A soft, fluffy cake made in a 9×9 pan with layers of toasty cinnamon crumble drizzled with a concentrated espresso icing. This recipe is sure to be a new favorite!
The best coffee cake recipe you will ever taste. It’s super easy to make, comes together in about an hour and will have your whole house smelling wonderful!
I decided to give old fashioned coffee cake a makeover and it turned out to be the best coffee cake I have ever had and my favorite thing to make when hosting.
Browned Butter Coffee Cake is a super soft cake with notes of toasted butter and sweet cinnamon throughout. The concentrated espresso icing takes this coffee cake to the next level! The cake and the cinnamon brown sugar crumble are both made with browned butter to ensure you taste the toasty flavor in every bite.
I like to serve this cake warm with coffee or tea, but it also tastes delicious at room temperature. I don’t think I could ever put into words how delicious this recipe is!
From the texture of the cake crumb, to the buttery sweet cinnamon crumble, to the espresso icing. It’s absolutely heavenly and you need to try it out yourself to understand why I am so passionate about it lol.
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What you need to make Browned Butter Coffee Cake with Espresso Icing
9×9 pan – I’ve linked one here.
Parchment paper – line your pan with parchment paper for easy removal of the cake.
Mixing bowls and a whisk or hand mixer – I’ve linked some of my favorites here.
The cake ingredients are browned butter, cane sugar, vanilla extract, large egg, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, whole milk and buttermilk.
The refrigerated ingredients for the cake (whole milk, buttermilk and egg) should be room temperature.
The crumble ingredients are brown sugar, all-purpose flour, cinnamon and browned butter.
The icing ingredients are just powdered sugar and espresso.
How to make Browned Butter Coffee Cake with Espresso Icing
Start by making the browned butter. Add the butter from the crumble ingredients and the cake ingredients to a saucepan over medium heat and melt. Once melted stir constantly until butter turns a deep dark brown and smells like caramel. Pour into a heat-safe bowl and let cool off a bit.
To make the crumble, just stir together your dry ingredients and stir in some of the browned butter. The mixture will look wet, that’s how it’s supposed to look. Set it aside while you make the cake. It will dry up enough that you’ll have to crumble it up with your hands.
To make the cake simply whisk the remaining browned butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, milk and buttermilk. Whisk again just until combined.
To assemble the coffee cake, spread half of the batter into a 9×9 pan, I eyeball this step as it won’t hurt to be a little off. Next sprinkle half of the crumble on top and dallop remaining batter over the crumble. Use a spoon to gently spread the batter out as evenly as you can. Sprinkle the remaining crumble on top and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for a few minutes before drizzling with the icing.
To make the icing, mix together 2 teaspoons of instant espresso with 3 tablespoons of hot water then add the powdered sugar and stir until combined. You could also use espresso shots, just make sure you measure them out so your icing doesn’t end up too runny. Traditional coffee cake does not require icing so feel free to skip this step.
This coffee cake is a warm comforting dessert that will bring everyone together and if you’ve never had coffee cake before, I hope I made your mouth water and inspired you to try it out!
Love coffee cake? Try my Small Batch Lemon Blackberry Streusel Coffee Cake.
If you make Browned Butter Coffee Cake with Espresso Icing, please let me know your thoughts by leaving a rating and a comment.
Browned Butter Coffee Cake with Espresso Icing
Ingredients
For the crumble
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp light or dark brown sugar packed
- ¾ cup all purpose flour spoon into measuring cup and level off, don't pack flour
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ⅓ cup salted butter
For the cake
- ¼ cup salted butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg room temperature
- 2 cups all purpose flour spoon into measuring cup and level off, don't pack the flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup whole milk room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk room temperature
For the icing (optional)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp espresso
Instructions
- Start by browning the butter. Add butter from the crumble ingredients and cake ingredients to a small saucepan over medium heat and melt. Once melted stir the butter constantly until most of the foam has subsided and the butter is browned and smells toasty like caramel. Pour into a heat safe bowl and let cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉ and line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper. To make the crumble stir together flour, sugar and cinnamon. Measure out 1/3 cup of the browned butter and add to the flour mixture. Stir until combined. It will look wet, that’s ok. Crumble will dry out, set it aside.
- To make the cake whisk together the remaining browned butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, milk and buttermilk. Whisk just until combined, don't over mix! Pour half the batter into prepared pan and top with half of the crumble. Add remaining batter on top and use a spoon to gently spread over the crumble. Top with the remaining crumble.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan to a cooling rack. Let the cake cool for another 5 minutes or so before topping with icing. Make the glaze by combining the sugar and espresso. Use a spoon or fork to drizzle over the cake. Cut into 9 or 12 squares. Enjoy!
