Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

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This classic coffee cake recipe is made with a buttery cinnamon streusel ribbon through the middle and on the bottom of each slice.

I have a little bone to pick with “coffee cake,” because as the name suggests, you’d think it should be a cake flavored with coffee, much like my mocha cake.

But alas, because America is interesting, coffee cake is actually, in fact, a sweet cake intended to be served with coffee or tea.

This recipe for coffee cake has lived on my website since 2015, when I did a series of my favorite things (affectionately called #lynnsfavs). I have always loved coffee cake, likely because it is quite the vehicle for cinnamon and streusel, two of my love languages.

Back in 2015, I was still learning how to branch out from cookies, cupcakes, and cakes, so I turned to my favorite celebrity baker, Ina, knowing she’d likely have something for me to start with.

I really needed a coffee cake recipe that would check off all of the qualities I was looking for, which included:
•an easy, uncomplicated list of ingredients
•lots of cinnamon
•something that would be super moist
•could fit into a bundt pan (more on this later)
•and didn’t need any kind of glaze

After perusing what seemed like hundreds of recipes, one look at Ina’s and I knew I had found the coffee cake of my dreams.

Of course, I changed a few things to make Ina’s coffee cake fit my preferences, such as eliminating the glaze and putting streusel in every crevice I could.

This is a cinnamon streusel coffee cake, after all. The streusel needed to be the star of the show.

So much the star, in fact, that I put a layer of streusel not only on the bottom but ALSO the middle of the batter in my bundt pan so my coffee cake has adequate amounts of streusel in every single bite.

INGREDIENTS

The ingredient list for this streusel coffee cake recipe is quite simple. And you’ll repeat a few of the ingredients from the streusel topping to the cinnamon coffee cake itself, so don’t be intimidated by the seemingly long list below.

COFFEE CAKE

For the coffee cake itself, you’ll be using flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt as the dry ingredients.

The fat base is made with softened butter, both brown and white sugars, eggs, vanilla extract, and the ingredient that brings the most moisture to this moist coffee cake, the full fat yogurt or sour cream.

Either is totally fine, but I sincerely urge you to make this cinnamon streusel coffee cake with sour cream as opposed to yogurt– it is just SO luscious!

STREUSEL

I love streusel so much that I have dedicated an entire post to just streusel topping. If you’re interested in the whats and whys of the ingredients, how to convert the recipe and use it for any baked good you desire, give that post a read.

For the streusel in this cinnamon streusel bundt cake, you’ll need flour, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, salt, and butter (see? I told you we’d repeat ingredients from the batter!).

HOW TO MAKE CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE

Before you get to making the coffee cake batter, you’ll make your streusel topping. You can do this up to 3 days in advance, being sure to store your streusel covered in the refrigerator.

Once your streusel is ready, you can get to work on the coffee cake batter.

You’ll start by whisking together the dry ingredients and setting them aside. You’ll be adding them to the wet ingredients in a bit.

Next, cream together your butter and sugars until light in color and fluffy in texture. Beat in the eggs, vanilla extract, and yogurt or sour cream.

Lastly, add the dry ingredients, beating until just combined. The resulting batter will give you a light and fluffy coffee cake crumb that is the perfect vehicle for the sweet, salty, and slightly crisp cinnamon streusel that gets all up in every bite.

ASSEMBLE THE CINNAMON STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE IN A BUNDT PAN

I love doing this coffee cake in a bundt pan because not only does it look so pretty in that bundt shape, but the slices of cake get tall and can totally show off that delectable cinnamon streusel ribbon going through each slice.

When I originally shared this coffee cake, I had a streusel layer on top and on the bottom, but over time, I preferred having a streusel layer in the middle, as it showcases the texture and flavor much better than squishing the streusel into the bottom of the bundt pan.

Then, layer on the rest of the batter and finish off the whole thing with the remaining streusel topping.

WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A BUNDT PAN?

If you don’t have a bundt pan or simply don’t want to use one, this recipe will fit into a 9″ x 13″ baking pan. See recipe notes for assembly and baking instructions.

HOW TO GET COFFEE CAKE OUT OF THE BUNDT PAN

Once your cake is fully baked, you’ll let it rest for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, you’ll very carefully, and with oven mitts (because your pan will still be crazy hot), flip your pan onto the serving dish, leaving the cake in the pan to cool.

Not only will this insure your cake comes out of the pan, but it will also flatten out the streusel on the top of the cake (which, in your flipping, will make the top the bottom– did I lose you?) so your cake will sit nicely on a flat surface despite its bottom being FULL OF STREUSEL LUMPS!!

LEAVE AS IS OR TOP WITH SOMETHING YOU LOVE

I almost always leave my sour cream streusel coffee cake as is, but I have also served it with a simple dusting of powdered sugar or an easy glaze. If you want a glaze, there’s a very simple recipe in the instructions below.

I don’t know if I have adequate words to describe to you just how delicious this coffee cake is. Not only do you have streusel in every which way you take a bite, but the cake itself is just an absolutely perfect texture.

It is not too dense that you feel weighed down by each bite, but it’s also not light in the slightest, so you have a ton of vanilla/cinnamon cake flavor going on between your bites of buttery streusel.

Dunk it in your coffee, eat it straight up, make up some glaze if you feel you really want it… However it is that you decide to enjoy your coffee cake, know that you might find yourself sneaking nibble after nibble after nibble before there isn’t any more coffee cake.

Which I guess wouldn’t be the worst thing– you could just make it again. And you’ll want to. Because it’s that good.

…and I cannot be held responsible for how much coffee cake with streusel consumption might be in your future.