How to Make Coffee Cake

A freshly brewed cup of coffee might seem like perfection in a cup, and we have to admit that we love great coffee. Sometimes, however, even the best cup of coffee would taste better alongside a delicious piece of coffee cake. A classic pastry, we particularly like coffee cake because it’s sweet and versatile, so it pairs well with many different coffees. If you’ve never had one of our coffees with a slice of homemade coffee cake, treat yourself to a sweet duo. Here’s a recipe for coffee cake inspired by The Pioneer Woman that we love.

Ingredients for Coffee Cake

This recipe includes both a cake and a topping, which are made separately.

For the cake, you will need the following ingredients:

• 3 cups flour, sifted
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup butter, softened
• 2 cups (barely) sugar
• 1¼ cups whole milk
• 1 tablespoon very finely ground coffee (optional)
• ¾ cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)
• 3 egg whites

For the topping, gather these ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup flower
• 1½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon very finely ground coffee (optional)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon (optional)
• ¾ cups pecans (optional)

How to Make Coffee Cake

Once you have the ingredients gathered, follow these steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff
4. Cream the butter and sugar together.
5. Add the flour mixture and milk to the butter and sugar, alternating between flour and milk until both are fully added. Avoid overbeating the dough.
6. If you want either freshly ground coffee and/or chopped pecans or walnuts in the cake, add them to the dough now.
7. Fold in the egg whites with a rubber spatula.
8. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (or a larger pan).
9. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the dough is fully cooked.
10. While the cake is baking, combine the topping ingredients in a separate bowl.
11. When the cake is finished, sprinkle with the crumbly topping.

While we always recommend brewing coffee with freshly roasted beans, it’s not as important to use recently roasted coffee in baking. The subtler notes that using freshly roasted coffee brings out will be overpowered by the ingredients in the cake. You should still use high-quality coffee, but this is a good way to use up older coffee that’s lying around your kitchen.

Of course, once the cake is made, you’ll need to brew coffee to go along with it. After all, without coffee, coffee cake is really just cake.

Get More Great Coffee Recipe Ideas

On Coffeecademy, we at Driftaway Coffee regularly publish coffee-related recipes. We’ve posted recipes for everything from coffee creamer to cold-brewed coffee. For ideas on what to make with coffee, check out Coffeecademy, and follow us on Twitter to get updates when we have new recipes up.