Simple and classic, this buttery cinnamon crumb coffee cake is anything but plain! Sour cream ensures a moist, light (not overly dense) breakfast cake, and there’s double the brown sugar cinnamon crumb streusel. Enjoy a thick ribbon of streusel inside and plenty of crumbs on top, both made from the same mixture.
I originally published this recipe in 2015 and have since added new photos and a few more success tips. I’ve also made two small changes to the recipe, which are reflected in the printable recipe below.
Cake for breakfast… well, don’t mind if I do! I’ve published quite a few coffee cake recipes over the years, and this is my go-to, absolute favorite sour cream version.
I’ve made so many variations of this one over the years, including doubling the crumb so there’s more swirl INSIDE and ON TOP of the cake. That’s the version you’ll find in the printable recipe below. (Because what’s the point of crumb cake if it’s all cake and no crumb?! Double the crumb = double the fun!)
One reader, Crystal, commented: “This is delicious! The crumb is surprisingly light and tender… This is my first foray into coffee cake, and I don’t think I need to look any further. ★★★★★”
Another reader, Stacey, commented: “My family loved this recipe! I’ve made MANY sour cream coffee cake recipes over the years. This is by far THE BEST!! ★★★★★”
You Will Love This Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake
This cinnamon crumb coffee cake is the original and “plain” version of my raspberry almond crumb cake, cranberry Christmas cake, and blackberry cream cheese crumb cake.
Compared to my New York-style crumb cake recipe, it’s smaller and softer—with a lighter, more cake-like crumb. It also has a delicious cinnamon swirl inside and vanilla icing on top, similar to cinnamon swirl quick bread, cinnamon swirl banana bread, and crumb cake muffins. The best part? Make just 1 cinnamon crumb mixture and use that for the filling AND topping.
- Texture: Tender, fluffy cake paired with a soft crumb topping. Each slice boasts a cinnamon-y ribbon running through the middle.
- Flavor: Classic coffee cake flavors of butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- Ease: Prepare 1 mixture for both the cinnamon swirl and the crumb topping.
This coffee cake is delightful alongside a cup of coffee or tea (or a mimosa!). Make it for a birthday breakfast, a coffee catch-up with a friend, or a morning meeting—really any time you want to make the morning a little special. It’s always a favorite among these Easter brunch recipes, too!
Key Ingredients (Especially Sour Cream!)
- Brown Sugar: Moist brown sugar is the key to a crumb topping that’s soft, not crunchy.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is sturdy enough to support the heavy crumb layer. I was tempted to use cake flour in the recipe to achieve an ultra-soft crumb, but found that all-purpose gave a more ideal texture for a breakfast cake.
- Cinnamon: We can’t have cinnamon crumb cake without it!
- Butter: You need cold butter for the streusel and room temperature butter for the cake. Cream the softened butter with sugar, which produces a wonderfully cakey texture. If you’re a beginner baker, this tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar will be helpful.
- Baking Powder + Baking Soda: These leaveners help the cake rise.
- Salt: Flavor enhancer.
- Granulated Sugar: We’ll cream the butter + sugar together for the base of the cake batter.
- Eggs: Bind ingredients together, and make the cake tender and rich.
- Vanilla Extract: If you have homemade vanilla extract, use it!
- Sour Cream: The magic moist maker! Just like in this white cake, sour cream makes the cake incredibly moist and lush.
- Milk: Just a little to thin out the batter so you can spread it in the pan.
Make the Cinnamon Crumb Mixture First
To keep things simple, there’s only 1 cinnamon crumb mixture. Layer 1 cup (practically half) in the center of the coffee cake and sprinkle the rest on top. You need brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and cold, cubed butter. The butter must be chilled. Why the emphasis on cold? The streusel mixture needs to maintain some of its structure in the oven or else both layers will sink to the bottom.
