This Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake is a coffee cake with the flavors of a Snickerdoodle cookie – a crumbly cinnamon sugar top and a sweet, moist, buttery cake loaded with luscious cinnamon chips.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: This is a delightful and easy to make coffee cake for brunch or an afternoon snack. It’s the perfect way to satisfy a sweet tooth with warm fall flavors.
How to Make Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake
This is an especially tall coffee cake that makes an impressive presentation. The key to making sure your cake rises fully is to thoroughly grease and flour the pan.
In addition, before you start baking, let all of the ingredients come to room temperature. Cold ingredients won’t blend well.
This cake has a thick batter that you’ll need to scoop into the coffee cake pan. Once all the batter is in the pan, smooth the surface with an offset spatula, rubber spatula or the back of a spoon.
Tip: Don’t forget the cinnamon sugar. It adds texture to break up the dense, moist snickerdoodle coffee cake.
Cinnamon Chips
This cake has pops of sweet cinnamon goodness from Hershey’s cinnamon chips. You can find them in the baking aisle of most grocery stores during the fall and winter or order them online any time of year.
It’s important to coat the cinnamon chips in a dusting of flour. This keeps them from all sinking to the bottom of the cake as it bakes.
If you can’t find cinnamon chips, butterscotch chips work as well.
What is a coffee cake pan?
A coffee cake pan is a tube pan similar to a bundt pan with a design. You can also use an angel food cake pan or a 12 cup bundt cake pan for this recipe.
Coffee Cake Glaze
The glaze really is the “icing on the cake” for this recipe. It pairs well with the cinnamon and balances all the flavors. The glaze also dries nicely and adds a slight crunch to your cake for additional texture.
I suggest using a whisk to mix the glaze. If you don’t have a whisk, a fork will also work. The key is to make sure there are no powdered sugar lumps.
Baking and Decorating the Cake
Once your Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake is baked, let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. To remove the cake, run a knife around the outer edge of the pan as well as around the inner circle/tube. Then invert it onto a baking tray, place the serving platter on top and invert it again onto the serving platter.
You can now add the glaze. I like to generously coat the top and let some icing drip down the sides of the snickerdoodle coffee cake. It will look beautiful and taste great.
If you have a bit of extra glaze, you can drizzle some on each slice as you serve it.
Storing Leftovers
Store leftover cake at room temperature. Let it cool, then wrap the cake well with plastic wrap so it stays moist.
If you want to refrigerate your leftovers, I recommend letting it come to room temperature before serving. Or you can microwave each slice for 20 seconds at a time, until you reach your desired temperature.
More Coffee Cake Recipes
Try these other brunch treats next:
- Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake is a rose-shaped cake with a sweet white glaze on top.
- Mini Caramel Coffee Cakes are muffin-sized cakes with crunchy streusel topping and a caramel drizzle.
- Apple Crisp Sweet Roll Coffee Cake has sweet fall flavors and a pretty drizzled glaze.
Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 ½ cup cinnamon chips 1 pkg. Hershey’s
- 2 tablespoons flour
Topping
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 – 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat over to 350º.
- In a medium bowl, combined 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and 2 cups sugar until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix to combined. Add flour mixture stirring until just combined. Coat the cinnamon chips with 2 T. flour and stir into batter.
- Spoon batter into a greased coffee cake pan. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of batter in the pan.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a crack in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
Vicky
Making this cake now but even after 60 minutes it still wasn’t done. I didn’t have sour cream so used mayo. Would that have caused it to cook longer? Smells great and can’t wait for it to finish. Oh and since I didn’t have cinnamon chips I used coffee chips. Any ideas?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Vicky – yes, changing ingredients can change the cook time. Also, different ovens and different pans make a difference as well. Hope you enjoy it!
Nanci
Hi Barbara! I’m making this coffee cake at altitude, 7000 feet. I have made your high altitude recipes a lot and, they have all come out perfectly. Do you have this recipe converted? Thank you so much for the wonderful recipes for high altitude. As you know, baking at altitude can be quite a challenge to say the least! I can’t wait to make.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Nanci – it’s so fun to hear you’ve had great success with my recipes. With a dense coffee cake like this one, I haven’t had to make high-altitude changes. I’m not sure if that holds true for you at 7,000 feet. If you want to make a slight change, I would decrease the baking powder to 1 1/2 teaspoons. Let me know how it goes.
Abbie Norowzi
Fantastic recipe! It does taste just like a Snickerdoodle! Twelve 16-18-year-olds plus their teacher will attest to this! It was my daughter’s turn to bring breakfast to her Newspaper class for Friday morning staff meeting which is the day before Valentine’s Day. She asked me to make something special – like a coffee cake. I had a 30 oz. bag of cinnamon chips. I did a google search and I’m really glad I found your site. This cake is delish! It’s also easy to make. I don’t have a coffee cake pan or even a tube pan. But I do have a 26-year-old inexpensive Bundt pan. I decided to give it a try. Instead of sprinkling the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the top of the batter that’s in a ring or tube pan, I sprayed the Bundt pan with baker’s spray containing flour and then coated with the cinnamon sugar mixture before spooning in the batter. I took a risk and it didn’t burn – it just made a crunchy-cinnamon-y coating. YUM! The cake released easily after cooling 5 minutes on a rack. The only change I made to the cake batter was to replace 1/2 cup of the sugar with 1/2 cup light brown sugar. The cinnamon chips I use are tiny chips made from real cinnamon that I purchase online from Prepared Pantry. I love these chips – their small size makes them disburse easily and stay suspended in a batter. When the cake had cooled I made two separate icing drizzles. The first had 1/2 tsp. Maple Extract and 1/2 tsp. Butter Extract. It was a nice caramel color. The 2nd icing had 1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. butter extract. It was pure white. The two colors of drizzle look so pretty. This cake is moist and the crumb is excellent with it’s crunchy exterior. it also smells divine – Your entire house smells wonderful! Make this cake – you’ll be happy you did. I’ll definitely try your other recipes – especially have my eye on that apricot-cherry braided yeast bread. Thanks for sharing!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Abbie – so glad to know it works well in a bundt pan. Thanks for sharing your changes. Sounds like you’re a great mom, and a lucky group of kids.
maria molina
my family and I we love this cake ,thank you for sharing !!!!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Maria! So glad you enjoyed it. We love this cake too.
