Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake you can make without turning the kitchen upside down making cinnamon rolls. Minimal effort, almost all the flavor!
With a deliciously sweet glaze, and even a few seconds in the microwave the following day, this will be the best accessory to that cup of coffee we all look forward to in the morning.
Sabrina’s Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
Mother’s Day is coming up this Sunday and I’m not too excited. We live pretty far from family, so there is no celebration to attend and our little ones are too young to understand what Mother’s Day is. Instead, I am using it as an opportunity to save my calories until Memorial Day when I blow through them with lots and lots of bbq. That being said, I will take any excuse to make a delicious meal for someone, especially a brunch meal and this coffee cake can replace the classic Sour Cream Coffee Cake on any holiday table.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
For the Glaze
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Set oven to preheat at 350 degrees.
- Mix flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder with a whisk. In a separate bowl mix the milk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix the wet and dry together, then add in the melted butter. Mix until well combined.
- Use some baking spray to spray a rectangular cake pan, 9×13-inches, then pour the batter evenly into the pan.
- Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together and spread evenly on the cake. Use a knife or fork to swirl the sugar and cinnamon into the batter.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then let cool completely.
- To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and water until it is a consistency like pancake syrup.
- Pour over the cake and it will set into a harder glaze.
- Enjoy with a fantastic cup of coffee
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
About This Recipe
This is such an easy recipe for when you’re craving Cinnamon Rolls, but you don’t quite have the time, the energy, or even the space to roll out homemade rolls. This coffee cake will satisfy that craving your family might have and could even take the place of our amazing Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls on Thanksgiving or Nutella Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas!
Variations
Spice: Try adding in a little more spice into your cinnamon mixture with ¼ teaspoon of Nutmeg or Allspice. You could also replace the cinnamon with Pumpkin Pie Spice, which won’t bring you the flavor of pumpkin, but will bring you that great blend of sweet spices.
Cream Cheese: For an even more intense cinnamon roll flavor, use a Cream Cheese Frosting on your coffee cake.
Maple: Another option is to use maple extract in place of the vanilla extract for a maple glaze. You could also substitute one of the tablespoons of water with maple syrup to bring that fall flavor any time of year.
Citrus: You can a citrus flavor to your icing by replacing the water with orange, lime, or lemon juice and prepare it the same way you would with water.
Chocolate: Drizzle chocolate sauce or sprinkle chocolate chips on top of your coffee cake right before you put it in the oven for a chocolate chip topping. Try semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate chips.
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Oh. My. Gosh! This cake is AMAZING! I took one bite and just sunk in my chair. It has an absolutely delicious crunchy top layer and a soft, moist middle. I didn’t end up using the icing as it was way too sweet and tasted overwhelmingly like powered sugar. I also baked it for an extra 5 minutes as it was a little too liquidy in the middle. You HAVE to try this recipe! I will definitely be making it again!
Yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Lilly!
This was delicious and my husband loved it! This recipe was so simple and I chose to drizzle the glaze instead of cover the cake with it as needed. I baked in a convection oven at 350 for 30 minutes and it was just right. Thanks for sharing!!
This was so much easier than making cinnamon rolls. Everyone in the family loved it! I made a cream cheese frosting instead and lightly drizzled it over the cake so it wasn’t too sweet. This recipe is a keeper.
I’m a terrible baker and this was super easy and DELISH! Thank you! 🙂
I’m so glad you decided to give it a try….and don’t be so hard on yourself!
Cake was good. However, baking time is wrong. I baked for the 30 minutes recipe instructs. When I took it out of oven it was raw in the middle. Put back in for another 10 minutes and still raw in the middle. Baked another 15 minutes. So a total of 55 minutes to get it done. I did not put the icing on. It is plenty sweet without it.
Amazing and delicious!?
I was wonder if this recipe changes at a high altitude. If so what do you recommend doing.
I’ve not tested at high altitude.
The cake itself tastes great. It was easy to make and I’d make it again. However, the icing just tasted like pure sugar and I had to throw it away.
did you use powdered sugar or regular sugar?
