Lemon Coffee Cake
Lemon coffee cake adds a delicious twist to the classic coffee cake with buttery streusel topping by including a zesty lemon curd, cream cheese layer, and drizzle of sugar glaze!
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 8 oz. block of cream cheese softened
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk
Lemon Filling
- 15 oz. thick lemon curd
Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 oz. block of cream cheese softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- Zest of 1 lemon about 1 tablespoon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Crumble Topping
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease a glass 10” x 15” baking dish or a DEEP 9” x 13” baking dish. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy (about 2-3 minutes).
- Add in brown sugar and white sugar. Beat until fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
- Beat in both eggs until combined.
- Beat in vanilla extract until combined.
- In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch and salt.
- Slowly beat in a third of the dry mixture into the wet then add in half the buttermilk. Then beat in another third of the dry mixture and the rest of the buttermilk. Then beat in the remaining dry mix into the wet. Beat just until combined – do not over mix.
- Pour half the batter into the prepared baking dish. The batter will be thick.
- Spread the lemon curd carefully over the batter in the baking dish. Leave about ¾” space between the lemon curd and the edge of the pan. Lemon curd that spreads to the outside of the pan will burn while baking. Carefully top with the remaining batter, working from the outer perimeter towards inner to make sure that the lemon curd stays contained within the batter layers.
- In a medium mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together the cream cheese filling ingredients: cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Spread the cream cheese layer over the top layer of batter.
- Whisk together flour, brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon until well combined. Stir in melted butter with a fork until it is a crumbly mixture and there is no more visible white flour. Sprinkle over top of cake.
- Bake cake for 60-75 minutes or until the center is set and no longer jiggles. COVER the coffee cake with aluminum foil after the first 20-30 minutes of baking to prevent the top from burning while the layers underneath cook through. Let the cake cool before adding glaze.
- Stir together powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle over top of completely cooled cake.
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Notes
- When preparing the cream cheese layer you can choose to either just add in the zest as directed, or rub it into the sugar before adding the remaining ingredients. This action releases the oils of the zest into the sugar and adds to the aroma and flavor.
- Meyer lemons are sweeter lemons and have a more subtle flavor. Other lemons are perfectly good to use but it depends on personal choice and season availability. You can substitute limes for lemon 1:1. Always try to get organic lemons if possible.
- Use a baking pan or dish that is deep enough to prevent spillover. As directed in the recipe use either a 15”x10” baking dish or a deep 9x13 dish. Place your baking dish on a sheet pan in the oven to catch any potential overflow so that you don’t have unnecessary cleanup. The sheet pan also reduces the amount of browning on the cake base.
- One can also line the baking pans with parchment paper. If you decide to use a square baking dish (with high enough sides) line your dish with parchment paper hanging over the sides so that when the cake has cooled sufficiently you only have to pull up on the paper to remove the cake.
- Cooling is really important. If the cake does not cool properly for at least an hour, the lemon curd and the cream cheese layers will not have set and will ooze out of the cake when cut.
- If you live at a high altitude, just adjust the flour content of the batter mix by adding two extra tablespoons of flour.
- From experience, it’s best to make the crumble topping first and let it set in the fridge whilst you continue with the rest of the recipe
Nutrition
Calories: 877kcal | Carbohydrates: 128g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 22g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 131mg | Sodium: 480mg | Potassium: 189mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 94g | Vitamin A: 1179IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 149mg | Iron: 3mg
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