This is my all-time favorite coffee cake. It’s super soft, buttery, and loaded with a thick cinnamon-sugar layer right through the middle. Perfect for breakfast or brunch with a hot cup of coffee!
Is there anything better than calling cake breakfast and getting away with it? This recipe is exactly what I want next to my coffee—soft, buttery cake, a cinnamon-sugar swirl in the middle, a crumb topping that means business, and a sweet glaze to finish it all off. If you’ve been looking for a go-to coffee cake that feels bakery-level but still comes together with minimal effort, this is it.
Why You’ll Love This Coffee Cake Recipe
- Tender cake that’s packed with flavor. This cake has that buttery, sturdy texture I love. It’s like a fluffier pound cake. It can hold its own under all that cinnamon-sugar goodness and crumb topping.
- The crumb is everything. Thick, sweet, and next-level delicious. If you’re here for the crumb, you’re in the right place.
- That glaze on top? Not optional. I always finish mine with a quick icing drizzle because… well, why wouldn’t you?
- It’s from-scratch and totally doable. No mixes here, but don’t stress! My teenage sons have made this one on their own, and it turned out great.
Heads up on the bake time: This is a thick cake, so depending on your oven, it might need a few extra minutes. If the top starts browning too fast, just tent it with foil and keep going until the center is set. Trust me, it’s worth it.
How To Make Coffee Cake
- Prep your tools. Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Make the cinnamon filling. In a medium bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
- Make the crumb topping. In another medium bowl, mix the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. Use your hands to form some larger pieces. Set aside.
- Make the batter. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer), beat the butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add the wet ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla, sour cream, salt, and baking powder. Mix for 1 minute until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Finish the batter. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour and milk in alternating portions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined, scraping the bowl again if necessary.
- Assemble the cake. Spread half the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon filling evenly on top. Gently spread the remaining batter over the filling, then sprinkle the crumb topping evenly across the top.
- Bake. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until the center is set and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Add the icing. Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until smooth and drizzle over the cooled cake, or dust with powdered sugar instead.
I LOVE to enjoy this cake while it’s still warm, but it’s also delicious at room temperature!
What Is Coffee Cake? Why Isn’t There Coffee in It?
There are a few defining characteristics of a coffee cake. And nope there is no ACTUAL coffee in this recipe. This cake is meant to be enjoyed WITH coffee.
- No Frosting – OR a light drizzle of an icing glaze. A lot of the time coffee cake is just dusted with powdered sugar, which you could absolutely do on this recipe!
- Cinnamon. Coffee Cakes are generally spiced with cinnamon. I don’t make the rules.
- Crumb Topping – This is not a must, but it’s very common. A lot of coffee cakes include nuts in the crumb topping as well, which you could do here if you like that! I’ll hit on that in a minute.
- Vanilla Cake – It’s very typical for a coffee cake base to be a vanilla cake as opposed to chocolate.
- A Single Layer Cake – Whether it be a 9×13, or a round cake, coffee cake is generally a single layer cake!
Simple Variation Ideas
- Add chopped nuts to the crumb topping. About ½ cup of chopped pecans or walnuts mixed into the crumb gives it a nice crunch without affecting the bake.
- Swirl in some fruit. A layer of thinly sliced apples or a handful of fresh blueberries over the cinnamon filling works great. Just don’t overdo it—too much moisture can weigh the cake down.
- Switch up the spice. Try adding a little ground nutmeg or cardamom to the cinnamon filling for a subtle twist.
- Use a flavored glaze. Swap the milk in the icing for maple syrup or a splash of orange juice to add something a little extra on top.
- Make it mini. Bake the batter in two 8×8 pans instead of one 9×13 if you want one to keep and one to gift (or freeze). Just start checking for doneness a little earlier.
How to Store
- Room temp: Keep it tightly covered on the counter for up to 3 days. It stays soft and amazing—no need to refrigerate.
- Fridge: If your kitchen runs warm or you just want to stretch it a bit longer, you can refrigerate it for up to 5 days. Just bring it to room temp before serving so it’s not cold and dense.
- Freezer: Yep, it freezes great! Wrap slices individually or the whole (cooled) cake tightly in plastic wrap and foil, then freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw on the counter and warm it up a little if you like it cozy.
More Coffee Cake Recipes
The Best Coffee Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Yield: serves 12 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: Breakfast
Description
Grab a cup of coffee and get ready for the best coffee cake ever! Soft vanilla cake with a sweet cinnamon layer inside, topped with buttery crumb topping!
Ingredients
Scale
Cinnamon Filling
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Crumb Topping
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup all purpose flour
Cake
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 3 2/3 cup all purpose flour
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl prepare the cinnamon filling by whisking together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.
- To prepare the crumb topping, mix together the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in a medium bowl until it resembles coarse crumbs. Use your hands to mix to form larger crumb pieces. Set aside.
- For the cake, mix the butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, vanilla, sour cream, salt, and baking powder and mix for 1 minute until combined and smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour and milk in alternating portions, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined and smooth, again, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Spread half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon filling evenly on top of the batter. Carefully spread the remaining cake batter on top of the cinnamon layer. Evenly sprinkle the crumb topping on top.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until smooth and drizzle on top of the cooled cake. Or alternately sprinkle with powdered sugar instead of making the icing.
