Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This Sour Cream Coffee Cake is such an easy cake to make from scratch. This is a family recipe that has been passed down for years and is moist and delicious but also simple to put together. This is the best excuse to eat cake for breakfast and is a great holiday dessert as well (Christmas morning, anyone?!).

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As you may remember, I mentioned in my Orange Roll Monkey Bread post that I'd be sharing my Grandma Eve's Sour Cream Coffee Cake. This amazingly delicious cake was major standby throughout my childhood. It's an excellent Christmas morning/dish-to-pass/just because cake and a great excuse to eat cake for breakfast (Psssh. As if we need an excuse!).

When I was a kid, I didn't quite have the penchant for coffee that I do now. In fact, I thought it was gross. So when my mom would mention the fact that she was making coffee cake, my brain would never go to this cake. Instead, I imagined something bitter like strong, unsweetened coffee (as you've probably gathered, I prefer mine moderately light, sweet and hazelnut flavored!).

But then she would bring the cake out and I would remember that it wasn't made with actual coffee (sometimes kids are so literal!). To this day, I still don't really know why they call it coffee cake. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume it's because it tastes great with a nice cup of coffee but I cannot confirm this (Anyone know the answer? Leave it in the comments. Bonus points for snark if you leave it in the form of a Let Me Google That link).

Anyway, the main cake part is moist and delicious without being overly sweet. A good, solid coffee cake, if ever there was one. But that's not my favorite part. No-sir-ee.

My absolute favorite part of this cake is the crispy, sugary mixture that makes it's way through the middle of the cake. Always has been. Always will be. One single bite immediately transports me back to my childhood on any given snowy morning with a blanket wrapped around my pajama'd torso and a cup of hot cocoa.

This sugar mixture adds the most fantastic crunchy texture and a fantastic sweetness. The sweetness I'm referring to is a more interesting type of sweet than your typical sugary treat. It's the addition of the brown sugar that adds this great depth, as only brown sugar can.

Not only is this an awesome candidate for a cake to eat for breakfast (remember, no need for an excuse!) it also makes a tasty dessert. It's great when you need something to bring to a brunch or dinner. It's also a lovely cake to give if you want to brighten someone's day like new parents or a gift for a neighbor.

Here are some other great Christmas Morning options:

Orange Roll Monkey Bread

Grandma Hinz’s Apple Pancakes

Egg Stuffed Bread

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Hash

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Jessy Freimann

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Dessert

Cuisine Breakfast, Christmas, Holiday, Sweet

Servings 8 -10 servings

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Cake Ingredients

• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• ½ cup of shortening I used butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ pint 8 oz. of sour cream
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• 2 cups of sifted flour
• 1 tsp. of baking powder
• 1 tsp. of baking soda
• ½ tsp. of salt

Sugar Mixture Ingredients

• ⅔ cup of brown sugar
• ½ cup of nuts optional- I don't use them
• 1 tsp. of cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp. of soft butter or margarine I use butter

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt pan or angel food pan.
• Blend together the granulated sugar, ½ cup of butter, eggs, sour cream and vanilla.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Stir the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture and beat well.
• Put half the batter into the bundt pan
• Mix the brown sugar, nuts (if using), cinnamon and 2 Tbsp. of butter well (the original recipe says to use a pastry blender but I used a whisk with great success).
• Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture onto the batter in the pan. top with the rest of the batter and then sprinkle the remaining brown sugar mixture on top.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until your cake tester comes out clean.
• Let it cool for a couple of minutes and then turn it onto your serving plate while it's still warm (a fellow reader noted having trouble with it sticking if you let it cool all the way) and enjoy!

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