I have excess peach jam in my refrigerator that I am not willing to waste. No way. Every time I open the refrigerator, the jam and I have a stare-down and the jam is winning. This past weekend it hit me. Jam crumb cake! You can use a full 1/2-3/4 cup of yummy jam in the recipe and I love when a solution is as delicious as this one. This crumb cake is one of my favorite desserts. It has the perfect amount of sweetness, plenty of crumb topping and can even pass for breakfast. You know what else I love about this? You don’t need a mixer and you don’t need to soften butter. Almost instant gratification.

Recipe: Peach Jam Crumb Cake

Recipe adapted from Phe/Mom/enon

I made this before with homemade plum jam and it is wonderful that way, too. Use your favorite jam. Also, be generous with the jam. The cake batter is not very thick and it may seem like you are swirling too many dollops of jam, but the cake will bake up and the  jam will keep the interior nice and moist.

Cake:

1 C. all-purpose flour

1/4 C. granulated sugar

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 3/4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. kosher salt

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted (6 T.)

1/2 C. milk

1 large egg

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1/2-3/4 C. homemade peach jam (or your favorite kind)

Crumb Topping:

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted (6 T.)

1/4 C. granulated sugar

1/4 C. packed brown sugar

3/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. kosher salt

1 C. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with rack in the middle. Generously butter a 9 inch cake pan. I like to use the residual melted butter in the pan.

2. For the cake, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk together butter, milk, vanilla and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into the cake pan and dollop the jam all over the batter and use a spoon to swirl it into the batter.

3. For the topping, whisk together butter, sugars, cinnamon and salt until smooth. Stir in flour and then blend with your fingertips until incorporated. Sprinkle crumbs in large clumps over the top of the cake.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and sides begin to pull away from the pan, about 25 minutes. Check often so your cake doesn’t get to dark at the edges, the crumb will be golden brown. Cool in pan on a rack for 5 minutes.