Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping

Name: Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Cake; 1 cup salted butter, room temperature; 2 cups granulated sugar; 2 large eggs; 1 cup sour cream; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt; Streusel; 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 1/2 cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons salted butter, melted; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake is our favorite breakfast treat and is really a simple recipe to mix up and toss in the oven. This is the best coffee cake recipe because it uses sour cream, which makes the finished cake really moist and dense. In our opinion, this cake is definitely worth the extra calories. Make this cake in a 9×13 pan, a loaf pan, or as a bundt.

Why I Love This Recipe

Growing up, my mom always made coffee cakes on special occasions for birthdays and holidays. When I smelled those amazing flavors coming out of her kitchen, I knew breakfast was going to be an exciting one! When I became a mom, I wanted to create the same memories for my own kids. I had enough baking experience to know that I wanted to add some sour cream to my mom’s recipe to make it even more moist and delicious.

So, I took her old-fashioned recipe and turned it into an amazing sour cream coffee cake! This coffee cake is so dense and moist! It never makes it past one breakfast in the Jones home because it is really hard to only eat one piece. By the time we’ve all had our fill, only a few crumbs of the killer streusel topping are left in the bottom of the pan.

This post is another in my Recipe Retake series! Today, I am taking you all the way back to 2008. Out of all the coffee cake recipes I make, and I make a lot of them, this is the one I make the most because it is the easiest to throw together! However, when I look back at my original picture from 2008 below, all I can do is cringe because it is nothing short of miserable! It amazes me that I had any success as a food blogger back in the early days 🙂

Part of me wants to go back and delete the image completely, but I also think it is important for me to remember how far I have come in the years I’ve been blogging!

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Ingredients and Tools

Salted butter
Granulated sugar
Large eggs
Sour cream
Vanilla extract
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Kosher salt
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Stand mixer or large mixing bowl
9×13 baking pan (or bundt or loaf pans)

How to Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake

If you have a few basic baking ingredients, and a few minutes to mix them together, you can make this easy sour cream coffee cake!

Time needed: 50 minutes

How to Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Preheat the oven and prepare your baking pan
A properly preheated oven is essential for the best result on this sour cream coffee cake, as is lightly greasing it with non-stick spray.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
This important step helps emulsify the sugar into the butter, creating a light and fluffy cake.
Add the wet ingredients
Beating in the eggs one at a time insures the eggs are fully incorporated, followed by the sour cream.
Gently fold in the dry ingredients
Do not over-mix the dry ingredients into the cake batter or gluten strands will begin to develop, creating a tough cake.
Prepare the streusel topping
A simple mix in a small bowl brings this amazing topping all together.
Layer the cake batter and streusel
Place half the cake batter in the bottom of the pan, sprinkle on half of the streusel topping, then the remaining cake batter, and finish with the rest of the streusel.
Bake the cake in the oven
This cake bakes in a short 35 minutes, and you’ll know it is done by touching it in the center of the cake. If it springs back, it is finished.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe FAQs

What does putting sour cream in a cake do?

Sour cream benefits cakes in a few important ways. First, it increases the moisture of the cake without thinning the batter since sour cream is thick. Second, it increases the amount of fat in the cake, which helps promote better browning at a lower baking temperature. So, you end up with a perfectly baked cake that has delicious browning without overtaking. Sour cream also adds richness to the flavor and reacts with the leavening agent to promote more rising.

Does sour cream coffee cake need to be refrigerated?

Despite having sour cream in the cake, no sour cream coffee cake does not need to be refrigerated. Baking the cake stabilizes not only the sour cream but the eggs and butter in the recipe as well. Simply store any leftovers in an airtight container in your pantry, or freeze it for up to 3 months.

Directions for using a bundt pan

Follow the recipe as instructed but simply layer the cake inside a greased bundt pan instead of a 9×13-inch pan. Because of the hole in the center, it will bake a bit faster than using the glass baking pan so start checking for doneness at 25 minutes. The sour cream coffee cake should bounce back when touched, or use a toothpick inserted into the thickest part. It should come out clean.

Directions for using a loaf pan

If you want to make this sour cream coffee cake in a loaf pan, you have two options. First, keep the recipe as written and bake it in two loaf pans. Or, you can cut the recipe in half and bake it in a single loaf pan. Because loaf pans are smaller, they will bake a bit faster so start checking for doneness at 20 minutes. The cake should bounce back when touched in the center, or insert a toothpick in the center of the coffee cake. It should come out clean.

How to store sour cream coffee cake

If you are lucky enough to have leftover sour cream coffee cake, simply transfer the leftovers into some airtight containers and store them in the pantry. No need to refrigerate them. You can also freeze any leftovers for up to 3 months. When you are ready to serve it, just give it a few hours on the counter at room temperature before serving.

Looking For More Great Coffee Cake Recipes?

If this sour cream coffee cake recipe was totally your breakfast of champions, be sure to check out these other delicious recipes. Go grab them now and let me know what you think!

Coffee Cake Muffins — Almond Poppyseed Coffee Cake

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Why I Love This Recipe

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Ingredients and Tools

How to Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake