Our Favorite Sour Cream Coffeecake

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Our Favorite Sour Cream Coffeecake

star rating (21) rate this recipe »
Published prior to 2008

This tender cake is both filled and topped with a delicious cinnamon-y streusel.

Cake
1/2 cup (4 ounces) butter
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream or yogurt*

*Feel free to use low-fat (NOT nonfat) sour cream or yogurt; if using yogurt, try vanilla or another complementary flavor, if desired.

Topping
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup (8 ounces) chopped walnuts, optional

Cream together the butter or margarine, sugar, and eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream or yogurt, stirring after each addition.

Grease and flour a regular-sized (9 1/2-inch) tube pan or bundt-style pan, or a 9 x 9-inch pan. Spread half the batter in the pan, and sprinkle with half the topping mixture. Repeat with remaining batter and topping.

Bake the coffeecake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake tests done. Cool it for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove it from the pan. (If you've baked it in a 9 x 9-inch pan, just serve it right from the pan.) Place the cake right-side-up (topping up) on a plate to serve.
Yield: about 12 generous servings.

Reviews

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  • star rating 01/15/2012
  • qpurdue from KAF Community
  • Made this for breakfast this morning and the guys loved it! Especially that it wasn't sooo sweet. I too substituted brown sugar for the 1/2 of the white sugar. Can you use Bakewell's in place of the baking powder and baking soda? Will put this in the keeper file! Thanks!
    Glad this one is a winner in your book! No, you can't use Bakewell Cream as a substitute for the Baking Powder and the Baking Soda. Frank @ KAF.
  • star rating 01/08/2012
  • dlucy46 from KAF Community
  • Quite an easy recipe. Per the most recent reviews, I took the suggestion to use dark brown sugar instead of granulated, since I'm a high altitude baker AND it's winter! I also threw an extra teaspoon of cinnamon in the dough, and used vanilla yogurt. Since I put it in the fridge overnight, and was too impatient to wait for it to come to room temp, it took a bit longer to bake. The sugar mixture caramelized, so the top was crunchy, which is a nice contrast with the soft insides. Hubby gives this a solid 5 stars, as do I!
  • star rating 03/25/2011
  • Heidi Leah from KAF Community
  • I absolutely loved how easy and delicious this was - perfect for a brunch or easy to take to work. I had no sour cream on hand, so I used Greek nonfat vanilla yogurt (yep, nonfat) and it was still very moist and flavorful. I've made it with this substitution twice since and have yet to be disappointed. Great recipe!
  • star rating 02/28/2011
  • teresebf from KAF Community
  • Tried this coffeecake at my daughter's this weekend. It was wonderful. We did make these changes after reading some reviews and the flavor and texture were really good. In the cake, used 1/2 C brown sugar and 1/2 C granulated sugar; added about 1 tsp vanilla, and sprinkled in about 1 tsp cinnamon. For the streusel, used all brown sugar (hmm, seems to be a pattern :) ). We also added some blueberries we had left over from a shower she gave (I bet grated apples would be good, too). We greased a bundt pan and put some streusel in FIRST, then cake batter, rest of streusel and rest of batter. It was moist and just plain yummy! Thanks!
  • star rating 02/02/2011
  • Julia((: from Pennsylvania
  • it tasted good, but i added a little cinnamon to the cake mixture to add some extra flavor. the only flaw with this recipe is that it says to sprinkle the topping, when the topping is very liquidy and it is not enough to spread on the whole thing. ohter than that it is a very good recipe and i would highly recomend it. (:
  • star rating 01/11/2011
  • rbickel6 from KAF Community
  • This was wonderful. Easy and delicious, and I love coffee cakes. It's one of those things you can make with what you have on hand. My only criticism is that next time I would not put the cinnamon sugar on top. It baked into a hard crunchy crust. I will just layer it inside. You can't go wrong with this! I loved it!
  • star rating 01/09/2011
  • Ca-meal from KAF Community
  • I baked this in a 9x9 pan and it took almost 15 minute longer to bake than the recipe says. It was tasty and moist, but not very sweet. I would add vanilla to the batter and not just the topping. I would also either use brown sugar instead of white sugar and some butter and maybe even some flour to make it more of a streusel. Using a mixer to beat the ingredients made this a very light and fluffy cake, but I would have to think again about whether I would make this again.
  • star rating 06/25/2010
  • Sharon from
  • I baked it in a bundt and added some dried blueberries and it was tasty. It stayed moist the whole time I kept it on the counter too.
  • 06/17/2010
  • Joan from jbmwalker@comcast.net
  • This recipe seems to be a variation on one printed on the K.A. flour bag about 30 years ago. That one, however, uses light brown sugar throughout, plus adding 1 tsp. vanilla to the batter. There is no vanilla in the topping, and only one tsp. cinnamon. When out of light brown sugar I have substituted dark brown, and have been happy with that, too. This has been a Thanksgiving and Christmas morning tradition and now hostess gift in my family all these years.
  • star rating 02/13/2010
  • Sal from Nebraska
  • I foudn this recipe 2 years ago (came back to reprint it this morning for my son). It is wonderful. Some tips: if you use good cinnamon then use less then the recipe calls for. I tend to not measure the cinnamon, vanilla or sugar anymore - I just sprinkle until it looks right. Sometimes I add berries and it's wonderful that way. I add rolled grains to mine & even my coworkers love it.
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