The Corner Bakery Cafe’s Cinnamon Creme Coffee cake is a “rich, golden cake swirled with ribbons of cinnamon, topped with crumbly cinnamon streusel and powdered sugar.” Similar to a New York crumb cake, it’s perfect for a decadent breakfast, mid-day snack, or dessert.
Last month, my daughter and I were having lunch at the Corner Bakery and she raved about their Cinnamon Creme Coffee Cake. Of course, I ordered a slice and it is heavenly. Since it’s over $20 for a small cake, she asked if I could recreate it a home. A quick internet search took me to IgoYOUgo and a beautiful copy cat version of Corner Bakery’s signature coffee cake.
It can be hard to evenly spread the batter after you add a stresuel layer to the middle of a cake, so I use an ice cream scoop to evenly spread the dough. Another tip is to place parchment all around the cake before sprinkling the powdered sugar to keep the serving platter clean.
This was a close version, but my daughter thought it needed more cinnamon because it didn’t quite have the oh wow factor of the original. It was more moist and delicious the day after it’s made, so be sure and make it the day before you plan to serve it.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I would double this)
- 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 2 2/3 cups flour
- 2 sticks salted butter, melted
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup butter, room temp, cut into pieces
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract (I substituted vanilla)
- 2 cups sour cream
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour 10 inch/12 cup tube pan very well. (Do not use a smaller pan or a bundt pan.)
- Combine first five topping ingredients in a large bowl, add melted butter and combine with a wooden spoon. You want big chunks of the topping and filling so don't over mix.
- Cake: Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl, set aside.
- In a large bowl cream butter, shortening, and sugar until very light. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in almond extract. Add the dry cake ingredients alternating with the sour cream. The batter will be very thick.
- Spoon half of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the topping mixture over the batter, then the remaining cake batter, then remaining topping. Press the final topping layer into the cake layer very gently, just to make sure it “sticks”.
- Bake in the center of the oven for 50 - 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cake is done when it starts to pull away from the sides and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Loosen sides of cake with knife and invert onto a wire rack and then invert again on to serving platter. Sprinkle with powder sugar to finish.
Notes
I made the following high altitude changes in the cake batter: 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1 1/4 cup sugar.
slightly adapted from IgoYOUgo
Other coffee cake recipes you might enjoy:
Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Barbara Bakes
Sweet Petals Coffee Cake, Barbara Bakes
Sour Cream Coffee Cake, A Chica Bakes
Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake, Leite’s Culinaria
Pumpkin Coffee Cake, How Sweet It Is
Some of the links in my posts may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Thank you for supporting Barbara Bakes when you shop!
I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Hi Cindy – I assume the recipe uses butter for the great flavor and shortening for a higher, more moist cake. I like the explanation in this post http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/04/butter-vs-shortening-in-baking.html. If you aren’t comfortable using shortening you would probably get good results using only butter. Let me know if you try it. Thanks!
Hi Barbara,
Have you tried making in cupcake pan for s individual version?
Also thought about trying 1/2 recipe in a 8 ” round pan.
Thank you
Hi Cindy – I haven’t made it in a cupcake pan, but Claire did http://clairekcreations.com/2012/02/cinnamon-creme-coffee-cake-and-breakfast-pizza/ and it worked. You could try half the recipe in an 8′ round pan and add a heating core to the center. I’d love it if you’d come back and let me know if you try it. Thanks!
Wow thank you for a quick response. What is shearing core and any ideas how to achieve it?
I do have good quality kitchen equipment.
A heating core is cone that you put in the center of a baking pan to help the cake cook faster in the middle. It would help you achieve the coffee cake shape as well as. Some dense cakes don’t bake well in a round shape because by the time the middle is baked the edge is over cooked. I don’t know if that would be the case with this cake or not. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000VM82M/ref=s9_simh_gw_p79_d0_g79_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1SEWJN92EYE1GP9ZFRJ6&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
My son and I made this cake last night. We had such high expectations, however, we were disappointed this morning when we sat down to try it. The cake was very bland. It was moist, but it had no flavor. The filling was also bland. It lacked the sweetness and bold cinnamon flavor that the Corner Bakery cake has.
And I am not sure that it is really cheaper to make it. I think if I add up the cost of all the ingredients, it would be the same as just going out and buying it. Except for the cost of gas maybe.
I make this cake 3 times and each time come out just perfect
And taste so good .exactly the same taste at the corner bakery .
Thank you so much
It’s an exelant recipe
Thank you again. Think I’ll try putting a ramekin in the center and see if that works. I’ll let you know if I do the cupcakes or 1/2 cake idea.
I made the Nutella peanut butter cookies in the mini muffin pan, they were amazing. I added a carmel hershey kiss in some of them. Also topped Nutella with crushed up heath bars rather than peanuts (I didn’t have any). Try the Heath bars, they were delicious.