Sour cream makes this coffee cake super moist and the best part is that it starts with a cake mix. It’s so easy to make, and loaded with lots of cinnamon crumbly goodness. This breakfast cake is an instant crowd pleaser!
I love eating cake for breakfast. And I know you know I’m serious because yesterday we chatted about my lack of shame for eating all sorts of debatably inappropriate foods first thing in the morning, such as these Best Baked Apples Recipe (don’t knock it ’til you try it.)
But really, cake is on the less-weird list of breakfast foods because while admittedly I have eaten frosted chocolate birthday cake with sprinkles within 17 minutes of waking up, it’s really not that far of a stretch from the towering shortstacks that we all like to down at the local IHOP. Really? Pancakes? We didn’t even try to disguise the name on that one.
At least this coffee cake isn’t smothered in syrup, right?
Instead it’s loaded down with a cinnamon crumble topping. Oh oh oh, and that same crumble topping is rippled right throughout the center of the cake too. Raise your hand if the streusel is your favorite part?? Good. So you all know exactly what I’m talking about when I say there can never be enough streusel.
I developed this recipe as an easy-to-make totally delicious option for feeding a crowd. When family and friends are coming over, the last thing you want to do is fuss over a labor-intensive breakfast. This cake is just the thing because it starts with a cake mix and just four other ingredients. Easy peasy. And the crumble topping is a cinch to make so the prep takes only 10-15 minutes tops then it’s into the oven. Super moist and loaded with cinnamon crumble, this is an instant favorite!
What people are saying about this Cake Mix Sour Cream Coffee Cake
“Absolutely the best coffee cake I have ever made, and maybe my new go to family treat. The trick to the second layer is dropping the batter by dollops and then sprinkling a bit of the crumb topping to help spread. Well worth the trouble! Delicious. It won’t last the day. I will recommend this to all my friends.” – Susanne
“I’m just sitting down to taste a piece of this coffee cake, all i have to say is DELICIOUS!!! The batter is thick but if you take your time and use dollops of the batter it will spread!! May not be the easiest of batters but the result IS worth the extra time! I will use this recipe again and again because it’s that good. Thank You Tiffany!!” – Tammy
“Found this on Pinterest when looking for a quick coffee cake recipe. After reading the comments I decided to spread all of the batter out first (with a spatula sprayed with Pam) and then put one layer of crumb on the top. Yes, the batter is thick but you can work with it. Oh my gosh, this came out so good! Rich, moist, flavorful, and the whole house smelled great! My husband loved it and it’s my new go-to recipe, highly recommend, so yummy!” – Lisa
“I wrangled all the dough into one layer, grinned with decadent delight at the massive layer of crumble that left me for the top, and I’m about to dish it out to my slobbering family with huge glasses of cold milk. It is to die for! I’m glad I “toughed it out” for that whole 5 minutes to make it! :p Thanks Tiffany!” – Ginger
Cake Mix Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1 package yellow cake mix - (mix only, not prepared)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sour cream - (may sub plain greek yogurt)
- ¼ cup butter - melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Crumble Topping
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup butter (8 tablespoons) - chilled and cut into cubes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9×13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- First prepare the crumble. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in chilled butter until crumbly. Set aside.
- Next prepare the cake. Combine cake mix, egg, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla and mix until combined. It’s okay if the batter still has some lumps.
- Spread half the cake batter in the bottom of the greased baking dish (see note.) Sprinkle with half of the crumble mixture. Grease a rubber spatula and gently spread the remaining batter over the crumble (this takes a little finessing but it's worth it if you just work with it.) Top with remaining crumble.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm.
Looking forward to trying this one. You might want to add details on the cake mix size to use. Duncan Hines uses 16 oz mixes and Pillsbury 15.25. Cake mixes used to be 18 oz so you also have to be careful with older recipes. Would a pudding cake mix work okay?
Soooo delish. .me and the hubby ate the whole thing in less than 24 hrs..couldn’t stop!
Like others have commented, the batter is thick. I dolloped the batter over the pan. I then dipped my fingers into a cup of water and used my wet fingers to spread the batter. It worked out great. Thanks for the recipe. It’s awesome.
I made this before reading the reviews. It is a really thick batter. I put about 2/3 into the pan, sprinkled half the topping, then put the remaining batter in dollops on top. I swirled the whole thing together like a marble cake, then put on the rest of the topping and baked. After all, it’s a coffee cake, not fine dining. I also combined the topping in my food processor and that was a snap.
This recipe is awesome, easy, and Delicious!!! My whole family loved it 🙂 They also love Greek yogurt, their favorite Oikos lemon meringue, next time I’m going to substitute the yogurt for the sour cream. Will post how it turns out!!! Thank you for the recipe!!!! 🙂
This cake was awful to make. The batter is way too thick! Was manageable after adding additional wet ingredients. DO NOT make is recipe as is on this site. You will end up in a frustrated mess! Better off just making the yellow cake mix following the recipe on the box and adding some sour cream to it. Pretty much the same end result, with ZERO frustrations.
I could not for the life of me get the batter to spread in the pan. Re-read the recipe, thinking I must have forgotten to add water but nope. Instead, I just threw half of the crumb mix in with the batter, mixed it a little and then topped it with the rest of the crumb mix. Tasted good and ended up looking fine, though not as pictured.
