If there is one statement I feel pretty comfortable making it’s that just about everyone loves a good coffee cake. I bake them pretty regularly and am always looking for different recipes to try. My favorite types are crumb cakes - whether the traditional New York crumb cake but sometimes I like to go all out with pastry style coffee cakes like an apricot couronne. For this recipe I went somewhat classic but still delicious - a strawberry lemon crumb coffee cake. It has the texture of a pound cake with the surprise of fresh strawberry and big pile of crumb topping. The recipe is a mash up of several from a few different cookbooks so I suppose by now it’s all my own.

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Strawberry Lemon Crumb Coffee Cake

Serves 10 - 12

For the Crumb Topping

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 TBS Hawaij spice blend or equal parts cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 TBS unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1 TBS grated lemon zest
2 cups chopped strawberries

powdered sugar for dusting

Make the Topping:

In a medium bowl whisk together the sugars, hawaij or other spices, and salt.
Pour in the butter and stir with a fork until clumps form. Set aside.

Make the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350
Spray the baking pan with cooking spray - either a 9 x 13″ or an angel food pan. (I would note that it was a struggle to remove from the angel food cake pan - I had to cut it in half.)
In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Using either a stand mixer or a hand mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 2 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Then add the vanilla, yogurt and lemon zest.

Take about 2 TBS from the flour mixture and mix with the strawberries. Set aside.

Add the dry ingredients in thirds, mixing until just combined each time
Fold the strawberries into the batter.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the topping over the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven for an hour until a tester comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.
Dust with powdered suger before serving.

How Was the Strawberry Lemon Crumb Coffee Cake?

It was amazing. The cake is super moist and that crumb topping is HUGE. This is not diet cake by any stretch of the imagination. It gets better as it sits and I can say it was still delicious on the fifth day. This is a cake I’ll be making again. I think the next time I’ll add a chocolate drizzle. Mmmm.

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