The Trader Rater Reviews, Ingredients, Cooking Instructions & Nutritional Information for Trader Joe's Products 
Ingredients
Cake:
Enriched Unbleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, May Contain Malted Barley Flour, Enzymes, Ascorbic Acid), Sugar, Cornstarch, Soybean Oil, Leavening (Calcium Acid Pyrophosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Guar Gum, Spice, Natural Flavor.
Topping:
Sugar, Enriched Unbleached Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, May Contain Malted Barley Flour), Spice, Soybean Oil, Salt.
Contains Wheat and Soy.
Cooking Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter & lightly flour an 8″ or 9″ square or round cake pan.
Cake Batter
Add the following ingredients into a bowl:
-Entire contents of cake mix packet
-2/3 cup milk OR water
-6 Tbsp melted butter OR vegetable oil
-1 egg
Combine all ingredients with a whisk or with an electric mixer until just combined (about 15 seconds in the mixer). Do not over mix.
Crumb Topping
Add the following ingredients into a bowl:
-Entire contents of crumb packet
-3 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into small pieces
With a fork, your fingertips or the whip of an electric mixer, combine until well incorporated and set aside.
You now have two options on how to proceed:
- CRUMB IN THE MIDDLE:
Gently spread half of the batter in prepared pan and distribute half the crumb mixture over the batter. Spoon large dollops of the remaining batter over the crumb and spread lightly. Distribute the remaining crumb over the top. Bake for 40-55 minutes (for a 9″ pan), or 45-60 minutes (for an 8″ pan) or until a toothpick or sharp object in the center comes out mostly clean. - ALL CRUMB ON TOP:
Gently spread the batter in prepared pan and distribute all of the crumb mixture over the batter. Bake as indicated above or until a toothpick or sharp object in the center comes out mostly clean.
Cooking Notes
We opted to cook our crumbcake with the “Crumb in the Middle” method. Seemed like the obvious choice!
That said, it was considerably harder to prepare, as the batter is difficult to evenly divide, and even harder to smooth over the crumb topping in the middle.
We still stand by our decision – the crumb center helped the cake taste moist and flavorful throughout.
We have a soft spot when it comes to Coffee Cake, but it’s been years since we’ve come across a truly delicious specimen. Something about hitting the right balance of texture and moistness seems elusive in the ones we’ve had recently.
Sure, a good solution is to bake our own, but if we’re being honest, baking hasn’t been our strong suit lately. Thankfully we stumbled upon this easy-to-make Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake Mix in our local TJ’s, and we just we had to give it a shot.
The verdict? We’re a bit mixed on this, err, mix.
Even though it wasn’t “the best we’ve tasted” as the box boasts, we were able to bake up a solid Coffee Cake. We liked it, but we didn’t love it – it was comfortably average.
The texture of the cake was good – the crumbly crust played well with the mostly moist center, but we noted that the inside was a bit spongy. As for flavor, the subtleness of the cake’s center was nice, but it was a bit overpowered by the cinnamon sugar topping – which was too sweet in our opinion.
All told, while we enjoyed an afternoon coffee paired with this cinnamon cake, we’re not sure we’re going to rush back to buy it again.
Granted, there’s nothing like the smell of cinnamon and warm sugar lingering in your kitchen to lift your spirits, but we’ll continue to keep our eyes out for a better dessert option.
Review Overview
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Summary : Even though we liked the texture of this Coffee Cake, we didn't love the flavor balance - it was too sweet in our opinion. The result was an "average", but not "amazing" cake.
