7 Favorite Coffee Cake Recipes

Getting ready for a weekend brunch or looking for the perfect recipe to bake and take to a friend in need? Here’s a roundup of our favorite coffee cake recipes from the Yankee archives.

7 Favorite Coffee Cake Recipes

Apple-Studded Brown-Butter Streusel Coffee Cake

Cooking butter until it turns a rich brown color adds a nutty flavor to this addictive confection. In fact, I don’t think it’s possible to pack in more appealing elements here: buttermilk batter, warm spices, streusel topping, browned butter, and lots of apples.

Best Sour Cream Coffee Cake

“… When we cousins do get together, the host or hostess arises early to make “Aunt Ginny’s Coffee Cake” — which we think is the best sour cream coffee cake out there — for the rest of us. It’s equally good with ice-cold milk or steaming coffee.”

Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake

Made with wild Maine blueberries and a cinnamon crumb topping, this old-fashioned blueberry buckle recipe is a New England summer favorite. We prefer the flavor of the smaller wild blueberries, but regular blueberries work, too.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Made with buttermilk, brown sugar, and fresh fruit, this strawberry rhubarb coffee cake recipe is an early summer family favorite.

Cardamom Crumb Coffee Cake

Cardamom buns are traditional Christmas fare for Scandinavians, which got us thinking about other ways to incorporate the warm and sweetly aromatic spice into a coffee cake. We decided to rework a classic crumb cake by leaving the cinnamon in the streusel and adding cardamom to the cake batter. An inspired combination!

Crumb Coffee Cake

Like the sour cream coffee cake, crumb cake was a Northern European invention, originally prepared with a yeast-raised dough but simplified in the 20th century with the use of chemical leaveners like baking powder. It’s generally thought of as a New York specialty, but it’s found all through New England as well.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

This rhubarb coffee cake works equally well when served for breakfast, a snack, or dessert (or all three in one day). Rhubarb provides a subtle tartness, while the topping provides a great sweetness and crunchiness.

What tops your list of favorite coffee cake recipes?

SEE MORE:
12 Best Muffin Recipes
Favorite Brunch Recipes

Aimee Tucker

Aimee Tucker is Yankee Magazine’s Senior Digital Editor. A lifelong New Englander and Yankee contributor since 2010, Aimee has written columns devoted to history, foliage, retro food, and architecture, and regularly shares her experiences in New England travel, home, and gardening. Her most memorable Yankee experiences to date include meeting Stephen King, singing along to a James Taylor Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood, and taking to the skies in the Hood blimp for an open-air tour of the Massachusetts coastline.

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