This cinnamon coffee cake recipe with sour cream and brown sugar streusel is outrageously delicious! It’s moist, tender, and perfect with coffee or dessert!
I genuinely cannot wait for you to make this homemade coffee cake! It’s so good! The sour cream batter is super simple to make. Then we swirl in the most deliciously flavorful brown sugar streusel made with lots of cinnamon.
When testing this recipe, I had a hard time stopping myself from eating all the streusel (it’s so much more flavorful than your traditional streusel). For more recipes like this one, I love this lemon blueberry cake, our popular carrot cake, and this incredible apple almond coffee cake.
Key Ingredients
- Butter and Sour Cream: Butter keeps our coffee cake moist and flavorful. For even more moisture and flavor, we add sour cream. Thanks to sour cream’s higher fat content, our coffee cake stays light, airy, and moist. It also adds a subtle tang to the cake, which works beautifully with the brown sugar streusel. While I love sour cream for this coffee cake, you can substitute it with plain yogurt without any changes.
- Eggs: These add structure to the cake, and the fat from the yolks adds to its tenderness. I use 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk and do not recommend substituting them with egg replacers.
- Flour, Baking Powder, and Baking Soda: I use all-purpose flour, although I imagine your favorite gluten-free blend will work in this recipe. The baking powder and baking soda help the cake brown and rise.
- Sugar: I use granulated and brown sugar in this cake and think you should, too. The combination improves the texture and flavor. Then, I use 100% brown sugar for the streusel to taste rich and caramel-like.
- Vanilla and Almond Extract: The flavor of this coffee cake is much better when you combine vanilla extract with a little almond extract in butter cakes. Your cake will taste like it came from a fancy bakery. You won’t tell if almond extract is there, but the cake will taste amazing.
- Spices: We use a lot of cinnamon in this recipe and don’t apologize for it (just like when making homemade cinnamon rolls). In addition to the cinnamon, I love a little nutmeg and salt.
- Molasses: This is my secret for the best cinnamon streusel! Molasses makes it much richer and more flavorful than if you make it without. I only use a tablespoon, so I understand not wanting to buy a new jar just for this recipe (it still tastes great without it), but if you have some on hand, use it! It makes it taste so good!
- Walnuts (optional): With all the richness from the butter and the streusel, I love adding some texture. Walnuts are great, but other nuts, like sliced almonds or pecans, would be great.
- Maple Butter Glaze (optional): The cake is perfectly delicious without anything, but if you want to take it to the next level, make our maple glaze with powdered sugar, maple syrup, butter, and milk. It’s amazing!
How to Make Cinnamon Coffee Cake
While the ingredient list seems long, I promise this cake recipe is easy to make! You’ll start with the cake batter. I use a hand mixer to beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then I add the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix that with your dry ingredients, and you’ve got your batter.
Before baking, we want to add our streusel to the cake. So mix all the streusel ingredients (it only takes a spoon), then spread half the coffee cake batter in your baking pan, add a bunch of crumbles of the streusel over the batter, and then spoon on the remaining batter. Add some more streusel, and you will be ready to bake.
Finally, as your cake cools, you can make the maple drizzle (optional, but so good). When the cake is thoroughly cooled, drizzle it all over, cut yourself a slice, and enjoy!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Our sour cream cinnamon streusel coffee cake is outrageously good. We make the batter with sour cream, butter, and vanilla, then add brown sugar cinnamon streusel. We also add a maple butter drizzle after baking, which is delicious, but you can leave the cake plain or add a dusting of powdered sugar on top instead.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
For Coffee Cake12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, 1 ½ sticks
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups (290g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 ¼ cups (280g or 10 oz) sour cream
For Streusel8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, melted, 1 stick
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/3 cup (65g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups (170g) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (70g) walnuts, chopped, optional
For Maple Butter Drizzle2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1/2 cup (55g) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
Pinch fine sea salt
Directions
- Make Batter
1Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350°F (176°C). Line a 9-inch by 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2Sift or whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3In a large bowl, beat 12 tablespoons of room-temperature butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. (Alternatively, add butter and sugars to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on medium speed until fluffy.)
4Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the egg yolk, vanilla, and almond extract.
5With the mixer on low speed, add one-third of the flour mixture to the batter. When it’s mostly combined, add another third and mix until almost no flour remains. Add the sour cream and mix just until smooth, then finish by adding the remaining flour to the batter and beat until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely blended.
- Make Streusel
1In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter with the molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until well blended. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and flour. Stir until a soft dough forms. Stir in nuts (optional).
- Bake Cake
1Spread about half of the cake batter into the prepared baking pan. It’s okay if the batter doesn’t spread all the way to each corner. Scatter half of the streusel over the cake batter. (I like scattering larger pieces and smaller crumbles.)
2Spoon dollops of the remaining batter on top of the streusel and then spread into an even layer. It’s okay if some of the streusel from below gets mixed into the top layer of batter.
3Finish with the remaining streusel on top. It might look like there isn’t enough batter, but don’t worry, the cake rises quite a bit, while some of the streusel will fall into the cake.
4Bake the coffee cake until it starts pulling away from the pan’s sides and is springy. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle should come out mostly clean, 40 to 50 minutes.
5Cool the cake in the baking pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and cool it completely.
- To Finish
1Melt the butter in a small bowl, and then stir in the maple syrup. Whisk in the powdered sugar, milk, and salt. The mixture should be the consistency of thick syrup and easily drizzled. If it’s too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a little more milk.
