This Cinnamon Coffee Cake recipe is moist, buttery, and full of cinnamon flavor. It’s perfect as an afternoon snack, a breakfast pastry or an after dinner dessert!
A homemade cinnamon coffee cake recipe doesn’t get much better than this Cinnamon Coffee Cake with Streusel Crumb Topping!
While I am generally happy to share every recipe that I post, there are some that I am REALLY excited to share- and this is one of them. I’m not a huge breakfast eater, but one thing that I can never resist is coffee cake. Take a look at Coffee Works website where you can learn more ideas of how to enjoy even more your daily coffee.
This is also why I rarely ever buy or make it- I can’t stay out of it.
I love the general idea behind a coffee cake recipe. Someone clearly really wanted to eat some sort of spice or fruit laden cake at 7 AM, but could still hear their mother’s voice wheedling at them, “You don’t eat cake for breakfast!”
“Hush Mom, this is COFFEE cake. Its totally different. You eat it in the morning with coffee! It’s breakfast! Its practically health food.”
I’m not going to sit here and lie to anyone and tell you that this moist coffee cake is health food. It is most definitely not. I WILL tell you that this is the best cinnamon coffee cake and came out exactly the way that I had hoped. It has a light, buttery crumb, but yet is still somehow just a little dense.
There is a ribbon of cinnamon filling through the middle and it is piled with a cinnamon streusel on top. It DOES go perfectly with coffee… and ice cream too. Don’t worry- I won’t tell Mom.
What is Coffee Cake, exactly?
Coffee cake is a butter-based cake that, contrary to what the name implies, does NOT contain coffee. Its somewhere between a regular cake and a pound cake in terms of weight and texture. It’s not supposed to be over-the-top sweet, and is meant to be paired with a cup of coffee- hence the name!
What you’ll need for this breakfast coffee cake recipe:
- Hand mixer – Having a hand mixer really comes in handy for making your recipes. Be sure to grab this [easyazon_link identifier=”B001CH0ZLE” locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]Hand Mixer[/easyazon_link] to get your recipes made right!
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- Food processor – I recommend using a food processor to make your toppings required in this recipe. This [easyazon_link identifier=”B00755KNCS” locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]Food Processor[/easyazon_link] should do the trick and even has dishwasher safe parts!
- Baking pan – This [easyazon_link identifier=”B001PKUXN8″ locale=”US” tag=”gogogogo03-20″]9 by 9 Inch Covered Pan[/easyazon_link] is great for any kind of baking. You’ll get some great use out of it!
If you Like This homemade Cinnamon Coffee Cake recipe, you’ll also like easy dessert recipes:
NOTE: after multiple readers telling me that they find the topping to be too heavy on the flour, I am amending the topping to reduce the flour by 1/4 cup and increasing the butter by one tablespoon.
Update (5/6/2016): Alright. As I keep getting comments that say that the batter is too thick and the cake is too dry and the topping has too much flour and its too sweet (and yet simultaneously not sweet enough!), I decided to remake this and test the recipe for the third time. It came out just like it did the first and second times I made it.
This recipe is based off my Blueberry Buckle with Streusel Topping, which is always a major success and I have never faced any complaints. The only thing that I changed was using softened butter in the topping, rather than cold butter, which I have now amended in the recipe ingredients. I’m sitting here and eating a piece of it and wondering why anyone would want this either more or less sweet.
I don’t think its dry in any way- in fact the cake is quite moist. Its a butter based cake batter, so its not going to be runny like a boxed cake mix would be. As I state in the instructions, using an offset spatula makes spreading the batter over the filling much easier. I also took pictures at each step, so you can see what everything should look like along the way. These are below the instructions.
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Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 stick butter softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 3/4 cup milk
Filling
- 3 tablespoons butter softened
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Topping
- 5 tablespoon butter softened
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, scraping down the sides occasionally. Add the vanilla and egg, mix in.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add one half of it to the mixer, and when mostly combined, add the milk. Once the milk is mostly incorporated, add the rest of the flour.
- To make filling: in a small bowl, pinch together the softened butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon until soft crumbs form.
- To make topping: add the butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon to a food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs form (You can cut in with forks or a pastry cutter, but I am not patient enough for that!).
- Grease a 9x9 baking pan. Pour in ½ of cake batter, and spread to all four corners. Sprinkle the filling over top, then pour in remaining cake batter, and spread carefully across the top, disturbing the filling layer as little as possible (an offset spatula works well for this).
- Sprinkle the topping over the top and press lightly so it adheres.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool to warm on wire rack before serving.
Notes
Sara @ Life's Little Sweets says
This looks like a really good crumb cake recipe, pinning this one! Yum!