Use a pastry cutter to cut the cold butter into the other ingredients. You could also use 2 forks, or a food processor. Look how crumbly it gets:
Expect a Thick Coffee Cake Batter
Refrigerate the crumb mixture as you make the cake batter. The batter is rich and thick, and you need to divide it in half so you can layer in some of the cinnamon crumbs. The old version of the recipe created such a thick, heavy batter that it was difficult to divide and spread into the pan. By adding a little milk (just 2 Tablespoons!), the batter is much easier to divide and spread.
You need an 8-inch square pan for this recipe. See below for other size variations. Line it with lightly greased parchment paper so you can easily remove the cake from the pan as a whole, or just directly grease the pan. (Either way works.) Eyeball half of the cake batter and smooth it into the bottom of the greased pan. It does NOT have to be exact, nor perfect. Layer 1 cup (about half) of the cinnamon crumbs on top:
Now spread the remaining batter on top. This can be tricky since you’re spreading thick batter on an unstable crumb foundation. Just do your best. Top with remaining crumbs:
Bake, and then top with vanilla icing. The icing is optional, but always a fabulous (and pretty) finishing touch. You could even turn it into a delicious orange icing by replacing the milk with orange juice.
Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake Success Tips
- Pay attention to ingredient temperature. The butter in the crumb mixture should be cold, and the butter, eggs, and sour cream in the cake batter should be room temperature.
- Do your best to spread the thick batter. The top layer can be hard to spread on top of the cinnamon crumb layer, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Don’t overthink it.
- Use a metal pan or a glass pan. If using ceramic, the coffee cake may take longer to bake. If using extra dark metal, the cake may take less time.
FAQ: Why Is This Called Coffee Cake?
I get this question a lot. 🙂 There is no coffee IN this cake! “Coffee cake” gets its name not because of the ingredients in the cake, but because it’s a breakfast cake to be enjoyed WITH coffee.
Variations & Different Pan Sizes
- Add some extras! Try it as cranberry Christmas cake (with pecans) or raspberry almond crumb cake; or mix and match your favorite add-ins and flavors. Chocolate chips are always a good idea. (Fold 1 cup/180g into the cake batter.)
- Add a cream cheese layer, like in this blackberry cream cheese version.
- Bake in a 9×5-inch loaf pan—no changes to the ingredients; bake time is about 40 minutes.
- Bake it in a 9-inch round cake pan—no changes to the ingredients and bake time.
- Bake in a 9×13-inch pan—see recipe Notes for exact instructions/ingredient amounts. My team and I tested a few versions of this larger size, so use the precise amounts in the Notes below. This is a wonderful size if you’re feeding a crowd:
Sour Cream Coffee Cake (with Crumb Topping)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: serves 9-12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Every baker should have a classic, old-fashioned and buttery coffee cake recipe in their back pocket and this one is my gold standard, baseline recipe. You’re welcome to borrow it! An 8-inch square pan is required, but see the recipe Notes for other sizes.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Crumb Mixture
- 2/3 cup (135g) packed dark or light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (95g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Cake
- 1 and 1/3 cups (166g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (120g) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature*
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk (any kind, dairy or nondairy, is fine)
Vanilla Icing (Optional)
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) heavy cream or milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line an 8-inch square pan (9-inch square is too big, see Notes for other pan sizes) with lightly greased parchment paper or directly grease the pan. I usually use this square pan or this square pan.
- Make the cinnamon crumb mixture: Combine the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a pastry cutter or two forks (or use a food processor or your hands) until the mixture is in pea-sized crumbs. Some larger crumbs are OK. You’ll have a little over 2 cups of crumb. Refrigerate until step 5.
- Make the cake: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until combined. Beat in the sour cream. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula and beat again as needed to combine. Mixture will be lumpy.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and beat on low speed until just combined. Finally, beat in the milk. Do not overmix this batter. The batter will be thick. You’ll have about 2 and 1/2 cups of batter.