I made it and it turned out really good. I am sharing it with my family so they can make it too.
Absolutely delicious!
My husband ate like half the cake after dinner last night. The only thing I changed was the bake time by adding 5 minutes. I also didn’t add the glaze frosting. The cake was soooo moist!
Thank you for such a wonderful recipe.
I made this for Mother’s day and it was easy and simple
I’m also only 14 so it was very fun.
Good job! I’m sure your Mom appreciated it.
Which brown sugar is it? Light or dark?…
I like to use dark for a richer flavor but you can use whatever you prefer.
Can you make this the night before and put it in the fridge to bake the next day?
I’ve not tested it before. I think your best bet is to make it ahead of time and just warm up in the oven.
SO GOOD ! If Cinnabon was a fluffy and moist piece of cake. 10/10 will be making this again VERY soon lol
Off the charts!! Super air and light when made with bread flour instead of regular flour. I’m 14 and made this easily with no assistance.
Good for you!
Absolutely love this! It was fun to make, my boys love it. It reminds my husband of those honey sticks from timmies back in the day! I recommend you try this.
It was okay. I had to throw it out and it was a waste of a good and healthy supply of ingredients. My son told me he could taste the burnt cinnamon based on the cooking time and it was burnt through the outer section but gooey in the center.
This recipe has a lot of errors, 1 being the quantity of brown sugar for topping, is completely too much And the icing quantity is way too much, even for those who have big sweet tooth’s. Then there’s the cook time, which is to generic and should prompt to test for done-ness. The icing and topping should be separate recipes on this same thread to keep from confusion. All in all it wasn’t too bad, but it could lead to a lot of mistakes for someone who isn’t as experienced and only knows to follow a recipe.
Made this last night ..
It was PERFECT! Bravo!
The topping needed less powdered sugar or more water. Three cups makes a lot. It would have made the top layer too sweet with the already sweetened top layer. Definitely a great accent and always one of my favorite toppings. All the elements really work in flavor and texture. The cake alone is the perfect cake composition. My one question, not a rhetorical one, is why did this call for melted butter rather than softened. Really great work here!
I don’t think it’s 3 cups of powdered sugar because when you add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of water that is still a lot of powdered sugar not absorbed in any kind of liquid it almost comes out like a hard dough you have to continue adding a lot of water. Are you sure it wasn’t one cup of powdered sugar? Besides that it taste very good!!
this is a favorite recipe in our house! Fast, easy, and delicious every time!
I made this, the brown sugar was to much, and the powdered sugar needed way more than two table spoons. It took longer than 30 minutes to cook, the middle was not cooked. Over all it was good, just had to improvise a bit.
Haven’t tasted it yet but 4 cups of sugar for the topping?! Seems a bit excessive so hopefully it won’t be too sweet!
The icing after adding 2 tbsp of water and the 1 tsp of vanilla was like little hard balls. I had to add another 2 tbsp of water And 1 tbsp of cream before it had a proper consistency.
My family and i thought the glaze on top would be way too sweet, but even without it, amazing. Would definitely make this again soon!
There’s no indication of doneness specified here. Just a time to bake, which can go wrong depending on the oven’s efficiency.
Amazing!!!!!! So good and would highly recommend! But it needed almost twice the amount of water
What’s the oven temperature?
350 degrees
Is it 4 tsp of vanilla in the cake and 1 for the glaze? Or is it 3 and 1?
4 tsp for the cake and 1 for the glaze.
Some how mine turned out great. I used a 2 inch smaller pan so knew my cooking time would increase a little but I baked it for an hour and a half lol. I was worried it would be burned on the sides and bottom but it wasn’t. My batter was also like a dough consistency for some reason but it turned out so I’ll keep the recipe
Excellent recipe..easy to make and everyone loved it.
Please specify measurement of butter in cup or grams.
1/2 cup or 113 grams
The cake was awesome!! I used about 3 tbs less brown sugar than called for and added approx 1 cup finely chopped pecans. I wanted a taller cake so I baked in my 10″ cast iron skillet which took more cooking time. Surprisingly, although it was crunchy on the outside, the inside was still moist. I’ll try my larger skillet next time, YES, there will be a next time! I can’t complain about the crunchy crust, it was actually good.
