Sour Cream Coffee Cake

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

17 Comments

5 from 4 votes
12 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
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This Sour Cream Coffee Cake is the easiest classic coffee cake recipe. Melt-in-your-mouth rich, buttery coffee cake with brown sugar pecan streusel topping.

Sour cream and a pecan streusel transform a classic New York Crumb Cake into an extra moist, extra special Coffee Cake  guaranteed to get rave reviews!

slice of Sour Cream Coffee Cake

SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE

You never have to serve a store-bought coffee cake at brunch again with this great recipe for old-fashioned Sour Cream Coffee Cake! It’s quick and easy and made with pantry ingredients that you already have on hand in just an hour. You don’t even need a mixer for this coffee cake recipe!

Our simple step-by-step Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe is ready for the oven in less than 15 minutes. You can use a stand mixer if you have one, but this cake is made just as easily with a whisk, a fork, and a few mixing bowls. If you want save on bowls, use the flour mixture bowl to make the streusel topping after you make the cake batter.

Classic Sour Cream Coffee Cake is made with a streusel that is both inside and on top of the cake as a crumb. This streusel is made with brown sugar, pecans and a hint of cinnamon. Streusel is pretty easy and fool-proof to adjust to your taste, try swapping the nuts, using granulated sugar, or trading Pumpkin Pie Spice for the cinnamon. 

Once your Sour Cream Coffee Cake is finished baking, it’s ready to serve warm from the oven with a fresh cup of coffee and maybe a dusting of powdered sugar. The crumbly streusel is a sweet and savory filling and topping, making this cake perfect for breakfast and dessert. You can drizzle Salted Caramel Sauce over the top or serve with Vanilla Ice Cream for an extra decadent treat.

MORE TASTY COFFEE CAKE RECIPES

 

Tips for Making Sour Cream Coffee Cake

  • Coffee cakes are denser than regular cakes, so it’s important to not over mix them and make them even heavier. 
  • Sifting the dry ingredients before adding the flour mixture to the sour cream mixture will help them to combine easier and prevent over mixing.
  • Soften the butter before starting your recipe. To soften butter, leave at room temperature at least 30 minutes or microwave on low power in 15-20 second bursts. Don’t let your butter melt in the microwave, just heat until soft.
  • If you want to bake this Sour Cream Coffee Cake in a different pan than the one used in this recipe, see our alternate baking times below.

cross section of Sour Cream Coffee Cake

VARIATIONS ON SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE

  • Berries: Sour Cream Coffee Cake is even better with berries like blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries. Toss the berries in flour before adding to the cake batter so they don’t sink.
  • Banana: You can add 1-2 ripe bananas to the cake batter to make a Sour Cream Banana Coffee Cake. It will be richer and denser than our regular Banana Coffee Cake, but every bit as delicious.
  • Chocolate Chip: Add chocolatey goodness to your coffee cake with a ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips. You can fold the chocolate chips into the cake batter or sprinkle over the streusel layers.
  • Sour Cream: Instead of sour cream try Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, or buttermilk. If using yogurt, use full fat or low fat yogurt in either plain or flavors like vanilla. Just don’t use non-fat yogurt.
  • Streusel: Add more cinnamon and use granulated sugar to make a cinnamon-sugar streusel topping. Try a cinnamon-walnut instead of brown sugar pecan for an old-fashioned favorite.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake in baking dish

Alternate Baking Pan Instructions for Sour Cream Coffee Cake

  • Bundt Pan: For a bundt pan or tube pan, grease pan liberally and dust with flour. Bake at 300 degrees F for 65-75 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before inverting on a cooling rack or serving platter.
  • Loaf Pan: Grease loaf pan well with baking spray. Layer batter and streusel as normal, and bake for 60-65 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
  • Muffins: Spray 12 cup muffin tin with baking spray. Alternate cake batter and streusel, starting with batter and finishing with streusel. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-22 minutes.
  • 9×13 Baking Dish: Spray baking dish with baking spray or line with parchment paper. Spread 2/3 of batter into the baking pan and sprinkle ½ streusel. Cover with remaining batter then streusel. Bake for 30 minutes.

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HOW TO STORE SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE

  • Serve: Sour Cream Coffee Cake can be kept at room temperature for up to 4 days. Cover baking dish aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Place a paper towel over cake to absorb moisture if humid.
  • Store: Once cooled, refrigerate Sour Cream Coffee Cake in an airtight container or wrapped tightly with plastic wrap for up to 1 week.
  • Freeze: Cool Sour Cream Coffee Cake, wrap in plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze for up to 4 months. Remove plastic wrap before thawing overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature to serve.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake on cream plate

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Dinner, then Dessert

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This Sour Cream Coffee Cake is the easiest classic coffee cake recipe. Melt-in-your-mouth rich, buttery coffee cake with brown sugar pecan streusel topping.
Yield 12 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Sour Cream Coffee Cake cropped on white plate and red napkin
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

Coffee Cake:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Crumble and Topping:

  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar , packed
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
  • 2 cups pecans , finely chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray an 9x13 baking dish with baking spray.
  • In a large bowl whisk together butter, sour cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.
  • Sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until just combined.
  • To make the crumble mash together the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, flour and butter with a fork, then stir in the pecans.
  • Add half the batter to your baking dish topped with half the crumble mixture.
  • Top with the rest of the batter very carefully not to displace the pecan mixture.
  • Top with remaining crumble mixture and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutrition

Calories: 439kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 27g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 65mg | Sodium: 266mg | Potassium: 166mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 492IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 64mg | Iron: 2mg
Keyword: Sour Cream Coffee Cake

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. How are you supposed to spread this sour cream coffee cake batter? It’s so thick you can’t spread it over a greased pan or dry crumble. Did you leave something out of the recipe?

    Reply

    1. I’m not sure what you mean by Spread the batter? If you mean pour, you pour half the batter in your prepared cake pan, then half of the streusel is sprinkled on to that batter, then pour the remaining batter on top of the streusel for a layered affect, pouring slowly to not displace the streusel and finally, sprinkle the remaining streusel over the top of the cake and bake.

      Reply

  2. As written this recipe calls for an 8” pan, but the picture shows a 9×13” I think. Which is the correct size to use for the recipe as written? Thank you!

    Reply

    1. Hi Elisabeth,
      You are correct, the recipe does call for a 9 x 13 dish. I will correct the typo and appreciate you letting me know!
      Sabrina

      Reply

  3. We’ve made this a dozen times in the last 2 months. It’s that good.

    We’ve never had a coffee cake so good and yet so easy to make. Not needing a mixer means it can be made very late without disturbing anyone. Thanks for sharing this recipe.

    Reply

    2. Omg. Delicious. Coffee cake is my favorite cake of all and this came out really good. Followed the recipe exactly. Thank you so much.

      Reply