- Carefully spread about half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle 1 cup (about half) of the crumb mixture evenly on top. Carefully spread the remaining batter on top (every last drop of it!). This can be a little tricky since you’re spreading thick batter on top of crumbs, but do your best. I usually use a spoon or small offset spatula. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture evenly on top.
- Bake for around 35–40 minutes or until the cake is baked through. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done. Allow cake to cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
- Make the icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together. Drizzle over warm cake.
- Lift the cake from the pan using the overhang parchment paper around the sides and slice into squares. Or, if you didn’t use parchment, slice directly in the pan. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.
- Cover leftovers tightly and store at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The cake can be baked and covered tightly at room temperature overnight. Make the glaze the next morning and drizzle over cake before serving. Cake, with or without icing, can be frozen up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-inch Square Baking Pan (such as this one or this one) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Small Offset Spatula | Cooling Rack
- Sour Cream: Sour cream creates a bakery-style tender and thick crumb. Do not skip it. If needed, you can substitute full-fat or low-fat (not nonfat) Greek yogurt.
- Loaf Pan: If you’d like to bake this coffee cake in a 9×5-inch loaf pan, adjust the bake time to about 40 minutes.
- 9-inch Round Pan: This recipe is too small for a 9-inch square pan; however, it fits wonderfully in a 9-inch round cake pan. Same instructions and bake time.
- 9×13-inch Pan: If you want to make this cake in a 9×13-inch pan, you need to just about 1.5x the recipe. My team and I tested the exact amounts and here is what you’ll need. The instructions are exactly the same, just use the following amounts. Crumb: 1 cup (200g) packed dark or light brown sugar, 1 and 1/4 cups (156g) all-purpose flour, 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 10 Tablespoons (1 stick + 2 Tbsp or 145g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed. Cake: 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar, 3 large eggs, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 cup (240g) sour cream, 1/4 cup (60ml) milk. The icing recipe makes a lot, so it’s plenty for the larger cake. Bake time is closer to 45 minutes. Makes 24 servings.
- Update in 2022: After making this recipe for 7 years straight, I’ve made 2 small updates to produce an even better sour cream coffee cake. The recipe above has more crumb filling/topping than the 2015 version and it also includes a touch of milk to smooth out the batter. If you wish to make the old version, skip the milk and halve the amounts for the crumb filling/topping.
- Why is this called coffee cake and there is no coffee in the cake? “Coffee cake” gets its name not because of the ingredients in the cake, but because it’s a breakfast cake to be enjoyed WITH coffee.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can you make the bater the night before and then bake it in then morning?
Hi Lucas, we don’t recommend preparing cake batter ahead of time. It will not rise properly when baked. See recipe Notes for our recommended make-ahead instructions. Enjoy!
This was amazing! I made it gluten free and followed the advice of another poster to add more sour cream and butter to counteract the dry gluten free flour. I made a double batch and added 3 sticks of butter and 260g sour cream. I let my batter sit for five minutes before I added it to the pan. Baked for about 45 minutes. My crumble did sink but it was so delicious nobody cared!
For the icing, 2 Tsps instead of 2 tablespoons?
Hi Bruce, we use 2 tablespoons of milk in the icing.
Made this today using King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten free flour and it is delicious. My oldest daughter, who has celiac disease, was so excited; she loves coffee cake.
Hello! I was wondering if I’m able to make the batter but not bake it up for a day or two?
Hi Sarah, we don’t recommend preparing cake batter ahead of time. It will not rise properly when baked. See recipe Notes for our recommended make-ahead instructions. Enjoy!
I’ve made this recipe several times, using different pans and even replacing the cinnamon with black sesame. The sesame is a mild flavor, so I scoop one extra tbsp. Its so so good! Anyhow, I find the crumb is a lot! So I double up the batter and bake this in a 8×8 pan and it’s PERFECT!
Thank you so much for the recipe, it’s delicious with coffee and my go to for brunch bake for family/friends!
Cheers!
can I use almond flour instead?