2Drizzle the maple butter frosting over the cake, then set aside for 5 minutes or until it hardens slightly. Cut the cake into 12 large slices or 24 smaller slices, and then serve.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Measuring the flour: Flour should be spooned and leveled in the measuring cup. Use a spoon to add the flour to the cup, and then use a flat edge to scrape the top of the cup. This method ensures you do not add too much flour to the batter.
- Room temperature butter & eggs: The butter and eggs must be room temperature for this cake recipe. If the eggs are too cold, the chill from the eggs will make your batter lumpy since they will chill the butter, and it will start to harden. It’s best to leave butter out in advance at room temperature. Place eggs into a bowl with lukewarm water for 5 to 10 minutes to quickly bring them to room temperature. (It’s okay if the sour cream is cooler since we add it at the end, but I prefer to take it out before making the cake recipe.)
- Storing: Place in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 2 days, store in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I have just stumbled across your website and can’t wait to try out your recipes…there’s so many to choose from. Can I use pomegranate molasses in the cinnamon coffee cake? Many thanks in advance, Take care and stay warm,
Hi Monique, I bet that would be a lovely substitute for the molasses in the streusel.
I had a tub of sour cream from Costco and it was about ready to expire and I came across your recipe for the coffee cake which required a lot of sour cream! So I’m making my 2nd batch of coffee cake now and I did sneak a little sample of the 1st coffee cake! I highly recommend this recipe to make! Love all your recipes and watching the videos. And get a smile from Joanne’s happy dances
Yay! What great timing that you had sour cream to use up. lol…when I am holding the camera it is hard not to laugh when Joanne does her happy dances. They are not scripted at all, promise 🙂
I love nearly all of your recipes, regarding the coffee cake one, am I missing the coffee in the recipe?
Hi Angela, Typically, you don’t actually find coffee in coffee cake. I know it seems odd, but we believe it is named more for being something sweet to enjoy with coffee instead of actually having coffee in it. That said, if you have any instant espresso or instant coffee, you can always add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the granules to the cake batter for some coffee flavor.
Made this cake and it was so delicious! I folded 1 1/4 cup frozen blueberries in the end and it was super yummy. How about a cinnamon struesel swirled pumpkin coffee cake?
Hi Samantha, We love the idea of blueberries in this coffee cake! And, yes, a pumpkin coffee cake sounds lovely.
your recipes look delicious will try..thanks
Wonderful, let us know how it turns out.
Hello, I just made your coffee cake this morning. It IS outrageously good! I know my daughter will love it. I’ll make it for her when she’s back from school. Tender cake and lots of yummy streusel – no nuts. Followed recipe. No changes. And icing is perfect on top. Not too sweet; perfect “icing on the cake”. Tried lots of coffee cake recipes and this is the one I’ve been trying to find. Thank you!
Holly, This is such wonderful news. When creating this recipe, I really wanted that tender, moist crumb and wow does this recipe deliver. We are so happy you enjoy the recipe so much.
Looks a-maze-ing. Have printed, can’t wait to try it. Will have to wait till I get some sour cream… actually, I could use greek yoghurt? I’m going to add some coffee too, and I really do have a soft spot for the coffee cake that is actually flavoured with coffee…A question though – will it be okay to freeze with the glaze on? Thanks!
HI Karlie, greek yogurt is a great idea and freezing should work nicely.
made this for the 2nd time last night. first time the only thing i changed was for the glaze. i did not have maple syrup so i substituted honey….added fresh lemon juice & lemon zest. DELISH! last night i subbed yogart for the sour cr. vanila + plain. for the glaze i did same as before But added some raspberry jam. texture of the cake was a bit. not as lite..but otherwise just so delicious. the cake w/sour cr remined me of a buttercake my mom use to make. it was from betty crocker mix & so incredibly good, however, to make this from scratch w/the struesel & glaze..wish MOM was her to taste it! There was sooo much struesel, i covered the 1st layer & the top & still had some left over. more than in your pic. nothing like lots of streusel! THANKS..
Yes, this cake has a lot of streusel (I love it this way). Thanks for coming back and sharing!
This looks delicious! Can I ask about storage instructions, does this freeze well? Do we need to refrigerate? How long can it keep for?
Thanks!
Hi Monica, This freezes well! I cut the cake into single-serving slices and then freeze in resealable bags. I’d assume that they would keep for one month, possible a little longer.
So yummy looking I could just lick the monitor. You wouldn’t happen to do a Fresh Apple Cake too would you? Just wondering.
Hi Patti, we don’t have a recipe for apple cake but we do have a recipe for apple bread, apple pie and apple cupcakes.
Hi! This sounds delicious. I need to use gluten free flour though, so if anyone tries it with that, I hope they will let you know.Thanks!
Hi Alene, I’ll keep my eye out for other bakers trying this recipe with GF flour. Honestly, I think it will work, but have not actually tried it myself.
Stupid question: Coffee cake but I don’t see any coffee in the ingredients? Also, what’s the best alternative for molasses? Thank you in advance, Lara 🙂
Hi Lara, Coffee cake is an odd ball. Even though it’s called coffee cake, it doesn’t usually contain coffee. It is usually enjoyed with coffee. There really isn’t any good alternative for molasses because it gives the cake a really nice rich flavor. If you don’t have molasses you can leave it out. Our best advice is to use dark brown sugar for the streusel instead of light (if you have it on hand) since that does have a bit more richness.