Coffee Cake

Quick answer

Total time: 55 min
Level: Easy
Servings: 9 servings
Ingredients: 6

About this dish

Coffee cake is an American snack cake topped with a buttery cinnamon streusel, designed to be eaten alongside coffee rather than containing coffee as an ingredient.

Sour cream in the batter produces a noticeably moister, more tender crumb than a standard butter cake, and its mild acidity keeps the overall sweetness from feeling heavy. The streusel is made by rubbing brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and cold butter together until the mixture forms coarse, irregular clumps; in the oven these bake into a sandy, crunchy topping that provides sharp textural contrast to the soft cake beneath. A widely used technique involves layering streusel into the center of the batter as well as on top, so that each slice reveals two distinct cinnamon-scented veins running through it. The cinnamon aroma is most pronounced when the cake is still warm from the oven, making the timing of serving worth paying attention to.

Ingredients (9 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Unit
All-purpose flour	200	g
Butter	80	g
Sugar	150	g
Eggs	2	piece
Sour cream	120	ml
Ground cinnamon	2	tsp

Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

6 steps

1

Step

Preheat the oven to 175°C and grease the baking tin lightly with butter or line it with parchment paper.

Press the parchment into the corners so the tender cake can be lifted out without breaking after baking.
2

Season

Rub part of the cold butter, part of the flour, part of the sugar, and 2 tsp ground cinnamon together with your fingertips.

Stop while the mixture still has coarse clumps, not a smooth paste, so it bakes into a crumbly streusel.
3

Season

Beat the remaining softened butter and sugar with a whisk for about 2 minutes, until lighter in color and fluffy.

Add the 2 eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition so the batter does not split.
4

Prep

Mix in 120 ml sour cream until smooth, then sift in the remaining 200 g flour.

Fold gently with a spatula only until dry streaks disappear; overmixing makes the sour cream cake dense instead of tender.
5

Prep

Spread half of the batter evenly in the prepared tin and scatter over some streusel.

Spoon on the remaining batter, level it gently without dragging the middle layer, then sprinkle the rest of the streusel across the top.
6

Heat

Bake at 175°C for about 35 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out without wet batter.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then slice while still warm for the strongest cinnamon aroma.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Sour cream in the batter produces a more tender, moist crumb than standard butter cakes.
Finish cue: Bake at 175°C for about 35 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out without wet batter.