Name: Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 16 Tablespoons Sweet Butter, ((2 Sticks)); 2 3/4 Cups Granulated Sugar; 2 Eggs, (Beaten); 2 Cups All Purpose Flour; 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder; 1/4 Teaspoon Salt; 2 Cups Sour Cream; 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract; 2 Cups Pecans, (Chopped); 1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon; 1 Cup Confectioners Sugar; 2-3 Tablespoons Milk; 3/4 Cup Pecans, (Chopped)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake has the power to beautify a dreary day and bring together long lost friends. Enjoy with your favorite hot beverage!

This easy sour cream coffee cake can brighten up any dour day. Is it drizzling again? Coffee cake. Unseasonably cold? Coffee cake. Are you having a slow weekend? Coffee cake. Struggling to carry a conversation? Coffee cake! With its delicately cinnamoned pecan layer, and dexterously drizzled icing, my cake is a wonder to behold.

In addition to brightening your day and putting a sparkle in your eye, this cake is pretty fun to make! Enlist young helpers in mixing the required four bowls of ingredients (wet, dry, pecan layer, and icing). Baking is always more fun when you can make a social activity out of it! Then sit back, put your feet up, and let your house be filled with warm cinnamon and vanilla aromas. Who needs scented candles?

Save these other highly edible cakey confections for your next rainy day: my Sock It To Me Cake and Kentucky Butter Cake are darned delicious.

How To Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I make my cake in a 12 cup bundt pan, but you can make a smaller volume (about 2/3 as much) of sour cream coffee cake 8×8 pan style for a square take on this cake! Blend the wet ingredients in one bowl, sift the dry ingredients in another, mix the sugared pecan layer in a third, and whisk the glaze in a fourth.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then layer the pan with batter, pecan mix, batter, then pecan mix again. Once the cake is baked and cooled, drizzle on the glaze, decorate with pecans, and try not to gobble down in one sitting! If you anticipate portion control problems with your ravenous diners, consider making sour cream coffee cake muffins!

1. Generously butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl, add butter and 2 cups of sugar.

2. Cream butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Add eggs, blend after each addition.

3. Add sour cream.

4. Add vanilla. Mix.

5. In a separate mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

6. Fold the flour mixture until just well blended. Do not over mix.

7. In a small bowl, mix remaining 3/4 cup sugar with pecans and cinnamon.

8. Pour half of the batter into the prepared bundt pan.

9. Top with half of the pecan and sugar mixture.

10. Add remaining batter.

11. Sprinkle the top with remaining pecan mixture. Bake until a cake tester inserted in center of the cake comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Transfer to a serving plate. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. In a mixing bowl, whisk powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk until smooth. Add more milk as necessary. Drizzle glaze over cooled coffee cake. Garnish with chopped pecans.

What Is Coffee Cake?

A coffee cake is a sweet dry cake initially intended to be consumed with coffee. Sometimes coffee cakes are even made with coffee! In my recipe, sour cream features centrally. If you’ve been googling “Paula Deen sour cream coffee cake” to no avail, that’s because she uses dinner rolls and pudding in her coffee cake, not sour cream!

If the news is to be believed, coffee cake is of German descent, and originated as large sheet cakes served to farm day laborers. Also, Cincinnati is apparently the place to go for an embarrassment of coffee cake riches!

What Ingredients Do You Need For This Easy Coffee Cake Recipe?

Some people make sour cream coffee cake with cake mix, but I prefer the homemade touch! This easy coffee cake recipe uses sweet butter, granulated sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt, sour cream, and vanilla for the batter.

The trademark brown middle layer of the cake is made from chopped pecans, sugar, and cinnamon! (The sour cream coffee cake Betty Crocker makes uses brown sugar for this layer, but granulated sugar has provided more than adequate results for me.)

For the glaze, you will want to make sure you have some confectioners sugar on hand and a few drops of milk. Now, the sour cream coffee cake Martha Stewart recommends garnishes the cake with walnuts, but I prefer pecans inside and out! (Although I must admit she’s not alone — Zingerman’s sour cream coffee cake recipe also employs walnuts).

How Do You Freeze Coffee Cake Recipes?

It is pretty easy to freeze coffee cake recipes! Just wrap or seal the cake carefully in heavy duty freezer materials, and plan to consume within two to three months. And let the cake cook before freezing, of course.

More Delicious Coffee Cake Recipes

Read on, dear friends, for even more amazing coffee cake recipes and related tips. Welcome to Pandora’s box of coffee cake information!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

For a delicately fruity wonderment, try Blueberry Coffee Cake! This one makes a great breakfast treat.

Apple Coffee Cake

Apple coffee cake has a nice chunky texture. This is another good morning snack.

Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

For the best of two worlds, try blueberry sour cream coffee cake! This recipe combines the fruity thrill of berries with the subtle powers of sour cream.

Strawberry Coffee Cake

Yet another berry good option! Strawberry coffee cake is easy on the eye as well as the stomach, with its gentle pink hues.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Cinnamon coffee cake is a classic. This recipe has a nice crumble of sugar and spice on top.

Raspberry Coffee Cake

If raspberries are in season in your town, you absolutely have to try this version. Moist and flavorful, dare I say raspberry coffee cake takes the … cake?

Bisquick Coffee Cake

Finally, Bisquick Coffee Cake speeds up the batter prep process just enough to call this a convenience cake. Skip that pesky step of locating and combining a bunch of dry ingredients!

Recipe Notes For Making The Best Coffee Cake Recipe

The best coffee cake recipe needs to be baked for exactly the right amount of time. If you don’t own a cake tester, here’s a secret tip. You can use a stick of spaghetti to test the center! I admit I have also trimmed a long thin sliver of cardboard to test baked goods in a few moments of desperation. It works – just be sure your cardboard is sanitary!

Here’s another pro-tip: Make sure that your cake has cooled sufficiently before glazing. Otherwise, the icing will perform a dramatic vanishing act as it melts and absorbs into the hot cake! There goes your beauteous finishing touch.