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Breakfast dreams are made of classic sour cream coffee cake! Golden, buttery, and so delicious, this homemade coffee cake is piled high with cinnamon streusel topping and drizzled with vanilla glaze. Made with sour cream (for richness) and buttermilk (for tang and a tender crumb), each bite is perfectly moist. Recipe makes one 9-inch coffee cake.
If you’re hosting weekend brunch or simply baking for a crowd, this is the coffee cake for you. It’s made up of 3 delicious parts (the streusel, the cake, and the vanilla glaze) and a reader-favorite recipe! Full photo guidance provided below.
- Streusel – Made with melted butter, the brown sugar pecan streusel is simply irresistible! Half the streusel is layered with the cake batter to form a ribbon running throughout the coffee cake. The remaining streusel is sprinkled over the top of the cake batter and bakes up beautifully golden.
- Coffee Cake – Sour cream, buttermilk, and an extra egg yolk ensure a golden and tender crumb. If you don’t have sour cream on hand, you can also use full fat Greek yogurt as an equal swap. Pure vanilla extract adds rich flavor to the buttery cake!
- Glaze – A drizzle of sweet vanilla glaze dresses up this classic brunch recipe.
Craving more coffee cake? You may also love my sour cream coffee cake muffins!
Success Tips
- Use room temperature ingredients: Bring cake ingredients (butter, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, and buttermilk) to room temperature before beginning to ensure that they mix together uniformly.
- Baking pan: You’ll need a 9-inch springform pan for this recipe. This is my preferred pan to use for coffee cake because it’s easy to slice and cleanly remove wedges from the pan and the thick streusel topping remains in place.
- Prepare the pan: Spread a thin layer of softened butter across the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Add a small amount of flour (about 1 tablespoon) and gently shake the pan to coat the bottom and sides evenly. Invert the pan and tap out any excess flour.
- Mix the batter just until combined: Made in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, the sour cream batter comes together smoothly and is the perfect base for buttery streusel. Expect a thick batter, similar to my New York style crumb cake.
How to Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Make streusel topping: Combine all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together to combine.
Add melted butter to the bowl and mix in with a fork until completely incorporated and streusel is crumbly.
Add finely chopped pecans (or chopped walnuts) and stir to combine. Chill pecan streusel in the freezer until needed.
Make coffee cake: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time and beat well to combine.
Combine sour cream and buttermilk in a small bowl. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream mixture (begin and end with flour mixture).
Assemble coffee cake: Spoon half the batter into prepared baking pan and smooth with an offset spatula. Tap pan sharply to remove air bubbles. Sprinkle the batter with half of the chilled streusel.
Top streusel layer with remaining batter. Smooth coffee cake batter with a spatula and tap pan sharply.
Sprinkle the top evenly with remaining chilled streusel. Bake coffee cake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached.
Transfer coffee cake to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes before removing the sides from the pan. Cool for at least 1 hour before glazing and serving.
Storage and Freezing Tips
Store the baked coffee cake at room temperature for up to 2 days, or wrap well with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate up to 4 days. Reheat coffee cake in a warm oven (300-325°F) before serving.
To freeze leftover coffee cake, wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and pop into a freezer bag for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, reheat in a warm oven (325°F) for 15 minutes or until heated through before serving.
Our best coffee cake recipes:
- Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake
- Caramel Apple Coffee Cake
- Brown Butter Coffee Cake
- Apricot Almond Coffee Cake
- Berry Streusel Coffee Cake
Did you try this Sour Cream Coffee Cake Recipe? Let me know by leaving a comment and rating below!
Print
Ultra Moist Sour Cream Coffee Cake
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 9-inch coffee cake
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
The BEST classic sour cream coffee cake! Topped with brown sugar pecan streusel and drizzled with vanilla glaze, you’ll love this sour cream coffee cake for breakfast or brunch. Recipe makes one 9-inch coffee cake.
Ingredients
Streusel
- 1 1/4 cups (175 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (185 g) lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tsp (4 g) cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
- 10 Tbsp (140 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (60 g) pecans, finely chopped
Cake
- 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp (7 g) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (3 g) salt
- 10 Tbsp (140 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp (8 g) vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs (100 g), at room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk (17 g), at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (300 g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80 g) low-fat buttermilk, at room temperature
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 Tbsp (14 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp (4 g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp (30 g) milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and butter and flour a 9-inch springform pan.
- Make streusel: Whisk together flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Add melted butter and mix in with a fork until completely incorporated and streusel is crumbly. Stir in pecans. Chill topping in the freezer until ready to use.
- Make coffee cake: Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large mixer bowl at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolk one at a time and beat well. Combine sour cream and buttermilk in a small bowl. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with sour cream mixture (begin and end with flour mixture).
- Spoon half the batter into prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle evenly with half of the chilled streusel. Spoon remaining batter evenly over streusel layer. Gently smooth and tap the pan sharply to reduce air bubbles. Sprinkle evenly with remaining chilled streusel.
- Bake coffee cake for 40 minutes, then tent loosely with foil to prevent over-browning. Continue baking another 25 to 35 minutes (for a total of 65 to 75 minutes) or until topping is golden, cake springs back to the touch and a tester emerges with a few crumbs attached. Coffee cake is done baking when the internal temperature reaches 210°F.
- Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes before removing sides from pan; cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
- Make glaze: Whisk together melted butter, salt, vanilla, powdered sugar, and milk in a small bowl. Drizzle glaze over coffee cake and let set before serving.
- Store baked coffee cake at room temperature for up to 2 days, or wrap well and refrigerate up to 4 days. Reheat coffee cake in a warm oven (300°F) before serving.
Notes
Streusel: This recipe makes a generous amount of streusel topping. If you like a coffee cake with less streusel, or have any leftover streusel, transfer to a freezer bag and freeze up to 2 months. Use the leftover streusel to top muffins or a quick bread.
Sour cream: Full fat Greek yogurt can also be used as an equal swap for the sour cream.
Freeze coffee cake: Wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap and pop into a freezer bag for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to enjoy, reheat in a warm oven (325°F) for 15 minutes or until heated through before serving.
Would you please add the nutritional information?
The cake was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!
I need to log my food
Thank you
Thanks so much, Cynthia! I don’t include nutritional information because I’m not a certified nutritionist. There are many great online calculators where you can plug in ingredients for a specific recipe (like this one). Hope that helps!
thank you
This is the most amazing recipe! Everyone always loves it! I have been using smaller duck eggs and the only problem I cannot seem to fix is that the center of the cake always sinks while it cools. I have tried so many different things and nothing works. I have tried increasing bake time, not tenting it so as not to open the oven, using two duck eggs instead of three, placing foil around the edge of the springform pan, being careful not to overmix, using room temperature ingredients. I cannot seem to fix it. It still tastes wonderful, but it is not so pretty. Do you have any suggestions for using duck eggs? Thank you!
Hi Angela, thanks so much for sharing, your coffee cake looks great! I’ve never worked with duck eggs, so can’t speak from personal experience. A quick Google tells me that duck eggs generally have larger egg yolks than chicken eggs, and that can cause baked goods to rise higher. My best guess is that the coffee cake may be rising slightly higher than intended and then collapsing a bit during the cooling process.
Made this coffee cake for brunch and everyone loved it. Nice and moist from the sour cream.