Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake + Video Recipe! | Savory Simple (2024)

This Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake is tender cake with sour cream for moistness and flavorful cinnamon oat topping. Make this easy recipe for brunch or any party!

The Problem with Store-Bought Cake

If you have ever eaten coffee cake purchased from a grocery store, a couple of things may have bothered you about it. Most often, store-bought cakes are dry and overly sweet.

The cloying sweet white glaze initially masks how dry the cake is. However, that dryness is apparent as the cake sticks in your throat on the way down. Save me, milk!

This is one of the reasons that until I began baking from scratch, I was firmly Team Pie. Learning a few tips and tricks helps to create baked goods that people love and cherish.

These days, I can’t get enough cake, especially when it’s made with sour cream and there is cinnamon streusel involved!

I believe the best coffee cake recipe is one I’ve been making from Taste of Home for several years now. I have made changes to the original recipe, including the addition of sour cream.

THE PURPOSE OF SOUR CREAM IN CAKE

There are some important reasons for adding sour cream to my coffee cake recipe, or for that matter, any cake recipe.

The sour cream rule applies whether it’s being used in the cake itself, like Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream or in the frosting, like this Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting.

1. Flavor– Sour cream is very high in fat and and acidity. Using high fat ingredients adds flavor. This is also why every good cake recipe will include the use of butter.
2. Texture– Another benefit of using high-fat ingredients like sour cream is to prevent the cake from drying out.

Moist coffee cake is a very good thing! Also, the acid in sour cream reacts with the gluten in flour, creating tenderness.

3. To assist other ingredients. Food science is a very important part of the process of baking. Baking soda is a base, meaning it needs an acid to activate it. Sour cream is that acid! Other acids that are often used in baked goods are buttermilk and Greek yogurt.

RECIPE VIDEO

Watch this quick 1-minute video to see how easy it is to make this recipe.

Recipe Notes for Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

• Weigh the ingredients. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to make this recipe. One cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 3 1/2 – 5 ounces. Read more about this in my post “How to Measure Flour.”

If you don’t have a scale, you’ll want to use what I call the “Spoon and Level Method” to avoid having a dense cake.

This method involves spooning the flour into the measuring cup, then leveling off the top with a knife.

• Brown sugar substitute – You can use light brown sugar instead of dark if that’s what you already have on hand.

Dark brown sugar has a bit more molasses, which enhances the brown sugar flavor. So, there’s no reason to make an additional trip to the store! You can even make a brown sugar substitute at home, with molasses and granulated white sugar!

• Don’t omit the fat. For best results, use full-fat sour cream instead of low-fat or no-fat. It’s cake.

• The best baking pan – I use a 9×13-inch baking pan. It comes with a lid, making it super easy to store leftovers or take the coffee cake to someone else’s home.

Check out more of my favorite bakeware!

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