Franceythat says
Omg it’s ridiculous good! I have never made coffee cake in 30 years of baking because my moms was terrible! I think she was trying to make it healthy. This is just perfect with that best in the world coffee. It’s suppose to be on the dry side cause it’s not a dessert cake. Coffee cake is special. The crumble topping and the sweet center is just the right touch.
I saw one at Walmart and it was $8.00. I’m making it again this weekend cause dessert cakes are not healthy at all. Thanks
Karen says
This was delicious in every way. I added a little more sugar to the batter and to the crumble. I’ll never buy a boxed mix again.
Vino says
I just did this….. It turns to be too buttery…
Thus i did chill it overnight for butter to slightly harden…
And next day… it was better 😀 😀
Thanks… Streusels gives them the texture 🙂
Carol says
Did not like at all. Too much flour in topping. Didnt taste sweet enough.
Jacqueline says
I’m sorry to hear that! If you’d like it on the sweeter side, I’m sure that you could reduce the flour in the topping by 1/4 cup or so. I sometimes hear that people have to add more liquid to my bread recipes (or I have to add more flour to their recipes), which I’m sure is due to the fact that I deal with Florida humidity. I did make this again over the weekend to check my ingredient amounts, and they seemed to be fine for me.
William says
I’m definitely going to try this.
Dawn says
Was a bit dry for my liking, do you think maybe there’s a way to incorporate coconut oil to keep moist?
Susan says
This is absolutely delicious! Thanks so much. I have made it several times and my husband loves it. I have even substituted white chocolate raspberry coffee creamer for the milk and added blueberries.. so good!
Melissa says
Yum! That is certainly the next on my list!
Stephanie Ploetz says
Is the recipe above the amended one?
Jacqueline says
Yes
Stacey says
I read somewhere that when measuring the flour you should use a scale or spoon flour into measuring cup, weight f the flour is likely making the cake more dense. I believe the weight is 128grams a cup when scooped it can get greater than 155 grams. I hope that was helpful.
Jeannie says
I thought it was great. Made it into muffins family loved them!!!
Carla Browning says
Did you have to adjust anything that make it into muffins??
Carla Browning says
Did you have to adjust anything in the recipe to make it into muffins??
Kira says
I did not have success with this recipe. The cake was nice and fluffy but the topping came out rock solid that in order to enjoy any of it I had to pick off the crumble. Any suggestions to fix my issue other than reducing the amount of butter?
Jessica Poling says
It’s admirable to respond to your critics but I personally wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. This recipe is insanely delicious! Everyone has different taste & “hehem” cooking skills! ( the cough ‘sound’ was meant to exclamate my point 😄) lol some trolls out there work overtime. Don’t listen to them. They’re the ppl that go to Walmart in a shirt & underwear to get tobacco & acorn polish, ya know what I mean?! own your tried & true recipes! You’re amazing! Thank you for sharing!
KMM says
I’v made this twice now. I agree with the comment that there is too much flour in the topping. The second time I made this, I started with a half cup of flour instead of one cup. I still had trouble incorporating all of the butter, so I decided to soften/melt the butter a little. I then added more flour about 1/2 TBS at a time until the topping was the crumbly consistency that I wanted. This time it turned out wonderfully! I also should add that I needed to bake it for ~10 minutes longer…but I also live at 7,000 feet elevation.
Jacqueline says
Thank you so much! This is fantastic feedback for me- extremely helpful. It has got to have something to do with the humidity down here- there are times where I have had to add 30% more flour to a recipe to get it to turn out for me. When I eventually move back to the Midwest, I’ll probably have to rework some of my recipes! 🙁
Kristi Kontz says
This recipe reminds me of my great granny except she added 8 ounces of sour cream to the mi for added moisture. Always a hit at potlucks and picnics!
Nitya says
I used granulated sugar instead of brown, didn’t quite get the colour. The vanilla was the best I’ve ever made. But the topping was under/uncooked, I couldn’t decide. I tasted raw flour and a lottt of sugar. Where did I go wrong?
Jacqueline says
Well, brown sugar gets its color from molasses, so I’m not surprised at all that the color was off. I’ll have to make a batch of just the topping, people seem to be having issues with it. The high sugar taste is likely from the substitution of white for brown sugar.
I feel like I can’t win with this- some people say it’s not sweet enough and you say it’s very sweet!! I’m going to try and make this topping with less flour, because others have said they think there’s too much. I don’t know, I made this recently for some guests and they loved it. Maybe I measure flour differently than other people.
Linda says
I have tried your recipe and think it is wonderful. I didn’t have any issues with the cake or the topping. Maybe some of the problem is that oven temperatures fluctuate that would explain some of the problem. I also think that everyone’s taste is different. If I were you I would stop trying to please everyone and suggest that perhaps if they thought it was too much flour they could cut back or not sweet enough add a little more. Thanks for letting me vent.
