One-Bowl Sour Cream Coffee Cake (with Brown Sugar Crumb Topping)

You know you’ve hit the recipe jackpot when your usually self-moderating co-worker eats not three–not four–but FIVE slices of the dessert you bring to work in one sitting, and several senior executives stop by your desk to proffer glowing reviews what they declare to be their new favorite sweet treat. Friends: Meet this One-Bowl Sour Cream Coffee Cake (with Brown Sugar Crumb Topping) that you absolutely need in your life right now. Friends, cake. Cake, friends!

If you’re like me, you LOVE a healthy dose of crumb topping on any sweet you meet…which is why, when I started writing down this recipe, I began with the crumb. One of the most memorable crumb cakes that I have ever made came from Sally’s Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Crumb Cake. Just the thought of eating this brown sugar crumble again was enough to make me short-circuit my keyboard with dripping drool, so I scribbled down the four simple ingredients (flour, cinnamon, butter, brown sugar) and kept searching for the cake to my crumb.

After a lot of research, I finally landed on a recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake from the New York Times that sounded like a great base for my own coffee cake. I love using sour cream, Greek yogurt, and any other tangy dairy product in my cakes since they really balance out could easily feel like an overly indulgent dessert. The sheer amount of fluff from this recipe is also unbelievable: If you’re looking for the perfect potluck dish that’s sure to be inhaled lickety-split, you’d better save yourself a slice before the hungry hordes descend, because every bite feels like sinking your teeth into a heavenly marshmallow cloud. You are so, so welcome.

And have I mentioned the very best part of this recipe? This Sour Cream Coffee Cake takes only one bowl to make! I am, of course, a huge proponent of making baking as simple as possible–half of it is because nobody has time for elaborate three-hour cake recipes on a weeknight, and the other half is purely selfish distaste for washing out greasy kitchenware after a baking session. So I was giddy when I tested this, only to discover that I could make my cake in one bowl AND eat it, too! I have since made this cake again and it’s definitely a time-tested keeper for the recipe box, so don’t forget to bookmark it for your next social function. Trust me: Everyone will love you for making it, and you’ll love you for making it, too!

One-Bowl Sour Cream Coffee Cake (with Brown Sugar Crumb Topping)

Yield: 9x13-inch baking pan

Inactive Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

This Sour Cream Coffee Cake might be a one-bowl recipe--but its fluffy texture & perfect brown sugar crumb topping will make it an instant dessert favorite! With an unbelievably light cake layer on the bottom and a crisp, rich crumb on top, this recipe is perfect for parties, potlucks, and dessert (or breakfast, if you'd like).

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Ingredients

For the cake (slightly adapted from [The New York Times|https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/8927-sour-cream-coffee-cake]):

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the crumb topping (slightly adapted from [Sally's Baking Addiction|https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/old-fashioned-sour-cream-crumb-cake/]):

• 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, cold and cubed

Instructions

To make cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3 minutes.
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla until combined.
4. Gently mix in sour cream. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Fold carefully into wet ingredients until just incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan.

To make crumb topping:

1. In the same (now-batter-free) bowl, combine both sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a fork or using your hands until mixture resembles wet sand. Crumble evenly over batter.
2. Bake cake in oven for 25-28 minutes, or until crumb topping is crispy and a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out mostly clean.
3. Slice, serve, and enjoy!