Coffee Cake Baking Tips
If you’re new to making coffee cakes, or new to baking in general, having a basic understanding of the components that make them great can make your next project feel more approachable! I wanted to share a few of my basic Coffee Cake Baking Tips here, with the reminder that practice always makes perfect!
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TIPS & TRICKS FOR THE PERFECT COFFEE CAKE TEXTURE & TASTE!
Coffee cakes can have textures that range from more cakey to a bit more bready depending on the recipe in question. Either way, they should be sufficiently moist and light, as well as flavorful without being overly sweet.
INGREDIENTS
USE ENOUGH FAT
- Ingredients like butter and sour cream are great sources of moisture and fat for coffee cakes! If the cake is coming out too dry, it likely needs more butter.
ADD THE PROPER AMOUNT OF LEAVENING
- There are options between baking soda and baking powder, but using enough overall leavening will ensure that the cake rises properly. I like to use baking soda for recipes that contain sour cream – The acid content of sour cream activates baking soda’s leavening abilities!
- Baking powder contains its own acid, which means it can be a better choice if there are no acid ingredients to react with.
- By the way, when deciding on your leavening, know that baking soda and baking powder are not equal in quantity either! Generally, 1 teaspoon baking soda = 3 teaspoons baking powder.
USE ROOM TEMPERATURE EGGS
- Using room temperature eggs genuinely makes a big difference! They blend more easily into the batter, preserving the correct temperature and texture.
- If you ever forget to let your eggs sit out before baking, one shortcut to try is letting them sit in a bowl of warm tap water for a few minutes! (You don’t want to use hot water as you risk cooking the eggs slightly in their shells.)
FIND THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SUGAR
- Of course sugar is important for adding enough sweetness to your coffee cake, but it’s also important for the texture! Sugar holds onto water, provides structure, and promotes proper rising in baked goods.
CREATE FLAVOR BALANCE
- The cake portion of a coffee cake tends to be minimally sweet and relatively simple in flavor, which means that adding fun pockets of flavor either on top or layered in is the perfect way to dress them up.
- I love a good buttery crumb topping!
- To break up the layers, try adding some fruit preserves or a cinnamon swirl through the center.
- An added bonus: These types of flavor additions will also improve the texture variety of the cake overall!
BAKING PROCESS
DON’T OVERMIX
- With cakes in general, mixing ingredients with a hand mixer until “just combined” is a good rule of thumb! Overmixing can result in activating the gluten in the flour too much once it has combined with wet ingredients, which can quickly turn the cake texture into one that is overly dense or even gummy.
CHOOSE COMPATIBLE BAKEWARE & OVEN TEMPERATURE
- The bakeware that you use for coffee cake (or for anything!) is directly correlated with your oven temperature! Metal, glass, and ceramic all conduct heat very differently. Be sure to double check the temperature recommendations for your bakeware and adjust accordingly.
- I use a ceramic pan!
LINE THE PAN WITH PARCHMENT PAPER
- Not only does parchment paper minimize mess and cleanup, but it creates the ability to lift your cooled coffee cake from the pan while keeping the shape intact. This can be especially beneficial if you have a crumb topping.
AVOID OVERBAKING & UNDERBAKING
- If your coffee cake is overbaked, it will be dry and a bit too crumbly.
- Underbaking is clear when you can see areas of batter that are still wet towards the top.
See photos!
I have never made a coffee cake before. Thanks for the helpful tips!
My pleasure! I’m so glad it was helpful! 🙂
I bake with almond flour and monk fruit and my coffee cakes get hard after they cool. I can soften them in the microwave but wondering if you have any other suggestions? I’m thinking of adding sour cream to my recipe. Carol
Hi Carol! I actually don’t have experience with almond flour due to my tree nut allergies! This is why I primarily use wheat flour when baking. And of course I don’t know your overall recipe, so it’s very hard for me to say definitively! 🙂 If it’s due to the almond flour, I’ve heard from other bakers that experimenting with the wet ingredients and the fineness of the almond flour can be a great place to start, so the sour cream idea might be a success! Monk fruit in place of sugar can also affect the texture of baked goods.