Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
My cinnamon streusel coffee cake has a super moist base, a brown sugar swirl, and an irresistible cinnamon crumb topping. I love the crumb topping, so I made sure you'll get some in every single bite.
If you know me, you know I love sweet breakfasts, like Funfetti pancakes or DIY Krispy Kreme Donuts. This cinnamon streusel coffee cake recipe is a new family favorite. We love making it for holiday brunch for Easter and Christmas. Unlike a typical crumb cake which has flour based crumbs my streusel is made with dark brown sugar. It's very similar to what I use in my Blueberry Bundt Cake. It goes great with a cup of hot coffee, tea, or an icy cold glass of milk.
🤎Why Our Recipe Is the Best: A Sprinkle of Food Science🤎
We put our culinary school training and science based recipe testing to work on this one!
- We Use Dark Brown Sugar: This gives the filling and topping a deep almost caramel like flavor.
- We Use a Metal Baking Pan: They conduct heat quickly and more importantly evenly. This ensures the center cooks through without the edges becoming dry.
- We Don't Put the Streusel Inside: Putting raw flour and butter in the center of a cake often causes it to turn sandy or worse not cook through. Using just brown sugar allows it to melt into a sweet toffee flavored ribbon throughout.
- We Weigh Our Batter: I stink at eyeballing batter! To ensure I don't use too much or too little I weigh it so the filling is covered and exactly in the center.
🧈Ingredient Notes🧈
For the Coffee Cake
- Butter: Use softened butter. It should be soft enough that you can easily make an indent with your finger. Around an hour on the counter should do the trick. Use unsalted if you have it. If not omit the added salt.
- Egg: An extra egg yolks adds richness and tenderness without extra protein which can make the cake chewy or rubbery.
- Brown Sugar: We prefer the flavor of dark brown sugar, but light also works. Regardless of which version you use make sure it is fresh and soft not hard and dry.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: Use these as written, no substitutions. Baking soda gives a tender open crumb and helps with browning, while baking powder provides additional lift. Be sure each are fresh as they do lose their effectiveness after 6-12 months even if still technically in date.
- Milk: For best results use whole milk. Low fat or plant-based milks are not recommended.
- Flour: Measure your flour by spooning it into your measuring cup and leveling it with a knife. Do not scoop your cup into your flour container, you may overmeasure.
- Cinnamon: We prefer the milder flavor of ceylon cinnamon. Standard supermarket cinnamon is often cassia cinnamon which can be spicy and harsh. We got our ceylon cinnamon at Walmart for under 5 bucks!
- Vanilla: My homemade vanilla works great in this recipe.
Quickly Soften Butter
To quickly soften butter, cut it into smaller pieces or grate it using a cheese grater.
How To Make Cinnamon Coffee Cake
- Cream butter and white sugar.
- Stir in eggs, vanilla, milk, baking powder baking soda, and salt.
- Add flour and mix until just combined.
For the Cinnamon Swirl and Topping
- Pour batter into pan. Top with brown sugar then remaining batter.
- Cut butter, flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon with 2 forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Sprinkle on top of batter.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes.
❓Frequently Asked Questions❓
Why Doesn't It Contain Coffee?
This cake does not contain coffee. Coffee cake got its name because it is usually served alongside a good cup of coffee in the morning.
Can I Make This Ahead?
Yes, bake up to 2 days in advance.
🗂️Tips and Troubleshooting: Steal My Culinary School Secrets🗂️
- Cake Is Tough Or Dense: Mix your ingredients until the flour just disappears. Over-mixing can overdevelop the gluten leading to a tough cake. Also, be sure your baking powder/soda are fresh. Replace every 6-12 months.
- Ingredients Won't Mix Together: Use room temperature ingredients. I like to warm my milk in the microwave for around 30 seconds and leave my eggs on the counter for 30-60 minutes. You can also dunk your eggs in a glass of warm water for a minute or two.
- Cake Is Dry: This is often caused by overbaking or over measuring your flour (see above). Start checking at around 40 minutes. It can be hard to get a reliable toothpick test with the sugary swirl. You can also use a food thermometer, aim for 200 degrees.
- Not Having Enough Batter To Cover the Swirl: Divide your batter by weight so you don't have to guess!
- Cake Is Underdone/Overdone In Spot: Use a light colored metal baking pan. They conduct heat more evenly. Glass tends to heat up slowly, but stay hot longer when removed from the oven. If you only have a glass pan, I suggest lowering the oven temp by 10-15 degrees and cooking for 10-15 more minutes.
Picture-Perfect Swirl Everytime
For the perfect cinnamon swirl, drop the streusel ingredients using a teaspoon from your silverware drawer. Then, swirl with a butter knife.
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📖 Recipe
Ultimate Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake
My cinnamon streusel coffee cake has a super moist base, a brown sugar swirl, and an irresistible cinnamon crumb topping. I love the crumb topping, so I made sure you'll get some in every single bite.
