The BEST and EASIEST Coffee Cake Recipe! It’s moist, delicious and perfect for showers, breakfast and holiday celebrations!
Along with our One Hour Cinnamon Rolls and Cinnamon Roll Cake, this Coffee Cake is always on our holiday must-make list. Be sure to try our Coffee Cake Muffins too! Can you tell we love our cinnamon cakes?!
Easy Coffee Cake
One of my FAVORITE things to make for a breakfast get-together is coffee cake! This next recipe is quick and it is so buttery and cinnamon-y that everyone loves it. My mom first made it for me when I left for a summer camp as a teenager and I remember thinking, “I need to have this recipe in my life!” It was just too good.
Since then, I’ve tried a few coffee cake recipes before, but none come close to this one. It’s simple and has become a staple for many holiday morning celebrations. This cake is moist, soft, warm and full of cinnamon and sugar goodness.
Why is it called coffee cake when there isn’t coffee in the ingredients? This type of cake has been around for centuries with each country having their own variation. The American versions have a delicious streusel topping and seem to have mainly originated from Germany. No matter the recipe what they all had in common was being served alongside warm cup of coffee. Hence the name Coffee Cake!
How to Make Coffee Cake
As we mentioned, this coffee cake recipe is very simple. It takes us about 10 minutes to make before throwing it in the oven. After 30 minutes or so, you end up with the most delicious coffee cake you’ll ever try. 😉
To make it, begin by mixing the oil, eggs, vanilla and milk together. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients – sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Set aside.
Then you will make your streusel/brown sugar topping by combining the brown sugar and cinnamon.
Pour half the batter into a greased 9×13 pan. Sprinkle on half the streusel. Top with remaining batter and then sprinkle on the rest of the streusel. Drizzle with melted margarine/butter.
Super easy!! The best part is knowing you have brown sugar and cinnamon all through out the cake! We love serving this coffee cake straight from the oven, but I must warn, it’s just as delicious cold too! 😉
Is this batter supposed to be so dense? Yes, don’t be alarmed when your batter seems thicker than you’re expecting. Using a spoon or spatula to mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients can help with the density. If you’re really worried you can add an extra egg or a little bit more milk to thin it out and make it easier to pour.
What are some coffee cake add-ins or substitutions?
- Adding fruit can be a delicious variation. Try blueberries, sliced peaches or sliced apples. The liquid from the fruit may cause the cake to be baked longer.
- Use applesauce or coconut oil instead of vegetable oil
- Add sliced almonds or chopped pecans or walnuts to the top of the cake to give it a delightful crunch
- Drizzle a glaze over the top: Make a glaze by mixing ½ c confectioners sugar with 1 tablespoon milk. Mix until smooth and drizzle over cooled cake.
How do I store coffee cake?
Here are our top tips for storing coffee cake:
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
We like our coffee cake warm. To reheat: Warm in microwave for 10 second increments until warm. To heat in the oven remove any plastic wrap, then wrap in aluminum foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and heat for 6-8 minutes or until warm.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy treat you can make for a breakfast get together, shower or meeting, then you should try this cake. It always gets two big thumbs up from anyone who tries it. 😀
For more coffee cake recipes, check out:
Coffee Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl. combine oil, eggs, vanilla and milk together.
- In a medium bowl, blend together sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
- Combine egg mixture with flour mixture. Pour half the batter into a lightly greased 9x13 pan.
- In a medium bowl, prepare streusel by combining brown sugar and cinnamon.
- Sprinkle half of streusel on top of the batter. Top with remaining batter and then sprinkle the remaining streusel on top.
- Drizzle with melted butter (you can do less and use 1/3 cup butter or up to 1/2 cup butter melted).
- Bake, covered with foil at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Take off foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.
so easy to make! My house smells fantastic. Can’t wait to serve it to my friends 🤗
I hope they like it! Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Please update bake times. You have cook time at 25 minutes at the top, but in the recipe it’s 25-30 covered plus 10 uncovered. Even with that it’s still pretty raw in the middle.
