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Weekend Cooking

Double-Streusel Coffee Cake

by:
April 19, 2023
4.5
18 Ratings
Photo by Julia Gartland
  • Prep time 15 minutes
  • Cook time 55 minutes
  • Makes 1 (9x13-inch) cake
Author Notes

If the streusel is your favorite part of a bite of coffee cake, you're in luck. This recipe goes heavy on the streusel, both in the topping and a ribbon throughout the center. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

Test Kitchen Notes

For a super tender coffee cake, Posie recruits an addition of Greek yogurt (or sour cream) to add extra moisture to the crumb. A double helping of streusel (more is more, in our opinion) spread through the center and generously sprinkled on top lends buttery rich cinnamon flavor to each bite. We love this cake, as it can be served for breakfast as a treat, an afternoon pick-me-up, or in the evening as dessert paired with an espresso—the possibilities are endless (until you run out of coffee cake). —Food52

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Ingredients
  • For the streusel:
  • 2/3 cup (142 grams) packed brown sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons (113 grams) cold butter, in chunks
  • For the cake:
  • 2 1/2 cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 12 tablespoons (170 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups (285 grams) Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch cake pan.
  2. Make the streusel: Whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Cut in the butter until sandy and crumbly. Set aside.
  3. Make the cake: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla, then the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each. Add the flour mixture and the Greek yogurt, alternating between each. Mix just until the batter comes together.
  5. Spread half of the batter into your prepared pan. Take ⅓ of the streusel mixture (or up to half of it if you want more filling) and sprinkle it evenly over the batter. Pour the remaining batter over the top, spread evenly, and top with the remaining streusel.
  6. Bake for about 55 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
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29 Reviews

Write a Review
Linda D. July 14, 2024
Made it again today and used yogurt instead of sour cream and halved the streusel ingredients. Perfect! Thank you Posie!
Linda D. May 30, 2023
Very good. A little too much streusel for me. Next time I will use yogurt instead of sour cream. Batter might be a bit easier to spread.
CreamCityKitchen February 26, 2023
I come back to this recipe time and time again. Simple, delicious and crumby– the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee in the morning or after dinner
kzmccaff December 26, 2022
I really liked this recipe--it made a ton! Next time I might add some walnuts to the streusel topping... could be nice!
Chocowagon August 2, 2022
I used Fage greek yogurt 2% instead of sour cream (it's just what I always have in the fridge), I was also out of cinnamon so I did a blend of ginger, allspice, cardamom, and nutmeg. This took me only 30 minutes to bake! I used a glass 9 x 13 inch pan

Batter was thick of course given the cake texture, so I recommend dolloping the batter all over the top of the middle streusel layer and using a spatula or angled frosting spatula to spread evenly and avoid mixing the batter in with the streusel.

Finished product is delicious. Really the quintessential coffee cake and it's fun with the different spice profile.
seemoore June 13, 2021
This looks like a delicious recipe, so I just made it for my friend's birthday dinner whose favorite cake is coffee cake.
However, I have a complaint... why do recipe writers lie about prep times?? This recipe says that it takes 15 minutes. Ha!! It took me 55 minutes. And that's without cleaning the kitchen.
This info is important to know when a person is preparing a 4 course meal for a group of 8. Every minute counts and to expect something to take much shorter a time than reality, is very misleading!!
Levana G. January 18, 2021
Cake was great. personally I thought it was a little heavy on the streusel (middle layer was fine, but too much on the top. Also, the batter was so thick that I was not able to properly spread the second layer over the first layer of streusel so next time I'll skip the inner layer of streusel because simply didn't work.
Chocowagon August 2, 2022
I found it helpful to dollop the batter all over the top of the middle streusel layer and use an angled frosting spatula to spread it. Manages to not mix it up with the streusel!
Tere June 2, 2020
I loved the recipe! My sister used to make one really similar, but I coudnt fin her recipe. I wonder anyway how it would result if I add ground coffee.
As a recommendation for some sensible stomachs as mine and my parents: I'd recommend adding less butter and sugar to the cake batter, we've had some stomach aches and a sugary feeling on the throat after eating eat. Also as a tip for the oven, I covered the cake with film the last 15 minutes so It wouldn't burn over the top!
Attycps April 9, 2020
Made this to help get through quarrantine. Had to use salted butter, which I would Not recommend, and made additional streusel, which helped overall. I also used lowfat plain Greek yogurt, a little more than called for, and cake is delicious. It was hard spreading the batter, but not extending top batter to edges did not affect cake. Overall delicious, a keeper. Thank you!
Megan April 8, 2020
Used sour cream, the bottom of the container which was super thick. It created a dream batter but had a bit of a struggle on spreading the top layer. Smells and tastes delicious though! Love the idea of building in a double streusel recipe. Will definitely play around with variations on this recipe!
Megan April 8, 2020
Used sour cream, the bottom of the container which was super thick. It created a dream batter but had a bit of a struggle on spreading the top layer. Smells and tastes delicious though! Love the idea of building in a double streusel recipe. Will definitely play around with variations on this recipe
NapaCook March 5, 2020
Saved to my "keepers" file! Only adjustment was using whole milk plain yogurt instead of greek yogurt/sour cream and it seemed to work just fine. I thought my office would eat half the pan and they devoured the whole thing. I'll make again, maybe adding blueberries next try.
Amy December 30, 2019
I made this for Christmas brunch and it turned out wonderful! Only made 1 small change and that was to finely chop 2 small apples and stirred them into the batter. The apples were floating around my fridge and I thought it wouldn't hurt. They added some moisture, but you really couldn't taste them. I think i could have added another apple or two if I had them with no ill effects. I also baked the cake a little less than called for (around 50 minutes instead of 55), and I think that was even a few minutes too long in my oven. The corners and edges were a little dry. But overall, I received a lot of complements and the leftovers were still delicious 2 days later. This will definitely be going into the regular rotation!
EmMa March 25, 2019
This recipe is nearly impossible to mess up -- if you're looking for a moister crumb, add some more yogurt, but it's meant to be a little drier as a true coffee cake. I make this every few weeks and it's just incredible!
Lauren M. October 14, 2018
It seems that my streusel "melted" into the cake. I reduced the flour by 1/3 cup to replace with rolled oats and then chilled the whole sandy mixture until use. Was there not enough flour?
tamara September 25, 2018
Tasted like flour. I think it's because of the amount of flour in the struesel. Will try it again with less.
Judy September 16, 2018
Could this be made in a bundt pan by putting strudel in the bottom of the pan, then layer batter, strudel and batter?
Posie (. September 16, 2018
Hmm I would worry that the streusel would make the cake stick to the pan.
Jennifer G. June 7, 2020
Did you try this? I'd love to know if it worked
cosmiccook September 15, 2018
Cooling after cooking. I made a few changes (1/2 recipe since its just the two of us) and even though I hosed up the recipe by dumping the sugar in w flour by mistake, it still came out fine. I added some pecan meal two both streusel & cake. Blueberries to the cake mix. Found out too late no brown sugar but used Belgian candy sugar for streusel and Stella Parks toasted sugar for the cake. I can't wait to try it the RIGHT way creaming butter & sugar together!
cosmiccook September 14, 2018
Can I use whole milk yogurt?
Posie (. September 14, 2018
Yup!
SandraM September 14, 2018
Made this today. Really lovely cake and the streusel makes it even better. The cinnamon smells wonderful while baking always a nice thing to bake for company. Had a wee taste, but looking forward to a piece with a nice cup of tea. I like the idea of blueberries(as mentioned below) in the cake....next time!