Sourdough Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

A delicious use for your discarded sourdough starter, this sourdough coffee cake is swirled and topped with cinnamon sugar streusel for the perfect sweet morning treat.

This coffee cake is one of our absolute favorites: a sweet and tender cake swirled with cinnamon sugar streusel that makes everything more delicious. And even though this is a great way to use your discard sourdough starter, there is no sourdough taste.

So start brewing a pot of coffee and pop this in the oven. It’s one of our favorite things to make for playdates that is loved by the mom and the little ones.

💡Are you unfamiliar with the world of sourdough? Visit the beginners guide to sourdough baking, or get started with a sourdough starter of your own from scratch!

Ingredients you’ll need:

for the cake

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter
• 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt

for the topping

• 1/4 cup cold butter, diced
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Helpful tools:

• A pastry blender for blending butter and flour together easily
• An offset spatula for spreading out the batter

Let’s make some coffee cake!

Make the batter

This is a thick batter, so I prefer to make it with a stand mixer, but you could use a hand mixer if you have strong arms! Make sure your butter is softened before you begin.

Beat the sugar and butter together until well combined. then add the eggs.

Combine all the dry ingredients for the cake in a separate mixing bowl. Add one third them to the butter mixture and mix. Then add the sour cream and mix. Add one more third of the dry ingredients, mix. Add the sourdough starter, and mix. Finally add the last portion of the flour and mix.

The batter will be thick.

Make the topping and assemble

Now we make the cinnamon sugar topping. To get a delicious crumbly streusel, you need to blend the butter and flour together first. Start with cold butter and cut it into the flour using two forks, a pastry blender, or by rubbing it together with your hands. Then add in the sugar and the cinnamon.

Now we just have to put it all together and bake! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place an oven rack in the center. Prepare a square pan with non stick cooking spray.

Spread out half of the cake batter into the pan, then sprinkle half of the streusel topping on top. Place the remaining cake batter in dollops and then smooth it out, using an offset spatula if you have one. Sprinkle the rest of the topping on top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. You will want a toothpick to come out clean, or with just a few crumbs. Let the coffee cake cool a bit in the pan, and then you can serve it directly out there.

Need more recipes to use up your discarded sourdough starter?

• Sourdough banana bread is another quick bread breakfast favorite that we love.
• Sourdough carrot cupcakes are more of a dessert, but would make a respectable breakfast without the frosting!

📖 Print the recipe here

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Sourdough Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Katie Shaw
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 1 coffee cake 1x
• Category: breakfast
• Method: baking
• Cuisine: American

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Description

This moist and tender sour cream coffee cake will be a family favorite.  Uses all pantry ingredients and is a great way to use your sourdough starter!

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

for the cake:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter
• 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt

for the topping

• 1/4 cup cold butter, diced
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center.   Prepare a 9 x 9 or 8 x 8 square pan with non stick cooking spray.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in an electric stand mixer until combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl.  Add to the butter mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with the sourdough starter and sour cream.  Mix gently until just combined.
3. To make the topping, cut the butter into the flour until it is the size of peas.  Stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon.
4. Layer half of the cake batter into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle half of the topping on the cake batter.  Gently spread the remaining cake batter on top, and top with the rest of the topping.  
5. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes.  Serve in squares directly out of the pan.

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Notes

You can use fed or unfed sourdough starter in this recipe.  

If you only have a small amount of starter to discard,  use 1/4 cup of starter and 3/4 cup of sour cream

Keywords: coffee cake with sourdough starter, sourdough coffee cake, sourdough cinnamon sugar breakfast cake

Hope this recipe keeps you from wasting your starter!