Easiest Strawberry Coffee Cake Recipe
I used every trick in the book I know to create a soft, moist, and tender buttermilk coffee cake recipe. All those tricks paid off, and it’s the best coffee cake I’ve ever made. It comes together in one bowl in minutes. Not only that, but I combined all the ingredients in the bowl all together, all at once, rendering it like using cake mix. Dry, wet, oil, eggs, all at once, beat it together, pour it in the pan, and bake. No sifting together dry ingredients and setting aside, then creaming butter and sugar until fluffy, or adding eggs, one by one, before carefully folding in the dry. Not necessary. Wham-bam, slap it in the pan.
A month ago I made this Blueberry and Jam Buttermilk Coffee Cake and couldn’t get it out of my mind. That cake almost uses the dump-together method, with just a very quick whisking of the dry ingredients before adding the wet. It used to be my favorite coffee cake, until this one. For this strawberry coffee cake, I added sour cream in addition to buttermilk, and used oil instead of butter. The trifecta of sour cream, buttermilk, and oil is guaranteed to result in good cake karma. They add moisture and richness, and the cake retains some lightness and fluffiness, courtesy of the buttermilk. Before baking, I sprinkled turbinado sugar over the top, which creates a slightly crunchy, chewy, and sweet crust. Underneath the golden browned top lies a moist, rich, soft, creamy, dense, yet tender interior. While baking, the top domes and the strawberries sprinkled on the surface before baking sink down, creating potholes and craters filled with sweet, juicy berries. Best potholes ever.
The vanilla coffee cake glaze is truly the icing on the cake. It’s sweet, tangy, and the perfect creamy complement to the strawberries and cake. If you have extra frosting and don’t eat it all with a spoon, use it as a dip for fresh fruit. I love this cake. It’s my new go-to cake batter for fruit-based coffee cakes. Sweet, soft, tender, fast, and easy. You can make this cake faster than you can go to the grocery store and buy one. It’s the perfect lazy weekend morning cake or for brunches or showers. Or for Wednesday nights after work. Move over, Entenmann’s. I never need you again.
What’s in the Strawberry Coffee Cake?
To make this strawberry coffee cake recipe you’ll need:
Egg Granulated sugar All-purpose flour Sour cream Buttermilk Oil Vanilla extract Baking powder and baking soda Salt Strawberries Turbinado sugar (optional)
And for the simple coffee cake glaze, you’ll need:
Cream cheese Sugar (granulated or powdered) Unsalted butter Vanilla extract
How to Make Strawberry Coffee Cake
Simply whisk together the coffee cake ingredients, then fold in the chopped strawberries. Turn the batter into a 9-inch springform pan and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. I baked it for 30 minutes at 400F, then lowered the temperature to 375F, and baked for 25 minutes. I probably should have pulled it out about 5 minutes before I did because the edges got a little dark, but I lost track of time. Whoops, it happens. If at any time you feel your cake is becoming overly browned before the center is setting up, cover it with foil. Let the coffee cake cool completely before drizzling with glaze.
Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?
Yes! Even though it’s strawberry season, I used frozen strawberries because my family ate the fresh ones I was going to bake with. I rarely bake with fresh fruit because it’s more expensive and usually gets eaten before I can squirrel some of it away to bake with. If you’re using frozen fruit, thaw it only as much as necessary to slice it, before sprinkling it on top of the batter. Frozen fruit runs and bleeds less than thawed.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes, you can double the ingredients and bake it in a 9×13-inch pan. However, you may not need to double the glaze — it really just depends on how much glaze you like on your coffee cakes!
Tips for the Best Coffee Cake
Most any fresh or frozen fruit could be used in this recipe, including blackberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, pears, plums, or cherries. This batter will make any fruit taste like a million bucks. I baked it in a 9-inch springform pan, and although you maybe could get away with a standard 9-inch cake pan, I like being able to remove the ring so I don’t have to invert the cake to get it out. Plus, springform pans have higher sides and I like the extra insurance so there’s no chance of an overflow. A tip is to place your springform pan on a baking sheet so if there’s a leak, the baking sheet catches it rather than the bottom of your oven.
More Easy Coffee Cake Recipes:
ALL OF MY COFFEE CAKE RECIPES! Tried this recipe? Leave a review! Consider leaving a 5 star rating if you’ve made and loved one of my recipes! Blueberry Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping — An EASY, no-mixer cake studded with juicy blueberries and topped with big buttery streusel nuggets that are just SO GOOD!!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake — Between the cinnamon-sugar crust AND the cinnamon-sugar swirled through the center, this EASY coffee cake is IRRESISTIBLE!! Soft, fluffy, light, and of course it’s perfect with coffee!!
Coffee Crumb Cake— This coffee crumb cake recipe couldn’t be easier to make! It’s made with boxed yellow cake mix, which is used in both the batter and the crumble topping.
Glazed Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake — A very fast and straightforward cinnamon coffee cake to make and isn’t fussy at all. It’s moist, dense, and way easier to make than actual cinnamon rolls!
Glazed Pumpkin Coffee Cake – A FAST and EASY no-mixer pumpkin coffee cake with rich pumpkin flavor and topped with big buttery crumbles!!
Vanilla Coffee Cake — The cake has enough density to give it some heft and body, but it’s still light, springy, bouncy, and fluffy.
