Cake Crumb

Cake crumb is a wonderful way to finish off a cake, add colour and most importantly texture. Its also a resourceful way to utilise excess sponge trimmings.

The crumb is simple to make, yet adds another dimension to a cake. The crunchy cake crumb tastes delicious with buttercream. Its also a helpful technique for bakers to conceal where the cake, icing and cake plate meet.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F. 

2. Break the excess cake into similar sized crumbs using your finger tips (I have only used one hand as I was taking photographs with the other).  Rub the cake between your fingers to achieve a similar size crumb.

3. Spread the cake crumb evenly over a tray.

4. Place in a preheated oven for 2 mins. KEEP an eye on the crumb, it will brown very quickly.

5. After 2 minutes shake the crumb as the edges will brown quicker, then return to the oven for 1 more minute.

6. Remove from the oven and pour the crumb into a bowl to stop the crumb cooking further on the hot baking tray.

7. Once the crumb has cooled, you can dress your cake. 

Top Tip; You can use the crumb to decorate a cake or sprinkle over icecream. You could also try adding butter to the crumb to make a cheesecake base. I would make the crumb on the day you wish to serve it, as you may find it will loose its crunch depending on the weather and humidity. If you have excess cake, I would treble wrap, date and freeze it until you are ready to use it. The wrapped sponge should keep up to 3 months in the freezer. Then thaw and follow the method above to make the crumb.

The crumb is very versatile as a decoration and most importantly, it tastes delicious!