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This moist Sour Cream Coffee Cake only takes 15 minutes to prep and is sweet and delicious with the crunchy cinnamon pecan streusel. Enjoy it for brunch, with coffee, or dessert.
If you love sweet brunch recipes try our Sheet Pan Pancakes, French Toast Casserole, Homemade Scones, or Hawaiian French Toast Casserole.
Simple, delicious Coffee Cake.
I am going to say it – this is the BEST Coffee Cake recipe! The cake is soft and moist, and not only does it have a crunchy cinnamon pecan streusel on top, but we even layer it in the middle of the cake! Serve it with a cup of hot tea of coffee, or a side of fruit, for the perfect easy weekend brunch! We serve coffee cake most often at brunch, holidays and special occasions.
How to make Coffee Cake:
Make Batter: Cream together sugar and butter then mix in egg, sour cream, milk, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix just until combined.
Layer: Combine all of the ingredients for the pecan topping in a bowl. Grease an 8×8 square baking dish then pour in half of the cake batter. Sprinkle half of the pecan topping over the batter then repeat with the rest of the cake batter and sprinkle the rest of the pecan topping on top.
Bake: Preheat to 350°F then bake for 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Check it halfway through and lay a piece of aluminum foil loosely on top if it's getting too brown. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before enjoying.
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Coffee cake is best served the same day, but you can make it in the morning or even the night before. Store covered at room temperature for 1-2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
To Freeze: Allow coffee cake to cool completely, cover tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
More Sweet Brunch Recipes:
- Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Apple Coffee Cake
- Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Blueberry Muffins
- Blintzes
- Snickerdoodle Muffins
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Topping:
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 Tablespoons butter
- 1 cup chopped pecans, , finely chopped
Instructions
- Lightly grease an 8×8 inch baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Crumble topping: Combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Add butter and cut in with forks or a pastry blender until there are no large pieces. Stir in nuts.
- Batter: In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg and mix. Add sour cream, milk, and vanilla then mix. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to wet mixture then mix just until combined.
- Assemble: Spoon half of the batter into your prepared pan and smooth into an even bottom layer. Sprinkle half of the topping mixture over the top. Spoon remaining batter on top then smooth into an even layer. Sprinkle remaining topping mixture over the top.
- Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with few crumbs. Check it half way through baking and cover with a piece of aluminum foil if browning too much.
- Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I originally shared this recipe December 2016. Updated March 2020 and November 2024.
WOW!!! This coffee cake is out of this world!
I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×9 pan. It did take a tad longer to bake (about an hour in all). I saw lots of comments saying this coffee cake was too dense, but I did not seem to have this problem. A trick I found to work well to avoid this issue is beating the butter and sugar for upwards fo 5 minutes to really incorporate some air.
Also, the sour cream keeps it so moist and adds a delicious tang to a sweet dessert!
Highly Recommend 🙂
I made this. Great taste. The next time I would double the recipe for both batter and topping. I used a 9″x9″ pan and this recipe only cook up half the space. Thanks for sharing. Sue
This is a great cake! I loved it soooooooo much thx for ur recipes! 🤩
and it was a little dry but it still tastes delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tastes delicious! Maybe a little dry, but not any more dry than any other cake like this. Cooked at 325 for 35 mins in a glass pan in a convection oven and it was about perfect. Also removed the pecans and doubled the topping, and definitely glad I did because without the nuts it doesn’t go very far.
Yes, batter is a bit stiff, but turned out so yummy. I used homemade Greek yogurt as I did not have sour cream. Still turned out great!
It would have been helpful to describe the consistency of the flour mixture. It’s so doughy that it is a challenge to try to spread it, let alone spread on a layer of dry crumble of nuts. Just stating “spoon the mixture” is not helpful enough. Also, not everyone has time to watch a video, and I think if the instruction is accurate they shouldn’t need to. Thank you for listening!
Okay second comment since I forgot to rate, but also watched video and looks like “creaming” butter and sugar is minimal. I still think so yummy and will just adjust next time.
Glad to see other cooks discussing stiffness of batter. I thought maybe I overworked the batter after adding dry ingredients. I actually made a second batch of batter to use and it turned out wonderfully. Just made it for second time and even though I worked the batter less it was still stiff. Maybe we don’t need to spread it evenly on second layer? At any rate it is SO yummy. Everyone loved it.
Question – can you substitute walnuts in this recipe?
Yes, you can definitely substitute walnuts for pecans in the sour cream coffee cake recipe.
The batter on this was a bit stiff and hard to spread evenly so I was unsure about it as I put it in the oven, but it turned out beautifully. My family LOVED it!
Yes, the batter is stiff and hard to spread. This tastes amazing anyway. I only needed 33 minutes.