High Altitude Cinnamon Coffee Cake

This High Altitude Cinnamon Coffee Cake is delicious and simple. It has a swirl of cinnamon sugar in the middle and lots of streusel and vanilla glaze on top. This coffee cake will feed a crowd and is great not only breakfast, but as a snack AND dessert.

I'll use any excuse to have cake for breakfast and a slice of this High Altitude Cinnamon Coffee Cake ensures a sweet start to my day. The cake itself is soft and moist with a swirl of cinnamon sugar. It's topped with lots of crumbly streusel and a simple drizzle of vanilla glaze.

This recipe is one of my favorites for the morning and it comes out perfectly every time. I love a slice with a great cup of coffee or a tall glass of cold milk. Make it for breakfast, or as a snack and especially during the holidays like Christmas or Easter.

Looking for more high altitude recipes for the morning? You have to try my High Altitude Zucchini Bread! It's filled with lots of zucchini and spices.

Why You'll Love this Recipe

• Lots of crunchy, sweet streusel. You're sure to get some in every bite!
• The perfect cake for breakfast
• The cake is soft and moist with a delicious layer of cinnamon sugar.
• Easy to make! You mix and dump, bake. Mix the topping, dump, and continue to bake.

Ingredients

Cinnamon Coffee Cake + Cinnamon Swirl Notes

• Cream Cheese: Cream cheese is the difference between dry coffee cake and moist coffee cake. I swear by it and you will too! I use regular cream cheese. You'll want to make sure you take cream cheese out 1 hour before using to bring it to room temperature.
• Sugar:  I use a mix of dark brown sugar and granulated sugar in this recipe. The dark brown sugar adds extra moisture and the molasses in the brown sugar activates the baking soda. We also use some more granulated sugar for our cinnamon sugar layer.
• Applesauce: I use plain, unsweetened applesauce which makes the coffee cake extremely moist. This could be substituted with vegetable oil or melted butter.
• Eggs: binds all the ingredients together. Take the eggs out 30 minutes before starting the recipe to bring the eggs to room temperature.
• Vanilla: for extra flavor. I recommend using a high quality vanilla extract or at least pure vanilla extract for the best flavoring.
• All- Purpose Flour: This provides the structure for the coffee cake. Just be sure to spoon and level your flour when you’re measuring it so you don’t end up with too much.
• Cinnamon: A little goes a long way. Use a high quality cinnamon to make your cinnamon sugar swirl.
• Cocoa Powder: I just use a tablespoon to not give flavor but for a more pronounced cinnamon sugar swirl. If your cocoa is clumpy, I suggest sifting it.
• Leaving Agents: we use both baking soda and baking powder to make our coffee cake rise.
• Cornstarch: used to make our cake 'soft' and tender.
• Salt: The salt helps to balance out the sweetness of the coffee cake. I like to use either kosher salt or finely ground sea salt.

Streusel + Glaze Notes

• Flour: I use all-purpose flour for this recipe.
• Butter: This is what binds the streusel together to make it clumpy and crumbly. I use melted butter which gives the streusel delicious buttery flavor. I use unsalted butter but you can use salted and simply not add salt to recipe.
• Sugar: Use a combination of brown and granulated sugar for the rich, sweet taste.
• Salt: Just a pinch to balance out the sweetness of the streusel.
• Milk/Heavy Cream: You can use either milk or cream to create the glaze. If you use milk, just realize, you'll need a teaspoon or a few more than if you use cream. Just add a teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
• Powdered Sugar: also referred to as icing sugar or confectioners sugar. Unless there are obvious clumps, I rarely take the time to sift mine. 

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, mix granulated sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon in a small bowl to create your cinnamon sugar layer and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, brown sugar and white sugar until well combined using a stand mixer or hand mixer.

3. Add applesauce to the creamed sugar and cream cheese. Beat until well combined. Then, add in eggs, one at a time, as well as the vanilla. Beat until well combined.
4. While mixing/beating on low speed, alternate adding-in buttermilk and dry ingredients.

5. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, spray with non-stick spray. Then, add in ½ the batter, top it with your cinnamon sugar mixture. Make sure the cinnamon sugar is evenly distributed on top of the batter. Next, use a toothpick, wooden skewer or knife to gently swirl the cinnamon sugar into the batter.
6. Top with the remaining ½ of the batter and spread evenly. Place into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

7. While the coffee cake is baking, prepare the streusel by mixing the dry streusel ingredients in a bowl, then adding melted butter to it and mixing with a spatula or by hand to create streusel pieces. I think forming streusel by hand ensures nicely formed streusel pieces.
8. Once the cake has baked for 20 minutes, take it out of the oven. Drop the temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, carefully place the streusel on the cake until the whole pan is covered.

9. Bake the cake for an additional 30-40 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean from the center of the cake.
10. Cool to room temperature. Prepare the vanilla glaze by mixing together powdered sugar and milk/cream in a small bow. Drizzle the vanilla glaze on top. Serve and enjoy.

Expert Tips

• Properly Measure Flour: If you just dip your measuring cup into a bag of flour, chances are you have way too much flour due to packing. I keep a small digital scale to accurately measure flour BUT you can also use the spoon and level method too if you don't have a scale. To do this, use a spoon to fluff up the flour within your flour bag or container. Then use a spoon to scoop the flour into the measuring cup and finally use the straight edge of a knife to level the flour across the measuring cup.
• Don't Overmix: Overmixing can make your cinnamon coffee cake tough or bake unevenly. You want to mix your ingredients until the flour is just combined.
• Wooden Skewer Test: when your coffee cake is toward the end of its bake, make sure to insert a wooden skewer into the center of the coffee cake. When you pull the wooden skewer out, you want it with a few moist crumbs or completely clean to indicate its finished baking. If there is any wet batter, it needs to continue to bake, I recommend baking in 2-3 minute increments until the wooden skewer comes out clean or a few moist crumbs.

Recipe FAQ

Storage

Cover leftover coffee cake tightly in an airtight container or tightly cover foil/plastic wrap over the baking dish. Store at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Substitutions

Applesauce might seem like the odd ingredient for this coffee cake but I promise you won't taste the apple and it leads to a really moist cake. BUT, if you don't have applesauce you can use melted butter or vegetable oil as a substitute.

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