Notes
Store airtight for up to 3 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 660
- Sugar: 55 g
- Sodium: 248.4 mg
- Fat: 24.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 101.1 g
- Protein: 9.6 g
- Cholesterol: 108 mg
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Unless you’re an experienced baker, this recipe is not intuitive. All things cold should be brought to room temperature before starting to mix, not just the butter as the recipe states. Without, everything will curdle and look like oatmeal before adding flour and milk in the last stages. I made the mistake of putting in the milk too early along with the sour cream; but when I redid the recipe in the correct order and got the same result, which is telling that the cold ingredients were to blame.
There’s also a bit too much flower in this recipe, the cake mix is impossible to spread and the mix lost a lot of flavor as soon the last bit of flour was mixed in. I’d probably back it down by 1/3 of a cup in the future. It also was way too dense and didn’t come out fully cooked. This was baked in a brand new oven that runs pretty hot, might I add, and the baking dish sat on top of pizza stones as well which keep the heat consistent and it took more than 40 minutes to cook.
Flavor was good, the crumble on top was perfection but otherwise not as expected and was a disappointment.
We made the cake without the icing. It did take about 60 minutes to bake in a 9×13 glass pan but our issue has to do with sweetness. The amount of sugar used in this recipe far exceeds what should be used. The taste was fine but we had to toss out the cake after one piece. I can’t imagine this with icing on top.
I just tried this recipe and it came out wonderful. I think a lot of negative comments stem from lack of experience with your own oven and properly following directions e.g, room temperature eggs added one at a time, room temperature butter, or adding the premixed dry ingredients gradually. I use a stand up mixer and it makes baking so much easier. With the use of a filling and a topping, I did cut down the amount of sugar to the batter and it still came out great. I used a glass baking pan and it added a bit of crispy chewiness to the outer crust which is nice. The cake itself is wonderfully moist. The only thing I would change to increase the amount of butter to the topping by about a couple Tablespoons to offset the little bit of chewiness to the topping which occurred. Thank you!
So there I am. I’ve poured half the batter and I turn around to the 2 bowls waiting. One is topping the other filling. I grab the topping with the butter in it and pour it on. Then I pour onto it the other half of batter. The smaller bowl without the butter in it –the filling, I later read–is now the topping. I grab my phone and 55 scrolls up and 276 scrolls down I learn I’m wrong. Don’t write so many paragraphs! Hard to find where we were!
Hi Nora, The full recipe is at the bottom and it’s printable. The text of the post of written to simply be informative and answer any questions you might have. The full recipe at the bottom shouldn’t require any scrolling, it’s all there for you in numbered order 🙂
Delicious!! It turned out amazing!
I adore this! Am absolutely going to make this very soon again.
I ended up pouring melted butter on top. Perfect outcome. Way richer than ordinary coffee cake.
Took 55 mins in my oven
I have looked till I was blue in the face and could not see any coffee in the recipe for the best coffee cake ever???!!!
Coffee cake is called that because it’s served with coffee, not because it has coffee in it. Though it is true some recipes call for coffee, it is not common to see coffee as an ingredient since the 18th century.
1/15/21 I am not sure what happened to my coffee cake. I followed the instructions and my cake turned out very dense and heavy, and with all the sugar and cinnamon I thought it would have more flavor. I did use natural raw sugar so maybe that is the problem. I had a small piece of it with coffee this morning, and it was interesting. I am sure if it turned out the way it should it has to be good. It did make the house smell good!!
I followed the recipe to a T. The cake never really rose, never fluffed up. It’s dense and almost seems undercooked- even though I ended up baking nearly 15 extra minutes. Total bummer because it took awhile and used a LOT of my baking ingredients.
I had a question with some other cake recipes sometimes it requires the eggs and the other wet ingredients to be a room temperature also is that required for this cake too or just the butter to be room temperature?
Having all room temperature ingredients certainly won’t hurt and is ideal, but I don’t require that in this recipe as in most of my recipes, as I haven’t found it doesn’t make a huge difference.
I followed the instructions to a T, but the cake didnt really turn out. It took a very long time to cook, although I did use an oval pan so maybe this is why. The crumble ended up becoming too crunchy and I found the center filling had no flavour at all. Even though the recipe had a ton of sugar the cake tasted very bland to me. Not for me.
Agree!
This truly is the best coffee cake recipe, I saw a few reviews and got a little apprehensive however I’m so glad that I tried it.. this recipe is for keeps.. I substituted yogurt for sour cream and the cake was outstanding… it was moist and full of flavour.. my entire family loved it
This cake is truly delicious but I did find it took closer to 90 minutes to be baked through in a 9×13 pan; it was mostly raw at 45 and my oven doesn’t run particularly low.
Just made this tonight and had the same issue. I googled for a solution and covering with tin foil helped the inside to bake without the crumb on top getting too toasted!
I wish I had known this.
I am finding the same thing. In the oven for an hour now and still pretty raw in the middle. I used the same size pan.
It was super moist and really great. I think I’ll up the cinnamon filling by half and reduce the crumb topping by half. This is an amazing recipe. Thanks so much. I can’t wait to find more great recipes…. Especially all the buttery goodness