Crumbl Cookies review #94 - Lemon Cake

Crumbl Cookies review #94 - Lemon Cake, visited June 27, 2025

I haven't done a Crumbl review in almost 3 months and that's because I haven't gone to Crumbl in nearly that same amount of time. Even when they featured some of my previous favorites, I didn't go. Have I broken the Crumbl spell? 

In any case, I ended my streak by trying out the Lemon Cake on offer this week. Crumbl does a good job with their cakes and I've liked almost all of them.

The Lemon Cake was no exception. Fluffy, cakey cake layers sandwiching lemon curd and frosted with lemon cream cheese frosting. I know a lot of people are tired of Crumbl frosting so many of their products with cream cheese but I don't mind it. They make it sweet enough that I don't get the typical tang from cream cheese which is fine with me.

But what really made this cake for me was the lemon curd between the layers. The cake itself isn't that lemony but the lemon curd was perfect. Not too tart, not too sweet and it added the perfect lemon flavor. I also liked that this didn't taste of artificial lemon like you'd get with lemon extract but it was real lemon flavor.

Thumbs up on this one. Today's the last day it's available so if you've been unsure and like lemon, get off the fence and grab one. This had an upcharge of $1.49 over the price of a single regular cookie so it came to $6.47 (including tax) in my area. It's also supposed to be served chilled but I don't like chilled cakes so I let it come to room temperature before trying it and that was perfect.

Sourdough Discard Texas Sheet Cake from Little Home in the Making

Sourdough Discard Texas Sheet Cake - made June 12, 2025 from Little Home in the Making

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup salted butter

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sourdough discard, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

1 cup pecans, lightly toasted, roughly chopped

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter

6 tablespoons cocoa powder

6 tablespoons buttermilk or whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt, mixing to combine.
3. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium low heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk well to combine. Add boiling water and whisk to combine until mixture is uniform.
4. Pour chocolate mixture over dry ingredients and stir until smooth and well combined.
5. In a small bowl, combine buttermilk with sourdough discard. Whisk in eggs, vanilla extract and baking soda until combined.
6. Pour buttermilk mixture into the chocolate mixture, mixing until smooth and lump-free.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth to an even layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. 
8. While cake is baking, make frosting: melt the butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa powder and stir until smooth and combined. Remove from heat and add buttermilk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Whisk until completely smooth. Fold in pecans.
9. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then pour frosting over warm cake. Serve immediately.

Here's another recipe for Texas sheet cake; the difference with this one is it uses up sourdough discard. At this point, I think I'm only feeding my starter to make these discard recipes rather than using it for sourdough bread. But it's easier to give away these kinds of baked goods than slices or half-loaves of sourdough bread (because I've got to keep half a loaf for me, naturally).

Case in point, I baked this cake and shared it with the people I go to Trivia Night with (we don't win but it's still fun). They liked it as did I. But it's hard not to like a Texas sheet cake. It's easy to throw together and always yields a soft, fluffy cake with the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. If you don't have a sourdough starter or any sourdough discard, you can use any other recipe for Texas sheet cake to get similar results. Because I have to admit, I couldn't taste any tang from the starter and this seemed like any other non-discard Texas sheet cake. Which is fine because that means it was still good.

And I kept my starter alive for another week/month.

Thick and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies from Grandma Recipes Flash

Thick and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies - made dough June 8, 2025 from Grandma Recipes Flash

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup peanut butter cups, roughly chopped, optional

1/4 cup granulated sugar, for rolling

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and beat until well combined.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed until just combined. Add vanilla extract and beat to combine.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in 2 additions on low speed, mixing just until combined. Add peanut butter cups, if using.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball size dough balls and chill for 30 minutes.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll chilled dough balls in granulated sugar and evenly space on baking sheets. Flatten slightly with the pointed side of a meat mallet.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

The original recipe had these as plain peanut butter cookies with no add-ins but I have a Costco-sized bag of Reese's peanut butter cups I got awhile back that I need to chip away at so I chopped up some of those and added them to the cookie dough.

These were billed as being thick and chewy. But they did spread a bit (I baked from frozen dough) and their thickness remained uniform throughout instead of being domed in the middle. The dough was a bit soft even after being chilled so I should've guessed they would spread as much as they did. They also had that light, airy crispness to them rather than being soft and chewy. Interestingly, it's the kind of texture that's achieved in peanut butter cookies that normally have shortening in the dough but this only had butter. So if you like that crisp, light texture without having to use shortening, this is the cookie for you.

Flavor-wise, they were good with classic peanut butter flavor. I probably should've added even more peanut butter cups to add more chocolate but I can see these would also be good plain if you're a peanut butter purist.

Chewy Sourdough White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies from Heart Beet Kitchen

Chewy Sourdough White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies - made dough June 4, 2025, modified from Heart Beet Kitchen

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, browned and cooled

160 grams brown sugar

140 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

80 grams sourdough discard, room temperature

235 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 1/2 ounces white chocolate chips or chunks

3 1/2 ounces macadamia nuts, lightly toasted, roughly chopped

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted

1. Whisk together cooled browned butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined.
2. Add sourdough starter and whisk to combine. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until well combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, mixing to combine.
5. Fold in white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and toasted coconut until evenly disbursed.
6. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on each baking sheet. Bake 12-13 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

I modified the original recipe to add toasted coconut to the cookie dough. You can leave it out and keep this as just a coconut macadamia cookie but if you're a coconut lover, I recommend adding it in. Toast the coconut first to add more texture to the cookie and let it cool before adding to the dough.

Overall, this was a good cookie. The flavors blend well together, the cookie didn't spread much during baking and the texture was just right with crisp edges and chewy middles. As with all the sourdough discard recipes I've tried so far, I'm not sure what the discard actually adds or doesn't add. I couldn't taste it and there was no particular tang in the flavor. Either my starter isn't that "sour" or I haven't been letting the flavor develop in the starter between uses of the discard. But that's fine as the cookies are still good and I didn't waste any starter. Which is the point.

Crumbl Copycat Butter Cake from Cookies and Cups

Crumbl Copycat Butter Cake - made May 19, 2025 from Cookies and Cups 

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar plus more for coating the ramekins

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare 6-ounce ramekins by spraying with nonstick cooking spray, lining the bottoms with a parchment round and coating with large sugar granules.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and 1 cup granulated sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl to keep mixture even textured. 
3. Add the vanilla extract, baking powder and salt; mix for 30 seconds.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. On low speed add the flour and buttermilk in alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour, until just combined and smooth.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared ramekins, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with a few moist crumbs.

It's no secret that I love Crumbl's Butter Cake. And although I haven't gone to Crumbl in weeks (I know, I know, who am I?), I always make it a point to go when the Butter Cake or the Caramel Butter Toffee Cake are on the menu. So I was glad to find this copycat recipe to try out, especially since it's from Cookies and Cups, who reliably has very good recipes.

This one was good too, as a butter cake. I don't know that I quite consider it a copycat though. One of the reasons I like Crumbl's version so much is the denseness of the cake and this one was a bit lighter. That doesn't make it bad, just not quite an exact replica of the original. The other reason I like Crumbl's are the sugar crystals on the outside which give the cake a bit of crunch. I didn't have large sugar crystals but I did have larger-than-granulated-sugar crystals that I coated the ramekins with. In hindsight, I should have been more generous with the coating as the sugar crystals seemed to melt more into the cake rather than stayed intact to provide the crunch. Or else I need larger sugar crystals.

So, ultimately, this was a great, very buttery cake. But I will still be going to Crumbl's for theirs and am still looking for more copycat recipes to try.