Hi Genesis, we don’t recommend almond flour here, as it has very different baking properties than all-purpose flour and isn’t necessarily a 1:1 swap.
I made a gluten free version of this with some minor changes and it was amazing! It was for a school event for 9 people and I was cleaned out by the end of the session haha.
Changes I made:
I made the crumb topping the night before and refrigerated it overnight. I don’t have any electric mixers so I did all of it by hand as well so this recipe is definitely do-able without the tech. I also measured by mass, not volume, so thank you for providing both sets of measurements.
I used a good brand of gluten-free AP flour instead of regular AP flour. Some minor adjustments I made was adding a little more baking powder, a little more butter, and a little more sour cream to counteract the drier flour. I also hand mixed, and almost under-mixed the batter to prevent toughness/denseness.
I did not add the 30ml of milk at the end since I had so much moisture from the extra butter and sour cream.
I used a loaf pan and baked for about 60-65min which was a little over time I think. No burning, but the bottom was definitely a dark brown when it could’ve been lighter. The cake came out moist and delicious, the group could not even tell it was gluten-free when they ate it. The only problem I ran into was that the crumb sank to the bottom of the cake so I didn’t get that beautiful swirl in the middle and the crumbly top. I’m not sure why this happened. Since there was no crumb on top anymore, I decided to quickly make the glaze since it would make it a little prettier. Everyone absolute loved it, I barely got a piece for myself. I will definitely make this again.
Because this recipe is so moist and flavourful with the crumb and sour cream, it adapts very well to becoming gluten free. I will make it again with regular flour and try to fix the crumb sinking issue.
Amazing recipe, thank you!
I’ll admit I have not made this recipe yet, but I love your recipes. I wanted to point out that I really do appreciate:
1) displaying bake times for various pan sizes
2) when updates are done to the recipe, you show when and what the updates were.
Not all sites do this! Thanks!
Oh my! This is so delicious! I’ve tried so many cinnamon coffee cake recipes but they are always dry. This one was easy and perfect. I followed the recipe exactly. Love the cinnamon crumb in it and on top. It was not too much topping. I’ll never make another recipe! Thank you!
I made the recipe in a 9-inch round cake pan for 32 minutes and it was PERFECTION! I look forward to making the larger 9×13 version next. This coffee cake is so tender and delicious! Thank you for a great recipe!!
I want the cake to be MOIST. I hate dense and dry. How do you make sure it will come out good and fluffy/moist?? My oven is a bit hot so should I at some time cover the top??? CRITICAL. Since the ….. have jacked up; for no reason ; food prices this is CRITICAL. Thank you
Hi Sarah, Make sure not to overmix your batter! That’s often the culprit for overly dense cakes. You’ll want to mix until the ingredients are just combined. Also pay attention to how you measure your flour. Be sure to use the spoon & level method to prevent over measuring. Hope this helps!
Thank you so much. It makes me so happy when somebody helps another person. Thank you!
I realized that the cake doesnt rise much. Is that true? Should I double the recipe for 1 8×8 baking pan for better results?
Hi Neha, does your cake look to be about the thickness of the photos above? How’s the texture? This recipe is for an 8×8 inch pan. If it didn’t rise at all, perhaps your baking powder or baking soda are getting old. We would try again with fresh.
I have tried several different recipes to get that ‘perfect’ coffee cake; many of them have been successful and enjoyed. When I tried this one … that was it! This will be my go-to coffee cake from now on! A beautiful crumb, the cinnamon crumb mixture between layers and on top of the batter makes for a flavour and texture that is so delicious! Thanks for yet another successful and delicious recipe, Team Sally!
This is my favorite coffee cake!! Any idea how it could be altered to be gluten free?
Hi Trisha, we haven’t tested a gluten free version, but let us know if you do any experimenting!
Oh goodness!
All I’m trying to convey is that it’s a good recipe, you should try it!
