyme. A classically trained chef, Eden has inspired home cooks into the kitchen with cultural comfort foods, easy family-friendly eats and sweets, and glorious spreads for date night and entertaining since 2015.
Paula says
Hi -this cake sounds great! ... I'm planning to make it later this week, but I'm wondering: are there nuts in the topping? From the photo(s), it looks as though there might be, but I don't see them referenced in the ingredients or instructions, so maybe I'm interpreting the photo incorrectly 🙂
Thanks!
Hi, there are no nuts used in the photos! It’s all crumb topping.
stefanie says
Made this and it is sooo good. My husband is insane about it and has been raving about it for days now. Wow. Thanks.
Nicole says
Hello! Thank out for sharing. Is there a reason why this cake has to stay in the refrigerator after baking? Please share. Also, can you freeze these without the glaze and add glaze after defrosting? Thank you!
Hi there! This cake can be left out of the fridge for a day or two, but for it to keep for up to 5-7 days, keep it in the fridge. Yes, you can freeze the cake and glaze after thawing. Hope that answered your questions!
Sarah Newman says
Holy moly! Love chai flavor and this just looks like the perfect slice of fall!
Caitlyn Erhardt says
Wow, this looks amazing! The flavors sound perfect! I love lattes so this is right up my alley!
Lauren Vavala @ DeliciousLittleBites says
Chai tea is my go-to morning beverage and I just love baking with it too. The flavor in this cake is just delicious!
Danielle says
I love coffee cake and this looks like a tasty twist on it.
Tara says
Oh wow! This crumb cake looks amazing and the flavors sound incredible. I bet it does make the whole house smell wonderful.