This coffee cake recipe gives you the tender, sour-cream crumb cake most people picture: a soft cinnamon-spiced cake with a thick streusel ribbon running through the middle and piled on top. One thing to clear up first, because it confuses bakers everywhere: a classic American coffee cake usually contains no coffee at all. It is a cake eaten with coffee. Elsewhere, especially in Britain, "coffee cake" often means a cake actually flavoured with coffee. We cover both below, plus easy blueberry, blackberry and mixed-berry variations.
What "coffee cake" actually means
The name trips up cooks on opposite sides of the world, so let us settle it before you preheat anything.
- American coffee cake is a soft, cinnamon-scented cake topped with a crumbly streusel. It is named for the moment it is served, alongside a cup of coffee at breakfast or brunch, not for any coffee inside it. Most recipes contain zero coffee.
- British "coffee cake" usually means a coffee-and-walnut cake: a sponge genuinely flavoured with strong coffee, finished with coffee buttercream and walnut halves. Here the coffee is the point.
Because the dominant craving is for the crumb-topped American style, that is the main recipe below. A genuinely coffee-flavoured version follows for anyone who means the British sense of the term.
Coffee cake vs crumb cake
These two overlap so much that bakeries often use the names interchangeably. The loose convention: a crumb cake leans heavily on a very thick crumb topping over a thinner cake, while a coffee cake balances cake and topping and frequently tucks a streusel ribbon inside as well. The recipe here does both, which is why it satisfies either expectation.
The classic crumb coffee cake recipe
This is a sour-cream coffee cake, the version most home bakers consider the gold standard. Sour cream (or thick yogurt) keeps the crumb moist and tender for days. The same brown-sugar cinnamon mixture does double duty: a layer of it runs through the centre, and the rest goes on top.
What you need
Quantities are given in cups and grams so the recipe works wherever you bake. It makes one cake in a roughly 9-inch (23 cm) square pan or a deep 9-inch round.
For the cinnamon streusel (used inside and on top)
- 1 cup (200 g) packed brown sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- A pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (115 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- Optional: 3/4 cup (about 85 g) chopped walnuts or pecans
For the cake
- 1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240 g) sour cream or thick plain yogurt, room temperature
- 2 cups (250 g) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Step by step
- Heat the oven. Set it to 350°F (175°C). Grease and line your pan, leaving a little overhang so you can lift the cake out later.
- Make the streusel. Stir together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Rub in the cold butter with your fingertips (or cut it in with a fork) until you have a bowl of damp, clumpy crumbs. Fold in the nuts if using. Chill it while you mix the cake so the clumps hold their shape in the oven.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the softened butter with the granulated sugar for 2 to 3 minutes until pale and fluffy. This builds the lift, so do not rush it.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Scrape the bowl.
- Combine the dry mix. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Alternate. Add the dry mix in three additions, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the dry mix. Mix only until just combined. Over-mixing makes the cake tough.
- Layer. Spread half the batter in the pan. Scatter about half the streusel over it as the middle ribbon. Spoon over the rest of the batter, smooth gently, then top with all the remaining streusel.
- Bake. 40 to 50 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer in the centre comes out with only a few moist crumbs. If the top browns too fast, tent it loosely with foil.
- Cool, then lift. Let it cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then lift it out by the paper. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Cold butter for the streusel, room-temperature butter, eggs and sour cream for the batter. That single rule fixes most coffee-cake failures: a topping that melts flat and a cake that bakes dense.
Storing and serving
Sour cream keeps this cake good for three to four days, well wrapped at room temperature. It also freezes well in slices. A light dusting of icing sugar, or a thin vanilla glaze drizzled over the cooled cake, dresses it up for a brunch table. As the name promises, it is at its best beside a cup of brewed coffee.
A real coffee-flavoured coffee cake
If by "coffee cake" you mean a cake that actually tastes of coffee, here is the simple route. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of instant coffee or espresso powder in 1 tablespoon of hot water and let it cool. Stir that paste into the creamed butter and sugar before adding the eggs in the main recipe, and reduce the cinnamon in the streusel to 1/2 teaspoon so the coffee comes through.
For the fully British coffee-and-walnut style, skip the streusel altogether, fold chopped walnuts into the batter, bake as two layers, and sandwich and cover them with a coffee buttercream (icing sugar beaten with butter and a little more of the same cooled coffee paste). If you would rather build the coffee flavour from a proper shot, our notes on how to make espresso at home will help you pull a strong, concentrated base. For the broader picture of what espresso is and why it works so well in baking, see espresso explained.
Berry coffee cake variations
Fruit turns this into a brunch centrepiece. The technique is the same for any berry; only the fruit changes. The golden rule is to toss the berries in a tablespoon of flour before folding them in. The light coating helps suspend them so they do not all sink to the bottom.
Blueberry coffee cake
For a blueberry coffee cake, fold 1 to 1.5 cups of blueberries into the finished batter. Fresh berries are ideal, but frozen work well too. Add frozen berries straight from the freezer without thawing, or they will bleed and turn the batter grey-purple. Blueberries pair beautifully with the cinnamon streusel and a squeeze of lemon zest in the batter.
Blackberry coffee cake
A blackberry coffee cake is made the same way. Blackberries are larger and juicier, so halve any big ones and be gentle when folding to avoid streaking the batter. Their slight tartness is a lovely contrast to the sweet crumb topping.
Mixed berry coffee cake
For a berry coffee cake that uses whatever you have, combine blueberries and blackberries, or add raspberries. Keep the total fruit to roughly 1.5 cups so the batter can still rise around it. A mixed berry coffee cake looks especially good with the crumb scattered between the fruit, leaving jewel-bright patches showing through.
Quick variation guide
| Variation | Fruit to add | Key tip |
|---|---|---|
| Classic crumb | None | Streusel inside and on top |
| Blueberry coffee cake | 1 to 1.5 cups blueberries | Toss in flour; add frozen unthawed |
| Blackberry coffee cake | 1 to 1.5 cups blackberries | Halve large berries; fold gently |
| Berry coffee cake | Mixed blueberries and blackberries | Keep total fruit to about 1.5 cups |
| Coffee-flavoured | None | Dissolved instant coffee in the batter |
Common questions while you bake
A few quick fixes for the problems people hit most: if your streusel melted into a flat layer, the butter was too warm or the topping was not chilled. If the cake sank in the middle, it was likely underbaked or had too much fruit. If it came out dry, you may have over-measured the flour. Spoon flour into the cup and level it, or weigh it for accuracy.
Keep exploring
A great coffee cake deserves a great cup beside it. If you want to brew something special to serve with your slice, our recipe for a caramel macchiato makes a sweet, milky partner, and our rundown of types of coffee drinks will help you pick the right one for the occasion. Bake the cake once, then make it your own with whatever berries are in season.