Delicious but mine did not cook through in the middle even after 40 minutes. Did I need a higher temperature? A larger pan?
Hi Wickett! What pan did you use? We would continue baking until the cake is cooked through. You can tent the cake with aluminum foil to prevent the top from burning while it continues to bake.
I used the loaf pan and it was also still completely wet at 40 minutes. Had to leave it in until around 55 minutes to bring it up to 200F and have it completely baked. It was very moist and I think could have even gone to 60min and been great
Wonderful recipe – made it in a 10″ round and it came out great.
I followed this recipe exactly (using gram weights), other than adding orange zest to the wet ingredients and subbing cardamom for cinnamon. I wanted a perfect coffee cake base to experiment with these flavors, and this was it. I can’t believe how perfect this cake is, so moist but also simultaneously light somehow. Love it! I used a loaf pan and baked for 50 minutes.
I just want to tell you this is the best coffee cake recipe I have made it is addictive. I was wondering if this recipe can be turned into muffins?
Hi Blake, we just adapted it for this recipe for crumb cake muffins. Enjoy!
Perfect thank you so much
OMG, I made this recipe but used in place of brown sugar for Crumb Mixture-Brown Swerve
and in place of white sugar in Cake-Stevia in the Raw and wow was this so delicious! I skipped the icing all together and yummmm! Thank you for a great recipe I will be using again!
Thank you for a great recipe. I posted on the apple cobbler thread prior. This was another hit at my local temple! I am the head cook there and we made this for 300 as part of our free feast (multiplied recipe by ~16). This tasted like a cinnamon roll / donut hybrid, especially with the glaze on top (use heavy cream and it sets really well).
So I found the ratios of the batter to the crumb layer to be off, unless you like a TON of crumbs and a very thin batter. I had way too much crumb mixture left over and way too little batter. If you are scaling this, scale it all up as normal (you can use mykitchencalculator recipe converter or ChatGPT to make it much quicker than manually doing it), then scale down the crumb mixture by multiplying by 0.66, and scale up the cake batter by multiplying by 1.66. The icing / glaze was also a bit off for me but you can just slowly add however much cream/milk to get it in the consistency you want, I needed about 2-3x the heavy cream.
Hey Sally! I use your website constantly but this sour cream coffee cake recipe didn’t cook at all in the middle after 40 minutes. I used a round cake pan. Any ideas why? The edges still tasted delicious though.
Hi Kate, what size pan did you use? It could be that the coffee cake was spread a little thicker in your pan, and needed more time to bake through.
I’m making it right now. (The batter tastes so good!) I added ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom to the mixture….also doing a vanilla/ginger/coconut/rose water glaze.
My daughter made this and loved it. Question: can I add blueberry or apple to this cake? Thanks
Hi Sandra, that should work just fine! We often use this same base (or close to it) for other crumb cakes such as cranberry cake and raspberry almond crumb cake. We also have this blackberry crumb cake that you might enjoy. You can fold the berries right into the batter if you wish to try with this recipe. Here’s our apple crumb cake recipe as well.
My first sally recipe to fail! A lot of the crumb topping sank only the middle 3cm were still on top. I think going forward I’d put the crumb on after ten minutes of baking as I’d normally do but I thought freezing/fridging the crumb would make it not sink.
I’m making this cake right now. This is the third or fourth time I’ve used this recipe. Is just perfect! If you like coffee cake , you’ll never gonna buy it from a store again. Thanks!!
I made this to take to a meeting today (used a 9×5 pan) and got rave reviews. Thank you! Your recipes never disappoint.
9X9 inch pan may be better suited for the 9X13 recipe and there’s about 1 1/2 cups too much of the crumb mixture
I did the 9×13 and it was not enough I recommend doing double the recipe instead of the one in the notes, otherwise it’s a great recipe!
I made this today to give most away to a 93 year old friend! I added 2 apples to the cake batter. Also cut it into smaller sized pieces because that is what she likes. I tried a piece and it is seriously delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!