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Servings: 12 Slices
Calories: 361kcal
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Ingredients
For the Topping
- ½ Cup Dark Brown Sugar Packed, Or Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon Ceylon Cinnamon Is Best
- ½ Cup Flour Measured Properly (see below)
- 4 Tablespoons Butter Softened
For the Filling
- ¼ Cup Brown Sugar Packed
For the Coffee Cake
- ¾ Cup Butter Softened
- 1 Cup White Sugar
- 1 Egg PLUS One Egg Yolk Room Temp.
- 1 Cup Whole Milk Warmed
- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 2 Cups Flour
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Instructions
For the Streusel and Topping
- In a large bowl combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Cut in butter with 2 forks until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 or 9x9 inch square metal baking pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, milk, and vanilla.
- Stir in baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until just combined scraping down the sides as needed.
- Pour half of batter into prepared pan. I suggest using half by weight using a food scale. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of brown sugar. Top with remaining batter and spread smooth with a spatula.
- Evenly top with streusel. Bake for 40-50 minute or until a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Enjoy!
Notes
Tips For Success:
- Don't overmix. Mix until the flour just disappears.
- Use room temperature ingredients. I like to warm my milk in the microwave for around 30 seconds and leave my eggs on the counter for 30-60 minutes. You can also dunk your eggs in a glass of warm water for a minute or two.
- Start checking for doneness at around 40 minutes. It can be hard to get a reliable toothpick test with the sugary swirl. You can also use a food thermometer, aim for 200 degrees.
- Divide your batter by weight using a food scale so you don't have to guess!
- Use a light colored metal baking pan. They conduct heat more evenly. Glass tends to heat up slowly, but stay hot longer when removed from the oven. If you only have a glass pan, I suggest lowering the oven temp by 15 degrees and cooking for 10-15 more minutes. If you only have a dark metal pan (i.e. nonstick) reduce oven temp by 20 degree and start checking for doneness 5 minutes early.
Nutrition
Calories: 361kcal | Carbohydrates: 52g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 43mg | Sodium: 275mg | Potassium: 119mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 501IU | Vitamin C: 0.02mg | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 1mg
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Hi Krystle, how do you sign up to receive recipes to my email address, I like a lot of your recipes.
Can you tell me what I need to do.
Sandra
Hi Sandra! I'd be happy to sign you up for our email list. Thanks for your interest 🙂
I’m going to make this cake for my Senior Bible group, I’m celiac disease and dairy free, I’m going to put gluten free flour and dairy free goat butter and goat milk , hopefully it will turn out good. Thanks oh love your Bible verse
Hi Cindy,
I hope it turned out well, god bless!
can I use a loaf pan? If so what would be the cook time? Thank you
Hi Heather,
We've only tested the recipe as written. Please let us know how it goes if you try to use a different pan.
My coffee cake turned out great!!! Moist and tasty!
Can this be made in a Bundt pan?
Hi Noelle,
This recipe was only tested using a square pan. If you try it in a Bundt pan please be sure to report back.
I should have trusted your recipe more. When assembling the layers I thought it looked like way too much swirl mix, so I reduced it by 25%. The cake rose to a beatify fluffy height, and i now wish I used the full amount of cinnamon swirl. Lesson learned. I’ll trust you completely next time!
I loved it! I added 3 honeycrip apples to the batter and baked fof 50 minutes.
Hi Maria,
Yum! Apple sounds like such a tasty addition.
This is delicious! Make it! You won't regret it!
If I want to double this and make it in a 9x13 pan, do I double the ingredients, or are the proportion different?
Hi Earin,
We have only tested the recipe as written. If you double it, please do let us know how it turns out.
Trying this tonight! Any thoughts on increasing the ingredients in order to fit in a 9x13?
Hi Adam! Hope you enjoyed! I am generally cautious about increasing ingredients when baking, but let us know if you tried it.
How do I add to this recipe to make it big enough for a 9x13 pan? I'm assuming you don't just double the recipe.
Hi Earin,
We've only made the recipe as written. If you're looking for a 9x13 coffee cake I strongly suggest following a recipe made for that pan.
Havent tried yet, but plan to tomorrow. Wondering if I can pre-make this and then keep in fridge overnight, then cook the following morning. Do you know if this would work?
Tried different recipes but this one was it
Yay glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by Breeana!
Is there a substitute for butter to be more healthy? I read that you can use applesauce or an oil instead. If so how should I do anything differently
Hi Ben,
We focus on comfort food made with ingredients like butter and sugar here. If you're looking for a healthy recipe I suggest googling something like healthy or oil-free coffee cake. Wishing you all the best in your search! 🙂
Loved the website. Thank you for sharing. You've got a new fan.
You're so sweet, thank you Angelic!
When the recipe calls for white sugar, does it mean granulated sugar or confectioners sugar? I am never quite sure, for both sugars are white!
Hi Gayle,
Sorry for any confusion. White sugar=granulated sugar to me.