Apple Crisp

Tarzan and ATL really want me to write about this apple crisp that I made the other night but I am not sure if I really want to write about what I would consider a failure:

Apple crisp and I are have a complicated relationship. I think I like it, I want to like it, I make it a lot in the winter because it sounds good and it's a tradition from my childhood, I generally do like it...but only when someone else makes it.
So I try different recipes and make many repetitions and am never really satisfied.
I was at an event in the not to distant past where someone else made the apple crisp and it was marvelous. She made it in the slow cooker, the recipe had a different list of ingredients and it was REALLY good, so I thought I would give it a shot. Tarzan gave me a new slow cooker for my birthday and I have been using the heck out of that thing. It looks at food a little differently than the oven but it's been really handy and it is a really nice one.
I've made the apple crisp twice now and it just is not coming out the way it was the first time I had it. The lady gave me her recipe so I assume it's the same list of ingredients but it isn't coming out right, as evidenced above.
It calls for cake mix on top rather than the usual oats/flour/nuts mixture but it's apples, sugar and cinnamon and the topping.
Any thoughts?

This is me and I'm not happy with it.