This light and airy sour cream coffee cake recipe has a cinnamon butter crust. The sour cream gives it a wonderfully soft crumb. A definite crowd-pleaser when you have guests to entertain. A surprisingly simple and easy recipe.
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A good coffee cake recipe is a must-have on hand and this one is absolutely my favorite because it's so easy to make but also because it's one that always gets rave reviews from people. Every time I take this with me to family and friends I get people asking me for the recipe.
About this cake
The batter is a butter-based vanilla cake batter with sour cream which gives it a wonderfully soft texture and crumb. Unlike a batter with milk, this batter looks dense with sour cream but it will all melt away and add to a rich, creamy yet light and airy cake.
People often ask me how I coat the cake like this but it's not a glaze or a crumble. The top is created like a crumble but it's room temperature so it sinks and melts into the cake. That's what we want because then we get these pockets of butter and cinnamon that taste absolutely delicious.
Ingredients and substitutes
- All-purpose flour - I use regular all-purpose flour (not cake flour) for most of my cakes.
- Sugar - A mix of both gives this cake a nice color and texture. But you can certainly do all white or all brown as well. I would not recommend dark brown sugar as it will give you a different texture, taste, and color for the cake.
- Butter - I always use unsalted butter for my cakes so I can control the amount of salt but if salted butter is all you have, just omit salt in the recipe and use salted butter.
- Cinnamon - a wonderful spice at any time of the year. But you can omit it just as well.
- Sour cream - Gives a nice soft crumb and texture to the cake. If you don't have sour cream, Greek yogurt is often a great substitute. You can also make homemade sour cream. Alternatively, you can also use buttermilk, it takes only five minutes to make homemade buttermilk
- Vanilla- priced like gold but so important to use good quality vanilla. I make my own vanilla extract, bean paste, and vanilla sugar.
Step by step instructions
- Preheat the oven at 170 C / 340 F.
- Grease and line with parchment paper an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round baking pan.
- Combine dry ingredients - flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda - set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and egg yolk
- Followed by the vanilla extract.
- Next, alternate the flour mixture and sour cream
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure you have a smooth batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
- For the topping - combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Then, crumble in the cold butter until almost bread crumb consistency (uneven makes a better topping).
- Spread over the batter as evenly as possible.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- The topping will melt and that's normal. The butter will melt into the cake leaving the rest that creates a brown cinnamon sugar crust.
- Let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before you slice and serve.
Frequently asked questions
This sour cream coffee cake will keep at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. In the fridge for up to a week and can be frozen for up to a month. Make sure to wrap well to prevent it from drying out.
I use all-purpose flour and it works wonderfully in this recipe.
If you want to omit the cinnamon butter topping. Try serving the coffee cake with whipped cream and fresh fruits. You can try fruit coulis or fruit fillings. My favorite is blueberry filling and cherry filling. Also, If you love curds try lemon curd or orange curd. Try my cinnamon sugar coffee cake
No, this recipe works best with eggs but I do have an eggless vanilla cake that is very popular with my visitors. Perhaps you can use that for the batter and top it with cinnamon sugar.
Baking a cake from scratch is simple and easy. I have shared 10 tips to baking a cake from scratch that you may like to check out
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Printable Recipe
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
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Conversions Used
1 lb = 453 grams, 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 stick = 113g, 1 tbsp= 15 ml, 1 tsp= 5 ml,
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- ½ cup (113 g) Butter ((1 stick))
- ¼ cup (50 g) Sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) Brown Sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 1 Egg yolk
- 1 ½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup (120 ml) Sour cream
FOR THE TOP
- ¼ cup (55 g) Brown sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) All-Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ cup (0.25 cups) Butter (firm room temperature)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 170 C / 340 F
- Grease and line with parchment paper an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round baking pan
- Combine dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda – set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and egg yolk
- Followed by the vanilla extract.
- Next, alternate the flour mixture and sour cream
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure you have a smooth batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
For the topping
- Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon, then crumble in the cold butter until almost bread crumb consistency. (uneven makes a better topping)
- Spread over the batter as evenly as possible
Bake
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- The topping will melt and that’s normal. The butter will melt into the cake leaving the rest that creates a brown cinnamon sugar crust
- Let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before you slice and serve.
Recipe Notes & Tips
Storage
- Coffee cakes taste best in the first two days. This cake can be kept at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. Wrap the cake well to prevent drying out.
- This cake can also be frozen in the freezer for up to a month. Personally, I like to cut the cake into slices and place the slices in a freezer-safe storage bag. Then take only as many slices as I need for my tea time snack.
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Hannah Ng
Hi Veena, I am an amateur noob homecook. I stumbled upon your site when I keyed in light sour cream as a search term. May I ask if I can use light sour cream instead of sour cream? Thanks! Really wanna try this one!
Veena Azmanov
Hey Hannah. I get sour cream for baking which is 27% fat. I suggest you see the % of fat on your sour cream. You can use above 27% fat for this cake
Plat
Hi! I would like to try this recipe but bake it as cupcakes. How much time should it be baked for and if there are any other changes you would recommend to get it right as cupcakes?
Thank you
Veena Azmanov
You can bake these as cupcakes. They should take about 18 to 20 minutes at 160 C / 320 F. Let me know how they were