Italian Cream Crumb Cake (sbriciolata alla crema)

Irresistible Italian Cream Crumb Cake. Two layers of buttery cake crumble with a velvety pastry cream filling! Try this cake with Chocolate Pastry Cream or Pistachio Cream fillings.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This easy Italian Cream Crumbs Cake makes the perfect dessert or snack cake. It has a buttery cookie crumbly base filled with a creamy pastry cream filling, then topped with more crumb topping and baked to perfection! Try the pistachio version.

It is a simple dessert everyone will enjoy. Traditionally served for Easter, you will crave this Italian cake all year. This dessert is beautiful, light, creamy, flavorful, and highly addictive!! Try the same recipe with jam filling.

Simple Ingredients

For the Cake

• All-purpose Flour
• Granulated sugar 
• Butter
• Egg
• Baking powder 
• Optional: Sliced almonds for topping
• Powdered sugar for decoration 

For the Italian Cream (Crema Pasticcera) 

• Egg yolks
• Granulated sugar
• Cornstarch 
• Whole milk
• Vanilla bean (scrape the inside of a vanilla bean pod)
• Zest of half lemon

How to Make Italian Cream Crumb Cake

Photos 1-4. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the sugar. Stir to combine.

Photos 5-8. Add in the beaten egg and begin to combine with hands until roughly incorporated.

Add cold butter and start working together, with hands, to form crumble like texture.

Once the cake crumble is an even mixture of pea sized crumbles place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make Italian cream. 

Photos 9-13. Place a part of the crumbly mixture into the cake pan, lightly pat down.

Spread the prepared cream* filling on top and top with the remaining crumb mixture. Optional: top with sliced almonds.

Bake cake for approximately 30-40 minutes or until lightly golden on top. Let cool before serving.

Note: this photos shows the crumb cake with the Best Italian Pistachio Cream filling.

I like to use a springform pan for cakes like these. If you don’t have one, you can line a cake pan or a deep-dish pie dish with parchment paper and use that.

What is Italian Pastry Cream (crema pasticcera)?

Crema pasticcera, pastry cream, is essential in many Italian pastries and cakes. It’s the creamy, custardy filling in tarts, layer cakes, or pastries such as puff pastries; it’s also the cream filling you find in morning pastries such as these Cinnamon Sugar Baked Donuts Cream Filling!

Pro Tips for Pastry Cream:

• Room temperature eggs
• High-quality eggs and only use the egg yolk
• Whip egg yolks and sugar until thick and creamy using an electric mixer
• WHOLE MILK
• Corn starch instead of flour (makes it even lighter!)
• Stir the cream constantly while it is cooking
• Follow the recipe instructions exactly and you will achieve a great cream!

When making Italian cream in a saucepan, I recommend using a FLAT whisky.

Use a flat whisk for whisking sauces, like roux or gravy. It’s also good for custards and dishes that require frequent stirring.

The result must be a smooth, shiny cream with a balanced firmness, and the flavor must not recall the cooked egg.

Variations

• Add a thick layer of hazelnut chocolate cream (Nutella) as the middle layer to this cake!

You will also love these easy and simple Italian cakes Chocolate Torte, Simple Italian Apple Cake (one bowl), Italian Crostata Recipe (Jam filled Tart).

More Italian Dessert Recipes

Flan recipe

Orange olive oil cake

Traditional Italian Tiramisù Recipe

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Italian Pear Cake

Almond Cake

Butter Cake

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5 from 9 votes

Italian Cream Crumb Cake (sbriciolata)

By: Elena Davis

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Prep: 30 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

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Italian crumb cake filled with Italian cream filling topped with a layer of cake crumbs creates the perfect elegant dessert for any occasion! A simple dessert everyone will enjoy. Traditionally served for Easter, you will crave this Italian cake all year long.  

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

Cake

• ▢ 2 cups All purpose Flour
• ▢ ½ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons butter, very cold and cut into cubes
• ▢ 1 egg, beaten
• ▢ 3 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ½ cup sliced almonds, optional for topping
• ▢ powdered sugar , for decoration

Italian Cream (Crema Pasticcera) 

• ▢ 4 medium egg yolks
• ▢ 80 g granulated sugar, ⅔ cup
• ▢ 40 g cornstarch, ⅓ cup
• ▢ ½ liter whole milk, 2 cups
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla bean, scrape the inside of a vanilla bean pod
• ▢ zest of half lemon

Instructions 

Cake

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a round spring form pan (22 cm) or deep dish pie pan with parchment paper. Press parchment to fit sides of the dish (the cake will weigh it down when you put it in the dish). 
• In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the sugar. Stir to combine.
• Add in the beaten egg and begin to combine with hands until roughly incorporated.
• Add cold butter and start working together, with hands, to form crumble like texture. Once the cake crumble is an even mixture of pea sized crumbles place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make Italian Cream. 

Italian Cream (Crema Pasticcera) 

• In a medium mixing bowl whip the egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer until light and foamy, about 5 minutes. Add the corn starch and mix again for 1-2  minutes until smooth and combined. 
• In a sauce pan heat the milk on low heat. Add lemon zest and vanilla bean. Stir to combine. Now, turn heat to medium and heat milk until a soft boil (little bubbles on the sides and steam starts to form).
• When the milk is hot, remove from heat. Using a whisk- start adding the beaten egg, sugar, and cornstarch mixture, a little at a time into the milk. It’s very important to stir constantly until you achieve a unified mixture. 
• Put the saucepan back on low heat and continue whisking. Simmer for about 3-4 minutes until the cream begins to thicken. It’s very important that the cream NEVER BOILS. In this way you have a smooth cream without lumps and without chunks of cooked egg.
• If you have a cooking thermometer you can check that the temperature never exceeds 85°C (185 F). Otherwise, as soon as you see that bubbles begin to form in the cream, lower the heat. You can even remove it from the heat for a few seconds and put it back. This step is the only difficult step in the Pastry Cream recipe.
• When the cream is well thickened, immediately pour it into a cold glass container.

  It's important to remove the cream immediately from hot saucepan to prevent it from cooking longer.
• While cooling, cover the cream with plastic wrap. Keep it in contact with the cream. This step is to avoid forming a skin on the cream surface.

Assemble cake and cream:

• Take cake crumble out of the refrigerator. Layer half of the mixture in the prepared cake pan. gently press to form an even layer on the bottom and about 1/2" inch on the sides of the pan.
• Add the prepared Italian cream on top of the crumb layer and spread evenly to make a uniform layer.
• Add the rest of the cake crumb on top of the cream layer. Gently form a uniform layer with hands. Do not press down. Optional: sprinkle with almonds. 
• Bake 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes. Let cake cool before cutting and serving. Before serving dust with powdered sugar, Store leftovers in refrigerator. 

Notes

• Room temperature eggs
• High-quality eggs and only use the egg yolk
• Whip egg yolks and sugar until thick and creamy using an electric mixer
• WHOLE MILK
• Corn starch instead of flour (makes it even lighter!)
• Stir the cream constantly while it is cooking
• Follow the recipe instructions exactly and you will achieve a great cream!

Nutrition

Calories: 535kcalCarbohydrates: 75gProtein: 12gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0.4gCholesterol: 196mgSodium: 348mgPotassium: 257mgFiber: 2gSugar: 35gVitamin A: 684IUCalcium: 273mgIron: 3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Italian

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