I also found the glaze unusable per the recipe and ended up dumping about 1.5 cups, I poured in some pure maple syrup and milk instead of vanilla & water.
My husband and son loved it!!
Glaze needs work! WAY too much powdered sugar. Cake recipe is fine but could use more flavor. Love baking and enjoyed the experience. Thanks 🙂
Love the recipes. Easy to follow,
Glaze needed way more liquid & vanilla because you couldn’t mix it & it tasted just like a mouthful of powdered sugar.
Oh no! Glad you were able to adjust.
Thank Goodness, I thought I was the only one. My cake also took 40 minutes not 30. I will try another topping.
This was great! It was so simple I was worried, but it was a HUGE hit at our house this morning! A definite keeper, thank you!
So glad you liked it! It is SO easy, it’s almost unbelievable 🙂
Made this for my family and we all loved it. Used a vanilla, butter, powdered sugar, water glaze recipe for glaze. It was sweet and rich, we will try this again with no glaze and maybe a cream cheese topping
Yum, a cream cheese frosting sounds delicious!
Not my liking . Not enough flavor in my opinion
The cake was delicious. Way way way too much sugar. Cut the top off and just ate the cake. It literally tasted like a teaspoon of raw granulated sugar in every bite.
Not really anything different than a typical cinnamon coffee cake. The cake itself is very moist. The topping didn’t produce the cinnamon roll taste that I expected. Waiting for the cake to cool prior to frosting prevented the frosting from soaking into the topping.
It’s very good cake, but I didn’t use 3 cups of powder sugar, I just used less than 1 cup with 2 water spoons, and I made vanilla cream, the ready powder that you mix with milk, it made it so fresh, also I used white sugar cuz I didn’t have brown
This would have been great had it explain at the top of the recipe that the brown sugar and cinnamon were to be done separately as well as the powdered sugar and vanilla. I’m new to baking and I followed the recipe and did each step as I read it then came to find out I mixed all the dry ingredients together and wet ingredients together then combined them. On a positive note I’m still going to bake it the way I did it. You never know it could be delicious.
I followed everything exactly, after 30 minutes my cake isn’t done. I just put it back in. I don’t understand what could have happened.
Mine didn’t look like anything on this picture but hey…. Tastes good ??
Same as mine! I think I baked it for more or less an hour before it got fully baked.
This is very delicious and had rave reviews from all who ate it. For me the 3 Cups of glaze was too much. I made the whole amount, but did not use it all. I poked the caked with a fork all over the top and poured the glaze on after resting for probably 10 min out of the oven. The glaze set up nicely and I enjoyed the places where the glaze kind of dripped into the cake. You couldn’t tell from the top that I had “poked” it. I did put the rest of the glaze on the table in a gravy boat and people who wanted more added a bit of fresh glaze on their cake. It was delicious!
For the icing, is it just 1-2T of water? I added that to the 3 c of powdered sugar and there’s only clumping! Do I simply add water until the consistency of syrup? Thank you!
Yes, add water little by little until it reaches the consistency you’re looking for. Enjoy!
I have baked for over 50 years. This is the best coffee cake I have made. Very easy!
I think there is a mistake with the powered sugar. Either too much sugar or not enough water. No way you are going to be able to mix 3 cups of PS with just 2 Tbsp of water. Way too little water.
Hi! How much is a ‘stick’ of butter? Thanks
1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons.
when i mixed it became dough what should i do!!
Yikes! Not quite sure why it would do that. Did you change any of the ingredients or amounts?
Did you mean 2 cups or 2 tbsp of powdered sugar? I feel it’s a typo.
Nope, not a typo. You can always make less but we love the glaze on ours.
Im making a day ahead of time do I refrigerate the cake and take out and add icing before serving? Or do I ice it and refrigerate it?
No need to refrigerate the cake itself, though I would ice it fresh before serving. Old icing loses it’s moisture.
What kind of flour and sugar is it x
All Purpose Flour and granulated sugar 🙂