Patty
Hi Barbara. I’ve made this twice now and both times it has stuck to the coffee cake pan and torn the top off even though I sprayed the pan liberally with Pam. How did you “grease” the pan so yours came out so nicely? Thanks! Patty
Barbara Schieving
Hi Patty – sorry you’re having problems with it sticking. My pan is a non-stick pan so I’m sure that helps. Try using the baking spray with flour – Bakers Secret, or grease and flour the pan before using it. You could also cut out a parchment paper ring to line the bottom of the pan. Glad you enjoyed the cake enough to make it again even though it stuck.
Patty
Thanks Barbara for these great suggestions and I’ll try them. I used a Nordic Ware non-stick pan so that is part of why I’m discouraged as this is really a great recipe. I make the Snickerdoodle bread often! Patty
Patty
Success!!! Barbara I heavily greased and lightly floured the non-stick coffee cake pan this weekend and the Snickerdoodle Coffee Cake came right out! Thanks for helping me solve this dilemma so we can enjoy this delicious recipe often. On a side note, I took the coffee cake from the other day that stuck so bad to the pan and glazed that sad looking thing and sent it to the guys who work in the car ministry at our church. My husband said they raved about it and not a crumb was left! Blessings, Patty
Melissa
Thanks for this recipe! It won best cake at our divisional holiday gathering! Looking forward to trying more from your site!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Melissa – how fun! Congratulations – it is one of our favorites.
Marilyn
Your list of ingredients calls for 3 cups of flour but in the directions for preparing you say 2 1/2 cups of flour. Could you post which is the correct amount?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Marilyn – 3 cups is correct. I’ve updated the recipe. Thanks for the heads up.
Nessa
Just made this and it is great! I didn’t have cinnamon chips, so I subbed chocolate, and I also used a cinnamon glaze to up the cinnamon flavor. My siblings kept begging for more, and the guest we had over really enjoyed. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Nessa! I’ll have to try it with chocolate chips. The cinnamon glaze is a great idea. So glad you and your guests enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know.
Allie
Yum I love snickerdoodle anything! Is it essential to use sour cream or can buttermilk be substituted? After not liking the tang sour cream left to a lemon bread I made I’ve never tried using it again but this cake looks too delicious!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Allie! I haven’t tried substituting buttermilk, but often use low fat yogurt as a substitute for sour cream.
Rachel (teacher-chef)
So what makes Coffee Cake a Coffee Cake and a Bundt Cake a Bundt Cake?
Haha – making this for my brother-in-law, the snickerdoodle monster & not sure since I baked mine in a rounded bundt pan if I should call it bundt or coffee cake…. therefore determining when we can serve it!
Barbara Schieving
For me a coffee cake has a streusel topping and a bundt cake has a thicker glaze. Although I think you should decide when you want to serve it and call it a coffee cake in the morning or bundt in the evening. Enjoy!
Tara
How exactly did you grease yours? I just used Pam, to my detriment. However, the great thing is it is served upside down, so you can’t really tell a large portion of the bottom stuck. Also as an aside, I baked mine for 53 min and it seems perfect.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Tara – sorry yours stuck. That’s so frustrating. I used a non-stick coffee cake pan and grease the pan well with cooking spray with flour (Baker’s Secret). The cooking spray with flour works much better for baking than just Pam, especially when you use a pan with lots of ridges like a bundt pan.
I’ll update the recipe. Thanks for the feedback. Hope you enjoy the cake.
katie campbell
Hi! This looks sooo great I wanna make it asap! Question though, when do I add the glaze? Before or after it cools. Also do you think adding nuts would ruin it? (I’m in an almond crave recently lol)
Barbara Schieving
Hi Katie – you can add the glaze before or after it cools. If you glaze it while it’s warm it needs to be a bit thicker. I think toasted sliced or chopped almonds would be a great addition.
Wendy
Made this cake this morning for company… Did not have chips so used blueberries instead…delicious! Chips are on the grocery list for the next time!
Barbara
Hi Wendy. Blueberries sound like a delicious addition to this coffee cake. A perfect cake to serve guests. So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know.
Virginia Kahler-Anderson, aka HomeRearedChef
I am so very glad that Genie Grato pointed me in this direction. This recipe looks fabulous. But I also browsed through the other recipes and I am drooling all over myself here. Since I love to cook and create recipes, it is understandable that I would like this site. 🙂
~Virginia
Barbara
Thanks Virginia! So glad you stopped by. It was great that Genie featured this recipe on Blogher Food What’s Hot.
kristy
Hmmm…mm..this cake sure looks mouthwatering. Love especially the additional topping. Slurppppp….
Kristy
Denise @ Creative Kitchen
Snickerdoodles are a family tradition! This looks amazing!!