I have this in the oven now, and it smells amazing! I only had white cake mix (the kind with pudding in he mix) on hand, so I used that, and I have it in a 9 inch round pan. I just bought a new cake stand and wanted to make something for it 😉 Anyway, I did the one layer and used about half of the crumble. I have had it in for about 50 minutes and it still isn’t done, so I am going for an hour. I assume the type of cake mix probably effects the time to cook. Anyway, I found it super easy to make this way! It passed the test of me being able to get it prepped and in the oven before my 5 month old started fussing, so it’s a winner! I am sure it will taste lovely. The batter was amazing! Yeah, I am another one that doesn’t worry about raw eggs😆 🙂
Update: THIS IS THE BEST COFFEE CAKE EVER! Seriously, make this!
Oh how I wish I’d read the comments before trying this recipe. Can I just say this was the worst cake to prepare that I’ve ever made! Why on earth would you say that is an easy quick recipe feed a crowd? I made this because I saw that you use box cake mix and figured that cuts down on a lot of the prep time but honestly the batter is so difficult to work with you are better off making a scratch cake. Never again would I try this, save yourself the time and go buy an Entermans cake.
Hi, I’m sorry you didn’t like it, I have had no issues with this cake and I’ve made it several times. As noted, the easiest way to work with the thick batter is simply to spritz a little cooking spray on a spatula and gently spread the batter. Not an issue, like I’ve said I’ve made it many times and definitely think this recipe is a cinch. Sorry you didn’t agree!
Tiffany,
You can’t please everyone. Trust me, if the recipe mixed and baked itself and washed it’s own dishes, someone would complain about it using too much soap! 🙂
It’s THICK ladies. Thin it with a little milk, or grease your hands (or a spoon) and get in there a little. Or add a touch of flour and roll it out like cookie dough. But for crying out loud, we EAT cookie dough without complaining about how sticky, thick, messy, whatever…because it’s DELICIOUS. (If you feel the urge to lecture me about raw eggs, don’t. 48 years, 6 kids, and a truck load of raw dough later, I’ll just ignore you.)
I wrangled all the dough into one layer, grinned with decadent delight at the massive layer of crumble that left me for the top, and im about to dish it out to my slobbering family with huge glasses of cold milk. It is to die for! I’m glad I “toughed it out” for that whole 5 minutes to make it! :p Thanks Tiffany!
Oh my gosh your comment just made my day! You said it – can’t please everyone, and I truly feel like this is an easy recipe!! I love the finished product and yes, you do have to work with the thick batter for a minute but I definitely feel like it’s worth it! So happy you liked this coffeecake!!! 🙂 🙂
This is one of my favorites.. i make it As a house gift.
It works well to take as an addittion to a morning breakfast.
I use a bundt pan, it looks good and tastes great
I had to post a comment regarding this recipe. I made a trial run of this recipe before giving it to my grandmother who lives alone. She’s getting up there in age so I typically freeze cake batter in small 6 count muffin tins for her.I then vacuum seal and freeze them. I take the frozen unbaked batter to her for her to bake at her house. This saves her time, money and lets her enjoy a fresh baked dessert. I made this recipe as written and placed the batter in an 8 x 8 aluminum foil pan. I vacuum sealed it and then froze it(unbaked). After a couple of weeks, I pulled it out and baked it from frozen. I have to say it was very delicious, I love this recipe. Going forward I think just from personal preference I will leave the top crumb coat off. I think that that is just too much sugar for me and my grandma. I will also put these in muffin tins so that I can have struesel coffee cake cupcakes. So I would recommend to anybody making this recipe to just go ahead and make two. Cook one and freeze one unbaked.. it freezes beautifully. I love pinning recipes off of Pinterest and I especially like feedback regarding the recipe. So I hope my suggestions help anybody else out there who has a loved one that they like to take recipes/food to. Especially the elderly who want to maintain their independence but have loved ones that want to help them out. I hope this helps thank you for the great recipe
awww! Just read this and wished everyone had a granddaughter like you! You made me smile!
I have this recipe bookmarked because I love it so much! Just wondering how to manipulate the recipe for a box of devil’s food cake mix to your standards. Because chocolate. Yummmmmm!!!
Okay … I love your blog and your recipes. I’ve had great success with them all — until today.
This isn’t a “batter” it is a dough. It didn’t rise for anything. I made exactly as written (except one layer, as I could barely cover the bottom of my 9×13 pan). Now, it was tasty, so I shall try again. But it was dry and short. I thought maybe my cake mix was old, but it doesn’t expire until June 20, 2016.
I’m disappointed, but not totally dissuaded. 😀
Same as everybody comment as thick batter . It was so hard to deal with it. First I did 9×13 pan, but I know I can not do entitle batter layered on this size of pan. So I was changing to 7×11. When I was 2 layered on the pan , it is so difficult, but I tried as possible flat.
Everything is so difficult to handle this recipe but came out very good and taste wonderful, too !! ( Since I was changing size of the pan, bake time also have to change . Not 30 min, I do 50 min. Then finally everything cooked inside)
I made this coffee cake after reading all the reviews. I used two (2) eggs instead of one; I used buttermilk instead of sour cream plus 1/4 cup of cream. I also used 1-1/2 tsp. of vanilla. I added one cup chopped pecans to the streusel topping and filling. The results were amazing. The batter was not too thick and I experienced no difficulty in spreading it into a 9″ springform pan.
I think there is something left out of your directions. You spread half the cake batter in the pan but never tell what to do with the rest of it. assume it is layered but sure missing the direction. Thanks.
Hi – updated these directions! Enjoy!