Lemon Sugar Crumb Cake from The View from Great Island

Lemon Sugar Crumb Cake - made October 29, 2025 from The View from Great Island 

All italicized adjustments are for high altitude only

Zest from 1 lemon

2 cups granulated sugar (reduce by 1 to 3 tablespoons per cup of sugar)

3 cups all-purpose flour (add 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup of flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder (reduce by 1/8-1/4 teaspoon per teaspoon of leavening)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold

2/3 cup milk (add 2-4 tablespoons per cup of extra liquid)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (increase temp by 10-15 degrees in high altitude). Line 9 x 9-inch baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Zest lemon over the granulated sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Stir together and rub zest into sugar until fragrant.
3. Whisk in flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Cut cold butter into tablespoons and cut into dry ingredients until mixture resembles small pebbles and butter is evenly distributed. Measure out 1 cup of mixture, squeeze into large clumps and place in freezer while you prepare the rest of the batter.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add to the remaining mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.
6. Spread batter in an even layer in prepared pan, smooth top then break topping into smaller clumps and sprinkle over top.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  

Since I was getting annoyed with my inconsistent baking results in my new high altitude environment, I finally succumbed and made a few tweaks recommended for high altitude baking. The general adjustments are in parentheses against some of the ingredients in the recipe. YMMV if you want to make similar tweaks, depending on the altitude in your location.

This turned out pretty well in that the cake didn't rise then collapse because of the altitude, hopefully due to my tweaks. The flavor was also good and I liked the texture as it was dense-fluffy-soft. Not quite a pound cake but not quite as fluffy as a cake mix cake. But better tasting.

The only thing I didn't like about this recipe is you're supposed to reserve a cup for the crumb mixture on top. In an ideal baking world, your butter crumbles would be perfectly uniform and evenly dispersed through the mixture so when you reserve a cup, it's exactly the same as the mixture that make up the actual cake.

Yeah, that ideal doesn't live in my kitchen. The cup I reserved was more dry flour than butter. So I ended up cutting a few extra tablespoons of butter into the reserve mixture until I was satisfied it was crumbly enough for a crumble and wasn’t just flour.

I'm glad I made that adjustment as the topping was just right with some large and medium streusel, not merely flour dust. So don't be afraid to do something similar if you don't like how your streusel crumble looks.