Jacqueline says
I totally agree. I reached that point on the day where I wrote my “note” on the bottom of the post. 🙂 You can’t make everyone happy!
Candice Rutledge says
I totally agree! I was reading all the comments before I tried this recipe and thinking, “wow…this lady has way more patience than I do!” Thank you for taking her side!
Kathy says
I thought this recipe was going to be a disaster! I carefully followed the recipe for the batter and it came out the consistency of dough. I definitely couldn’t pour it, and needed to almost press it into the pan, which was no easy task to not disturb the filling. Surprisingly the cake still turned out and was only slightly on the dry side. I live in Canada and my province is very dry so I’m not sure if that changes anything but I’ve made many cakes before and have never had a batter come out that thick and sticky. Maybe some tweaking needs to be done to make it more workable in other climates?? I do agree the topping has too much flour and I wish I would’ve read the comments first so I could’ve added more butter and less flour. Overall I enjoy the taste of the cake and find the sweetness just right. Thanks for posting 🙂
Jacqueline says
This is easily my most controversial recipe! I have retested it myself a couple other times following my exact amounts and had it come out like it should, so I am baffled. I have definitely never had it come out as dough, although it is a thicker batter for sure. I feel like when it comes to this recipe, I can’t quite win – some say it’s fine, some say it’s too sweet, some say it’s not sweet enough! I will add a couple of notes before the recipe to hopefully alert people to the varied opinions and let them gradually add flour in until the right taste/texture is achieved. The batter itself should be similar to that of a butter-based cake.
Jennifer says
I have to laugh at the chore of reworking such a delicious recipe! My first try (at it puplished) is in the oven. Except I lowered the temp to 325 because I was using a dark pan.
Ashley says
This happened to me as well. Was very difficult to spread the top layer without disturbing the filing. I feel like it could have been because I made the batter first and let it sit while mixing up the filing and crumb topping. Do you think this could have been why the batter got thick?
Jacqueline says
No, I mean… its a thick batter. Its supposed to be, you can see it in the series of step-by-step pictures at the end. Its not the easiest to spread the other layer over if you don’t use an offset spatula, so thats why I make mention of that. 🙂
Franceythat says
If the battery is thick you don’t have to spread it and disturb the filling. Just spoon dollops on and they bake together.
Again, yummy good perfect recipe.
Jill longnecker says
I have to tell you that this coffee cake is absolutely wonderful. I have made this coffeecake several times and always comes out perfect. I grew up eating coffeecake but you really don’t see it much anymore.
I think that maybe some of the negative comments come from either not being able to read a recipe or their measurements might be off
Laura says
Ive nade this now 20 times 25 something like that. Comes out perfect everytime! Only thing I do differently is add rolled oats to the crumble top. Thank you, this is the best!
Erica says
Jill, I totally agree! Must be issues with following the recipe and measurements. Sometimes making simple short cuts and straying from the recipe can really impact the results. You have nothing to worry about, Jacqueline. This is a fabulous recipe and I had no trouble at all. Your directions were great!! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Franceythat says
I agree and you’re absolutely right. Coffee cake is old fashion and perhaps culturally specific. People think any cake is sweet dessert cake. I’m going to go get the last piece before my husband. He’ll be looking for it and I can’t wait to make it on Saturday.
Jacqueline says
I am glad that you still enjoyed it though. 🙂
melissa says
Try adding a box of instant vanilla pudding to the dry ingredients. It adds tons of moisture!
David DeVlugt says
Im trying it tonite, doesnt seem to look like there is enough batter to topping, but its in the oven now so Im in for the ride, Canada rules and cinnamon coffee cake rules although i dont remember adding coffee uh oh gotta check the recipe again
Julie Mason says
Hi, I’m really sorry but does the T in your ingredients stand for tablespoon? I’m from the UK but now live in Portugal, and I really want to try this recipe it looks and sounds delicious!! I feel a bit silly not knowing ???
Jacqueline says
Don’t feel silly at all! Yes, it is tablespoon. Make sure you read the other comments- some people think there is too much flour in the streusel topping, so you may want to add it gradually ? I haven’t gotten a change to retweak it yet.
Jacqueline says
It does!
Liz E says
when you say butter in the recipe.. do you mean salted butter or unsalted. I am assuming unsalted butter, correct?
Jacqueline says
I actually used salted and then didn’t add any salt. I can never manage to keep unsalted in the house consistently, so usually my recipes are for salted butter. If you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt. 🙂
Mandy says
I made this and used your suggestion for less flour and more butter for the topping. I also made this in a 9 inch springform pan. I took it straight from the oven to the fridge over night. It turned out perfect! I took this to work and received nothing but compliments and requests for the recipe. Thank you for posting this! I’m making another one as we speak for Mother’s Day tomorrow. I’m sure this will be a family favorite for years to come! ?
