Looking for an amazing breakfast recipe for a special occasion? A cinnamon coffee cake is just what you are looking for! This is the best coffee cake recipe ever because of the sour cream used in the batter, making it super moist. Plus that swirl of cinnamon sugar streusel in the middle is pure heaven. Grab your Bundt pan and let’s get baking!
Best Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Streusel Crumb Topping
Well, it is day 5 of summer vacation. 95 days left. How am I going to keep these kids entertained for 95 more days????
We started off summer with a bang and went camping over the weekend and had a wonderful time together. It was our first official camping experience in a camper instead of a tent and boy, oh boy was it sooooo much nicer! The weather was absolutely perfect and we ate a ton of yummy camping treats. I even tried a couple of new campfire recipes that were a huge hit. I’ll post those recipes soon!
Since we have been home, my kids have been lounging around looking completely bored but I’m predicting they will get in the swing of this soon. I’m hoping if I bribe them with a delicious breakfast like this Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake every morning, they will keep their “Mom, I’m bored” to themselves. Think it will work???
Cinnamon Coffee Cake Ingredients & Tools
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Sour cream
- Cake flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Kosher salt
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Pecans, optional
- Powdered sugar
- Milk
- Stand or hand mixer
- Angel food cake or bundt cake pan
How to Make Cinnamon Coffee Cake?
Time needed: 1 hour
Most of the time for this recipe is spent in the oven so if you have 15 minutes of active prep time available, you can make this amazing cinnamon streusel coffee cake recipe!
- Prepare the coffee cake batter
Since this cake is layered with the cinnamon streusel, you have to prepare the cake and the streusel layers separately. The cake batter comes together in just a few minutes in your stand mixer and is ready to go for assembly.
- Create the cinnamon streusel mixture
There are not any special tools needed for this! Just mix the streusel ingredients together until they create a nice crumb topping.
- Grease the bundt pan or angel food cake pan
Either pan type will work well so choose the one you have on hand already. No need to purchase a new cake pan for this recipe. A simple spray of nonstick cooking spray will do the trick, but you can also add a sprinkle of flour as well if you are worried about it sticking.
- Create the layers of the coffee cake.
We need that inside layer of cinnamon streusel to shine when you cut the cake into pieces, so let’s create it. Spread half the cake batter into the bottom of the pan, then half the streusel. Top that with the remaining batter, then the rest of the streusel.
- Bake the cinnamon streusel coffee cake
This is the hardest part of the whole recipe! Waiting those 50 minutes for the cake to bake fully (and smelling it bake) is tough. You’ll know the cake is done when a cake tester comes out with just a few crumbs (not batter) on it, or when it bounces back when you touch the top.
- Cool the cake in the pan then add the frosting drizzle
It is important to let the cake cool for 30 minutes in the pan before removing it. The cake is delicate and needs some more time to set up before you remove it to a cake stand or cooling rack.
Recipe FAQs
This a fabulous question because it is the same as determining the difference between muffins and cupcakes. A coffee cake is categorized as a coffee cake mainly based on the time of day you eat it, in the morning with your coffee at breakfast. They come in all different flavors like lemon, banana, sour cream, almond poppyseed so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a classic cinnamon flavor to be considered a coffee cake.
Cinnamon streusel is made of a mixture of salted butter, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, and either brown or powdered sugar. They are simply mixed together until a crumbly mixture forms.
While it isn’t required, using cake flour in this recipe does help create the perfect crumb on the finished coffee cake. If you don’t have any cake flour on hand, don’t worry. Here are two cake flour substitution options for you:
1. Remove 2 tablespoons of flour from every cup of flour and replace them with 2 tablespoons of corn starch. This is the preferred substitution option.
2. Remove 1 tablespoon of flour from every cup of flour and just use the all-purpose flour alone.
Which Type of Pan is Best to Use?
You can make this cinnamon coffee cake recipe with either a Bundt pan, an angel food cake pan, or a 9×13″ pan. I used an angel food cake pan for this recipe but if you want to use a Bundt pan, all you have to do is change how you layer the cake in the pan. Start with the streusel on the bottom of the greased Bundt pan since it will end up at the top, then add the batter, more streusel, and finally the rest of the batter. Everything else is the same.
If you want to use a 9×13″ cake pan instead, layer the cake as instructed and start checking the cake for doneness around 40 minutes into the baking time. It bakes faster because the batter is thinner in a 9×13 pan.
Looking for More Great Coffee Cake Recipes?
If this cinnamon coffee cake recipe made your heart happy, be sure to check out these other delicious recipes. Go grab them now and thank me later!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake
This coffee cake uses sour cream to make a dense breakfast cake, plus a layer of cinnamon streusel runs through the middle of the cake as well as on top.
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: Serves 12 1x
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 C sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 C sour cream
- 2 1/2 C cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Streusel
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 1 C flour
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 6 Tb cold butter, cut into pieces
- 1 C chopped pecans, optional
Glaze
- 1/2 C powdered sugar
- 2 Tb milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10″ tube pan.
- Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until light. Add the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the bowl and mix again. Add vanilla and sour cream. Turn off the mixer and add all the dry ingredients. Turn the mixer on low and stir just until combined.
- For the streusel, place sugar, flour cinnamon, and salt in a bowl and mix. Using your fingers, pinch in the butter until the mixture crumbles. Mix in pecans if using.
- Spray a Bundt pan or angel food cake pan with nonstick spray. Spoon half the batter into the pan and spread it out with a knife. Sprinkle 2/3 of the streusel on top then spoon the rest of the batter in the pan and spread it out. Scatter the remaining streusel on top.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean, or the cake springs back when touched on top.
- Let cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes then carefully remove the cake from the pan and transfer the cake onto a cake plate.
- Whisk together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cake.
Notes
If using a bundt pan, layer the cake this way instead: streusel on the bottom, then cake batter, then streusel, and finishing with cake batter.
If using a 9×13 pan, layer the cake as instructed and start checking for doneness after 40 minutes of baking.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/12th
- Calories: 551
- Sugar: 43g
- Sodium: 261mg
- Fat: 27g
- Saturated Fat: 15g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 70g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 6g
- Cholesterol: 92mg
Keywords: cinnamon streusel coffee cake
Koala Green says
So I made this the other day for my family. We were going to Arizona for the weekend and I wanted something to take for the mornings. It was sooooo good! Thank you for the post. I used a bunt pan so I did not look like yours but It was still yummy!
Jen says
What is up with the ads??? I can’t even read the ingredient list, even when I choose “print recipe” I get an advertisement in between EVERY line!!
Apologies Jen! Yes, that is frustrating. Ads are how you access all of my tested recipes for free, but I agree that you have encountered too many. I will look into it and fix that!