If you’ve never made Coffee Cake before, then boy, are you in for a treat! This breakfast cake is buttery, moist, and topped with a super delicious streusel crumb topping. It’s so good that my family likes to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And as fancy as it may look, it still comes in at under a dollar a slice and is made with simple ingredients. And don’t worry if you’re not a coffee fan; this cake doesn’t contain any coffee. But it’s absolutely perfect to enjoy with coffee! Now, who’s ready for cake for breakfast?
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What Is Coffee Cake?
When I say coffee cake, I’m talking about the classic breakfast cake with two delightfully sweet yellow cake layers, a delicate cinnamon sugar filling, and a crumbly streusel topping. But despite its name, this cake doesn’t actually contain any coffee. It originates from 17th-century Germany and is typically served with coffee, hence the name! I add a little sour cream to my batter for extra moisture and a hint of tanginess, and everything else is made with basic pantry ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, and eggs.
Switch out your regular cinnamon rolls or blueberry muffins for this easy breakfast (or anytime!) treat, and you’ll see why my family can’t get enough of it.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this sour cream coffee cake recipe:
- All Purpose Flour: The base of the cake and streusel topping. Make sure you use all-purpose flour!
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: I use both leavening agents to help the cake rise and create a perfectly soft and fluffy crumb.
- Brown Sugar: Adds sweetness and a subtle caramel flavor to the crumbly streusel topping.
- Granulated Sugar: I went for regular granulated sugar in the cake batter and cinnamon sugar mixture. It adds a neutral sweetness that doesn’t overpower the vanilla or cinnamon flavors. Granulated sugar is also a must for a light and airy cake texture!
- Salted Butter: This is used in both the cake batter and the crumble topping. However, it’s really important to note what temperature your butter should be when making this recipe. The butter in the cake batter should be softened so it creams together with the sugar, but the butter for the topping should be cold.
- Eggs: Use large eggs at room temperature. They act as a binding agent and add moisture to the cake.
- Vanilla Extract: I love the subtle vanilla flavor from the cake paired with the warming cinnamon filling and topping.
- Ground Cinnamon: A must-have in any coffee cake recipe! I sprinkle cinnamon sugar between the layers of batter and add more cinnamon to the crumble topping for an extra cozy touch.
- Sour Cream: The secret ingredient to keep this cake extra moist and tender. It also helps to activate the baking soda, which adds to the cake’s rise. Make sure your sour cream is at room temperature to help it mix with the other ingredients evenly.
- Salt: A pinch of salt in the cake batter balances out the sweetness and enhances all of the other flavors.
Recipe Tips & Suggestions!
- I tested this recipe a few times and found that using cold butter for the crumb topping gave me the best texture. However, your butter for the cake batter must be softened. If you need to soften your butter quickly, you can fill a glass with hot water, dump it out, and pop the glass over the butter for a few minutes until softened—check out my Instagram reel to see this in action!
- I use a food processor to cut the cold butter into the other crumb topping ingredients because that’s what we have in our test kitchen, and it’s easy to use. But you can certainly use a pastry cutter or a fork instead.
- It can be a little tricky when spreading the second half of the cake batter on top of the cinnamon sugar layer. Just take your time and do your best!
- This recipe for coffee cake is delicious as is, but I’d never say no to a drizzle of vanilla glaze on top! Mix powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until the desired consistency is reached, then drizzle over the cooled cake.
- You could also try swapping the cinnamon in the streusel topping for pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice (like the crumble in our apple crumble recipe!)
Can I Freeze Coffee Cake?
Yes, this cake is freezer-friendly! Just let your cake cool completely, then wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and place them in a gallon-size freezer bag. When you’re craving a little something sweet, just take however many slices out you want and let them thaw on the countertop, or microwave for a few seconds until warmed through. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Storing Leftovers
This homemade sour cream coffee cake stores really well and stays moist for days, thanks to the sour cream! I’d place any leftover slices in an airtight container and keep them at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Coffee Cake Recipe
Servings 9 slicesIngredients
Crumb Mixture
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour ($0.20)
- ⅔ cup brown sugar, packed ($0.48)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon ($0.20)
- 7 Tbsp salted butter, cold ($0.98)
Cake Batter
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour ($0.35)
- 1 tsp baking powder ($0.10)
- ½ tsp baking soda ($0.05)
- ¼ tsp salt ($0.02)
- ½ cup salted butter, softened ($1.12)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar ($0.24)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature ($0.49)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract ($0.60)
- 8 oz. sour cream, room temperature ($1.25)
Cinnamon Sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar ($0.08)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon ($0.15)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Start by making the crumb mixture. In a food processor blend together the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon.* Then cut the cold butter into cubes and add it to the processor. Pulse the butter with the rest of the ingredients for just a few seconds until the mixture is crumbly. No need to over-pulse. You'll want some large and small crumbles. Set the crumb mixture to the side.
- Now, for the cake batter, whisk together the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate large bowl blend the softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer until well combined. Add the eggs and vanilla to the bowl and blend together until combined. Now add the sour cream to the bowl and briefly blend with the rest of the ingredients until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the same bowl as the wet ingredients. Blend on low speed until just combined. Do not over-mix at this point. The batter will be thick.
- Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper. Add half of the cake batter to the baking dish and spread it out evenly.