Jacqueline says
Mandy, thank you so much for sharing! This makes me so happy. 🙂
kristen t says
i made this but i didnt leave enough batter to top over the filling, so i just mixed it in. Still came ou t really good. Thnks for the receipe.
Also i added 1/4 a cup of flour for the topping and then added little by little til i got the consistency i wanted. i see alot of people had diff opinion about that
Jacqueline says
You have no idea how happy your comment makes me. I thought I was going crazy with that topping!
Jen says
I made this today and it turned out amazing! I made the recipe exactly as it is written and had none of the issues that other commenters had. The batter was slightly thick just the way coffee cake batter should be. It wasn’t too buttery and had just the right amount of sweetness. Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe!
Kelly Malacko says
Just made it and it turned out great! Thanks.
Aracely says
I just made this it was ok I wish it was sweeter so I added powdered sugar to the top. I had to add an additional 10 minutes to baking time. Next time I will add more sugar but great recipe!!
Jennie Searcy says
I’m always looking for a good coffee cake recipe, as I like to bring a coffee cake or muffins as a hostess gift in lieu of a bottle of wine to my friends who have children or don’t drink alcohol. I followed the directions exactly, and it was by far the best coffee cake I’ve made using ingredients I always have on hand. It reminded me of the traditional coffee cake at Starbucks, but the texture of the cake is better and the taste is richer. I live in New Orleans (low altitude and high humidity). Don’t know if that made a difference. This is definitely going into my regular rotation.
Guntaas says
where does the coffee come into the picture?
Nicole says
It’s called coffee because people tend to eat this with a cup of coffee! There’s no coffee in the cake.
Cathy says
Do not change a thing. This coffee cake is delicious!! My entire family loved it! Ty for sharing. This recipe is a keeper!
Kortney says
I’ve always wanted a recipe for a cream cheese filled coffee cake, so I think that’s what I’m going to do ! Add a thing of soften creamed cheese to the filling in the middle, to offer some of the ‘to sweet’ or ‘not sweet enough’ effect. Mmmm. Thanks!
Jacqueline says
That sounds like an awesome idea- will you let me know how it turns out?
Kortney says
I messed around with the filling quite a bit and basically turned it into a cheesecake mix with cinnomen. It was amazing. I used cream cheese, sugar, 2 eggs and lemon juice. Your basic cheese cake, layered it and put the streussal on top (I had to use cold buyer for my struessal or it just didn’t taste right) thanks for the recipe!
Leslie says
I was craving a coffee cake and came across your recipe. I’m so glad I did! Definitely a keeper. The recipe was very easy to follow and I followed it EXACTLY how you posted. Did not change a thing. The cake was perfectly moist and the yummy filling and topping made this cake just right. I am enjoying the cake with a cup of coffee as I type this out. Thanks for making my evening!
Jacqueline says
I really needed a pick me up, and your sweet words definitely gave me one. Thank you so much for sharing!
Janice says
I agree no need to change a thing
Was perfect. I probably ate half of this cake over 3 days delist the best breakfast / late night snack.
Will be making this and selling it at a bake sale in single serving sizes!
Jeanette says
It was great. It was simple to make. I did not think it was too sweet. I have been baking for decades. This had a nice crumb texture to the cake. The topping and filling were easy, The coffee cake looks great. It slices well, has a lovely presentation. It has a nice taste and a pleasing mouth feel. I think the cake probably cost me about $2.50. A similar cake from a bakery would be close to $12 and on-line ordering would be a bit over $20. I stayed directly to the recipe. OK–I added a few shakes of nutmeg. The next one will have a thin layer of homemade jam underneath the filling or perhaps some finely sliced fresh fruit. The recipe is highly adaptable. Nice job, Jacqueline!
Kathy says
Made this today as written and found it just fine. A little sweet but texture was lovely. Will definitely make again.
AshleyV says
So I’m a comment reader and after reading some of the comments I was afraid to do this recipe BUT I followed your instructions to the “t” and it came out freaking amazing!!!! I also live in Michigan so I’m not sure about everyone else but my cake came out delicious! I didn’t do anything differently! I also didn’t have a mixer so it was pure manpower and I can say you have to put your back into mixing it if you don’t have as mixer which is why I think some didn’t like the texture of the batter but mine was perfect. My husband (who is quite the critic) couldn’t get enough!! So adding this to my favorites! Thank you so much!!
Jacqueline says
Love it!! I’m so glad you had a good experience. It was frustrating to get that many negative comments in the beginning and not really understand how it was possible, because I was never able to replicate any of the problems that they were having. I was always concerned that those comments were going to put people off from trying it, so thank you so much for letting me know how well it worked out for you and how much you loved it!