Crumb Coffee Cake

Crumb Coffee Cake piled high with crumb topping and topped with powdered sugar

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4.89 from 143 votes

A moist, tender cake topped high with delicious chunks of cinnamon sugar goodness!

Course Dessert

Cuisine cake

Keyword Coffee Cake, Crumb Cake, NJ Crumb Cake

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Servings slices

Calories 574

Author Erren Hart

Ingredients

For the topping:

2 cups brown sugar packed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted - plus more if needed
3 cups cake flour

For the cake:

2½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cups butter (1½ sticks) softened
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1¼ cups buttermilk
1½ teaspoons vanilla
½ cup powdered sugar for dusting

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For a Tender Crumb Topping

Sift the cake flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together into a large bowl and whisk to combine.
Add the melted butter and work it into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until there is no visible dryness. Squeeze a handful of the topping into your hand. If it doesn't clump together, add a little more melted butter until it does. Set aside.

For a crunchy topping

Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the melted butter, then gently mix in the flour, being careful not to overmix (you just want to moisten the flour and mix until there is no visible dryness).
Squeeze a handful of the topping into your hand. If it doesn't clump together, add a little more melted butter until it does. Set aside.

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 350f/175c. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
Beat the softened butter in a large bowl until light.
Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
In another small bow, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla until combined.
Add the flour and wet ingredients to the butter mixture in three alternating additions starting with the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
Transfer the cake batter to the prepared baking pan (the batter will be thick); spread it evenly over the pan.
Hand-squeeze small handfuls of topping together and crumble clumps evenly over the cake batter, covering with a thick layer of topping.
Bake 45 minutes to an hour or until the tester comes out clean and the topping is deep golden brown and a little crisp.
Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares to serve.

Video

Notes

UPDATE NOTES: This blog post was originally published in July 2014. In 2023, the recipe was updated and extensively tested to address reported issues with sinking crumbs, resulting in a new and improved version of this delicious Crumb Coffee Cake. If you want to make the original recipe, replace the cake flour with all-purpose/plain flour and follow the instructions for the crunchy topping.

Make the topping first. Leaving the batter to sit before baking may cause problems with rising, causing the topping to sink into the cake.
Use good quality unbleached flour in the cake batter (with 4 to 5g of protein) for the best result. Lower-quality flour may not have the stability to hold the topping.
Don't overmix the batter once the flour is added. Overmixing can cause a tough, dense cake.
Be sure to cool the cake completely before dusting it with sugar. A warm cake will melt the sugar.
If you don't have buttermilk on hand, don't panic, you can make your own. One cup of milk plus 1 tbsp of white vinegar or lemon juice is a great rule of thumb.

For this recipe: 1¼ cups of milk plus 1¼ tablespoons of white vinegar or lemon juice.

Nutrition