Pampered Chef Lemon-Apple Crumb Cake

 

  
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sliced almonds
• 1 pkg yellow cake mix, divided
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted and divided
• 1 lemon
• 1 container (8oz) sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 can (12oz) apple pie filling
• Vanilla ice cream (optional)

 Instructions:

1. For crumb topping, coarsely chop almonds using Food Chopper.  Combine almonds, 1 cup of the cake mix and 3 TBSP of the butter in Deep Covered Baker; mix until moistened.  Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 2-4 minutes or until beginning to brown, stirring every minute.  Spread crumb topping on Parchment Paper to allow to cool.  Wipe out any remaining crumbs from baker.

 

Zest lemon using Microplane Adjustable Fine Grater to measure 1 TBSP.  Juice lemon using Juicer to measure 1/4 cup.  Combine remaining cake mix, zest, juice, sour cream, egg and remaining 5 TBSP butter in Classic Batter Bowl; mix until smooth.  Pour cake batter into baker, spreading to edges.  Using Small Scoop, scoop pastry filling evenly over batter.  Microwave, covered on HIGH 8-10 minutes or until center of cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Carefully remove baker from microwave using Silicone Oven Mitts.  Sprinkle crumb topping over cake; let stand, uncovered for 5 minutes.  Serve warm with ice cream, if desired.
 

Notes:

• Instead of spreading crumbs on Parchment paper, next time I will place in a pie dish to allow them to cool.  It made a mess since I was low on parchment paper and did not tear enough.
• Original recipe called for cherries, but mentions use of any pie filling.
• I did not measure either the lemon zest or the lemon juice.  It still came out great!
• I used a small measuring cup to scoop the pastry filling evenly over the batter.

Recipe from Pampered Chef's Season's Best Spring/Summer 2012 book for $1.00!  This one has 7 appetizers, 10 main dishes, and 7 desserts!