I made this wonderful recipe yesterday for a brunch I was invited to. It was a huge hit! My tweaks included using coconut oil, adding 1/2 cup of flour and 1c chopped pecans to the streusel, cooking it 5 minutes longer and using half of the butter (I used 1/2c like the recipe showed) on the first layer of streusel and the remainder on the top to eliminate the pooling I read about. I will definitely be using this recipe in the future.
Sounds good! Glad it was a hit! Thank you for sharing that!
Taste good. When splitting the reciepe for the layers we found there wasn’t alot of it left to cover for the top. Also took way longer than suggested baked time. Took an hour. Just will know for next time to plan ahead as we ended up having it more as a brunch than breakfast.
Thank you for trying it 🙂
Incredible! If I want to make it in mini bunt pans should I put the sugar on the bottom and batter on top of that? Additionally, How long would you suggest cooking it for?
I am so sorry, but I haven’t tried, so I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing. I would need to experiment with it. If you try, let me know how they turn out 😉
I might’ve done it wrong, but the butter and the mixture at the top all went to the middle. Once I took off the foil I had to cook it 30 more minutes so that it was cooked all the way through! I am giving this 4 stars because I might’ve used the wrong dish or something. But, overall this recipe is perfect for someone who has these basic ingredients laying around their house!
Thank you do much for sharing that!
Good recipe, smells great, but it takes significantly longer to bake than is listed here. I’d suggest baking until a toothpick comes out of the middle of the cake clean. Good luck y’all!
Thank you for trying it!!
I love this recipe.
I am so happy you do! Thank you!!
I’m confused about this recipe and frustrated. It’s in the oven now, 1/2 of the batter for first layer in a 9×13 is a very thin layer it barely covered the pan! I had to use more than half and then had to dollop the batter for the top layer b/c there wasn’t nearly enuf to spread. Also This seemed to be a ton of brown sugar mixture so I didn’t cover the top layer with it. because of this I didn’t want to pour all of the butter over the batter directly because I knew this pooling problem would occur, the batter wouldn’t absorb all of the butter. Idk we will see how it comes out but so far this recipe is weird and I think 9×13 is way too big for the recipe, how did others not think this as well?
This is delicious. It makes around 24 muffins, I baked them for 20 min at 400° and they came out perfect.
Good to know! Thank you for sharing that!
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. It turned out very good. 5 stars !! 10 stars !! 11 stars !! I too needed some more time to get the center to cook all the way. I am a creative type, so next time I want to use some apple sauce to replace half the oil, and I want to add some diced apples as well to the batter and to the topping. So so glad to have come upon this tasty treat while hunkered down in the latest polar vortex storm. This brought smiles all around !!!
Adding as many stars as I can 🙂
That makes me so happy!! Love adding some different things! Stay safe out there!
This was a delicious coffee cake.
I feel the amount of time to prepare and bake is off. It took me longer than 5 minutes to prepare, probably closer to 10 minutes. Also you bake for 25 minutes covered plus 10 more uncovered.
I feel total time is closer to 45 minutes. But, like I stated before it is delicious.
Thank you for trying it 🙂 Glad you like it!
This is in the oven now – smells and looks amazing! However, I wish I had read the comments before because it is taking WAY longer than 35 minutes to bake. I’ve actually lost track of how long it’s taking because I keep putting it back in for 10-15 minute increments. I wish this was stated somewhere in the actual recipe because now we are running late for the event we were taking this to. I hope it tastes as good as it smells!
I am sorry about that. I appreciate you trying it. I hope you liked it!
Most Excellent. I tried it. It was awesome…
Thank you for trying it! Glad you like it!
I did half of the butter on the middle section and a little extra milk as well and it was amazing!! Seriously so soo good, thanks for the recipe!! Not too difficult to make and very enjoyable.
Thank you for sharing what you did! Glad you liked it!
Excellent! And so easy, too.