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.
Delicious! I added 1 cup of chopped pecans to the streusel. I live at 7,000 feet so cut the baking powder in half and baked it for an extra 5 minutes. It came out perfect!
Perfect! Happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing that!
First off my batter was not thick. I did everything just as written, I’m a seasoned baker but I thought I’d find a recipe that I could put together quickly, I don’t know how everyone else’s baked in the time allotted!!! mine has been in there for 45 minutes and it’s still very wet I’m just hoping it turns out. I usually have great results with most recipes so I love When I read comments like this… it helps with the end result.
Darn, I am sorry. I wish I knew why. I hope it turns out 🙂 Thanks for trying it!
Instead of oil I used sour cream and kept everything else the same. It is delicious!
Very, very good. 👍👏 It satisfied my craving. I’m glad you mentioned that the dough would be thick because I was a tad concerned about that. I added the powdered sugar drizzle too so you sure don’t have to add sugar to your coffee. Glad I found this recipe. 😊
I am glad you found it, too!! Thank you!
How could it NOT BE THICK after adding 3 CUPS OF FLOUR?
Wow wow wow! Perfect!
Loved it! But it took over 1 hour to cook! But that was fine since it was very good!! Will repeat!! Thank you!
This recipe was quick and easy! I did have to bake it about 10 mins longer but it cam out light, fluffy and yummy!
Thank you for sharing that 🙂
Hi. I just stumbled on your website last night when I was looking for a breakfast coffee cake. So I tried this recipe and it is absolutely amazing. Next time I am going to use 2/3 of the items to make a 9 x 9 cake for just my husband and me. Thank you so much.
You are so welcome! Glad you stumbled on my site 🙂 Thank you!
It tastes delicious, however the prep and baking times were woefully underestimated. I would say it took me closer to 10 min to prepare, and the cake was still very soupy in the middle at 30 min in at 350, so I bumped the oven to 400 and it still took another half hour to finish baking. Only thing I can think of was that I was using a glass pan rather than a metal one.
Kristyn, do you think you could add diced apples on top of this? Thanks
I made this and really wanted to like it but the cake itself is very bland. I’m sorry I would not make it again.