Sour-Cream Coffee Cake

By Robert Farrar Capon

Sour-Cream Coffee Cake
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
5(5,771)
Comments
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Here is a classic coffee cake with a tender crumb and a crunchy streusel topping that comes together in about an hour. It's quite rich, so your serving sizes don't need to be large.

Featured in: GOOD HEALTH; HAVE A NICE BREAKFAST

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Ingredients

Yield:About 12 servings

    For the Cake

    • ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter at room temperature
    • 1¼cups/260 grams sugar
    • 2large eggs
    • 1½cups flour/188 grams
    • 1½teaspoons baking powder
    • ½teaspoon baking soda
    • ½teaspoon salt
    • 1¼cups/300 grams sour cream
    • 1teaspoon vanilla

    For the Topping

    • ½cup/104 grams sugar
    • 2teaspoons all-purpose flour
    • 1tablespoon cinnamon
    • ⅓cup/70 grams chopped pecans or walnuts
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)

348 calories; 18 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 45 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 31 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 216 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees and generously butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  2. Step 2

    In a separate bowl, sift flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with sour cream and vanilla until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour batter into prepared baking pan.

  3. Step 3

    Make the topping: Combine sugar, cinnamon, flour and nuts in a small bowl and mix well.

  4. Step 4

    Sprinkle the topping evenly over the cake and bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool, cut into pieces and serve.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
5,771 user ratings
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Comments

Emily Weinstein, Cooking Editor, The New York Times

Thanks, Vicky — we retested the pan size and found the recipe worked well in an 8 x 8-inch pan. You'll see that change here.

Vicky

This cake is really delicious but there is nowhere near enough batter by a 9x13 pan. I baked it in a 9" square an that was perfect

Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor

After reading about the issues many of you were having, we retested this recipe a third time. We brought the pan size back to the original 9 x 13. We also doubled the topping (although removed the butter) and decreased the baking soda. All of this should help with the overflow and/or sinkage some of you were experiencing. We also provided metric measurements for those of you who prefer to weigh your ingredients. Happy Cooking!

BgD

Used a cast iron pan. Preheated, added batter, baked. Excellent.

Gylaine

This was amazing. I added chopped pecans ands layered topping into cake. If I had made no changes I would still rate it a NYT 5! My guests rated it a 10!

Adrienne

Made the cake as directed and put it in a 9x9 pan. Ended up a great thickness with zero overflow issues. In a 9x9, it did take closer to 40 minutes to bake, but it was Christmas morning and I wasn’t paying super close attention to the time. No butter in the crumble seemed..messy, so I went to the crumble recipe for the standard “Coffee Cake” but Lidey Heuck, cut it in half, and used it. I still had way too much crumble and tossed about half, but the crumble stuck together nicely. I pushed it gently into the batter so it would adhere. I didn’t feel like there was enough batter to do an inner ring of crumble. The texture/crumb of the cake is fantastic. The flavor is also excellent. I’ve used the ATK recipe for sour cream coffee cake before and this recipe is MUCH less fussy.

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