- Next, make the cinnamon sugar mixture. In a small bowl, add the granulated sugar and ground cinnamon and mix them together.
- Sprinkle all of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the first layer of cake batter.
- Now add the rest of the cake batter on top of the cinnamon sugar layer. I like to do this by first adding large dollops of the batter on top. Then, using a rubber spatula, carefully spread the batter evenly around the baking dish, trying not to disturb the cinnamon sugar layer too much. Make sure the batter is spread all the way to the edges of the pan.
- Add the prepared crumb mixture evenly on top of the cake. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for about 15 minutes before lifting the parchment paper out of the baking dish. Cut into your desired amount of servings (I cut mine into 9 large slices). Enjoy!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Food Processor
- 8×8” Baking Dish
Notes
Nutrition
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how to make Coffee Cake – step by step photos
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Start by making the crumb mixture. In a food processor blend together ⅔ cup all-purpose flour, ⅔ cup brown sugar, and 2 tsp cinnamon.*
Then cut 7 Tbsp of cold butter into cubes and add it to the processor. Pulse the butter with the rest of the ingredients for just a few seconds until the mixture is crumbly. No need to over-pulse. You’ll want some large and small crumbles.
Set the crumb mixture to the side.
Now, for the cake batter, whisk together the dry ingredients (1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt) in a large mixing bowl.
In a separate large bowl blend ½ cup softened butter and ¾ cup granulated sugar together with a hand mixer until well combined.
Add 2 large eggs and 2 tsp vanilla to the bowl and blend together until combined.
Now add 8 oz. sour cream to the bowl and briefly blend with the rest of the ingredients until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the same bowl as the wet ingredients. Blend on low speed until just combined. Do not over-mix at this point. The batter will be thick.
Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper. Add half of the cake batter to the baking dish and spread it out evenly.
Next, make the cinnamon sugar mixture. In a small bowl, add ¼ cup granulated sugar and 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon and mix them together.
Sprinkle all of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the first layer of cake batter.
Now add the rest of the cake batter on top of the cinnamon sugar layer. I like to do this by first adding large dollops of the batter on top. Then, using a rubber spatula, carefully spread the batter evenly around the baking dish, trying not to disturb the cinnamon sugar layer too much. Make sure the batter is spread all the way to the edges of the pan.
Add the prepared crumb mixture evenly on top of the cake. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for about 15 minutes before lifting the parchment paper out of the baking dish. Cut into your desired amount of servings (I cut mine into 9 large slices). Enjoy!
This easy, moist cinnamon coffee cake is way better than the ones at the coffee shop. And with a recipe this simple, you don’t even need to leave your house for a delicious breakfast treat!
I am in Thailand. Can I use margarine instead of Butter? It’s about half the price. In addition can I use Greek yoghurt instead of sour cream. Same reason applies.
You should be able to make those swaps okay!
Hi there. I have been using budget bytes recipes for almost 5 years now. Love them. However I am South African and spend a lot of time converting measurements. Would it be possible to add grams for all your ingredients to make it more simple? I spend a lot of time on version pages which adds time. Most other recipe websites have a button to toggle to see ingredients in metric.
Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.
Hi Michelle! Thanks for reaching out! We get feedback about including metric units a lot, but unfortunately haven’t found a good solution for it yet. There are a lot of plugins and apps that already do automatic conversion like you mentioned, but while it sounds great in theory, it rarely works well in practice. There are many issues that prevent it from working properly, one of the main reasons being that often you need to not only convert from imperial to metric, but you also need to convert from volume to weight, which requires knowing the density of that particular ingredient. Other big issues include inconsistent ingredient formatting, the fact that we use both weight and volume ounces, and ingredients that contain both solid and liquid material, but the containers only list the “dry” weight. We’ve explored the issue a lot and just don’t feel comfortable offering metric units unless we can manually remeasure and test each recipe with those units. Right now that’s not feasible, BUT hopefully in the future, that’s a project we can put on the list. :)
I’m not a fabulous baker, but this turned out great. I always liked the Entenmanns Coffee Cake but I can’t find it in East Tennessee. This recipe looked a lot like it, so I decided to try it. I had some trouble managing the parchment and couldn’t get it to quit creasing, and I had a big blop of butter, apparently, right in the middle of the cake which caused it to depress in the middle and seem like it was taking longer to cook. In the end I think I baked it 55 minutes. But in the end it was perfect. I cut it into 12 pieces but now I’m wishing I had not cut it since we plan to finish it over the Christmas holiday. It is really good nuked for a few seconds, too! Better than the Entenmanns!
Hi! Can I substitute the sour cream with Greek yogurt?
We didn’t test it with Greek yogurt, but I think it should work!
I am anything but a seasoned baker and still decided to give this recipe a try. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. The recipe did, unsurprisingly, take me a while longer to prepare due to my very limited skills in the baking department. As Marsha mentioned in her instructions, the hardest moment for me was spreading the second-half of the batter after sprinkling the cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the first-half of the batter. With a little bit of patience, I managed! The coffee cake came out so perfectly, and my family absolutely loved it! Thanks for sharing this recipe, Marsha! Will certainly be making it again in the future since it was such a hit in the household.
Hi Sandy! I’m so glad your family loved the recipe. It was a huge hit in my household too! :)