American · Breakfast

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

The American coffee cake, which contains no coffee: a sour cream crumb cake with a thick cinnamon streusel on top and a ribbon of it running through the middle. Made in a square tin and eaten with your hands.

1 hr 10 min prep and cooking plus 30 min cooling 1 hr 40 min start to finish Serves 12 servings Easy
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Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Photograph credit: Tea and Walnut cinnamon coffee cake by Melissa Doroquez · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence

Build the Meal Around Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

  • Filter coffee, obviously
  • Cold milk
  • Sliced peaches

How to Cook Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

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  1. Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F. Butter a 23 x 23 cm tin and line it with paper, leaving an overhang.

  2. For the streusel, rub the cold butter into the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt with your fingertips until it clumps in pieces from pea to marble size. Refrigerate while you make the cake.

  3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together.

  4. Beat the butter and caster sugar for 4 minutes until pale and fluffy.

  5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then the vanilla.

  6. Fold in the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with flour. The batter will be thick.

  7. Spread half into the tin, scatter over a third of the cold streusel, then dollop and carefully spread the remaining batter on top.

  8. Cover with the rest of the streusel, pressing it down lightly so it adheres.

  9. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the streusel is deep gold.

  10. Cool at least 30 minutes, whisk the icing sugar and milk to a thin drizzle, and zigzag it over the top before cutting into squares.

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A Few Notes

Chill the streusel while the batter comes together. Warm streusel melts into the surface instead of staying crumbly.

Spread the top layer of batter in dollops rather than pouring it, or you will drag the middle ribbon around.

A metal tin, not glass. Glass insulates and this cake needs the base to set before the streusel over-browns.

Storing and Reheating

Covered at room temperature for 4 days. Freezes in squares for 2 months; refresh 10 minutes at 160°C / 320°F to crisp the streusel.

Common Questions

How long does Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake take to make?

25 minutes of preparation and 45 minutes of cooking, plus 30 minutes of cooling, so allow 1 hour 40 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 12.

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Nutrition

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

555Calories
7gProtein
71gCarbs
27gFat
1gFibre
41gSugar
420mgSodium

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Compiled by Turab

Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.

First published ; last changed .