Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake

This Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake is soft, buttery, and layered with a crunchy cinnamon streusel that refuses to sink into the cake like your will to live on a Monday morning. With a tender, buttery cake and just the right amount of cinnamon sweetness, you won’t be able to stop at just one slice.

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Prefer to Watch Instead of Read?

Why You’ll Love This Sourdough Discard Coffee Cake

• Thanks to some sourdough discard and sour cream, this cake is soft, tender, and everyone’s favourite word: MOIST.
• The cake batter is thick enough to support the cinnamon streusel, and soft enough to spread into even layers.
• Two layers of cinnamon streusel add a delicious crunch that contrasts perfectly with the buttery and rich cake
• You’ll learn a couple simple tricks for preventing the streusel layers from sinking, which often happens when baking a coffee cake!
• Perfect for any occasion: brunch, a picnic, having coffee with a friend, masking your sense of existential dread about the state of the world, or enjoying as a fun snack!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Cinnamon Streuel Topping

• Brown sugar makes the streusel sweet and crunchy, but not too crunchy. You can use light or dark brown sugar, depending on how deep you want the molasses flavour to be.
• All-purpose flour adds structure to the streusel
• Salt enhances the flavour
• Cinnamon adds a comforting warm spicy note. Try making some smoked cinnamon if you’re up for the challenge, or use regular ground cinnamon.
• Unsalted butter binds the streusel together and adds a delicious rich flavour. You can use salted butter instead; if you do, reduce or omit the salt.

Coffee Cake

• All-purpose flour has a medium gluten content, which provides just enough structure for this cake. Cake or pastry flour has too low of a gluten content, which could lead to the crumb layers sinking. Bread flour has too high of a glute content, which will result in an unpleasantly tough or chewy cake.
• Baking powder + soda provide lift to the cake.
• Salt, as always, enhances all of the other flavours.
• Unsalted butter adds richness to the cake. It’s creamed with the butter before any other ingredients are added, so it also provides some aeration and lift.
• Granulated sugar adds sweetness, but also makes the crumb tender, adds some aeration (by being creamed with the butter) and helps with browning.
• Eggs bind the cake, add richness, and emulsify the ingredients. Use large eggs.
• Vanilla rounds out the flavours and adds a warm, complex depth of flavour.
• Sourdough discard adds some tanginess and keeps the crumb nice and tender. If you don’t have any yet, learn how to make your own sourdough starter here.
• Sour cream adds moisture and richness. Use full-fat sour cream for the best flavour and texture.

Glaze

• Powdered sugar (AKA confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar) provides sweetness and makes the glaze set properly with a slight shine
• Milk or water hydrates the glaze. Add as much or as little as you like, to get exactly the consistency you want. More liquid will give you a very liquid glaze that runs off the cake and sets in a thin layer. Less liquid will result in a thicker glaze that can hold its shape (perfect for drizzled lines). Using a water-based glaze means you can leave the cake out at room temperature for a few days. If you use milk, the glaze will have a richer flavour but you’ll have to store the cake in the fridge after a couple of hours.
• Vanilla rounds out the flavour of the glaze.

How to Assemble the Coffee Cake for Bakery-Perfect Crumb Layers

The secret is freezing the streusel crumbs before baking, timing, and patience:

1. Freeze the raw streusel on a lined and covered sheet while you make the cake batter. Solidifying the butter in the crumbs will delay when the butter melts after hitting the oven, preventing them from sinking.
2. Hold off on the top crumb layer. Pour half the batter into the pan, sprinkle half of the streusel, and top with remaining batter and bake for about 20 minutes. Put the rest of the streusel back in the freezer.
3. Add the top streusel layer mid-bake: After 20 minutes, the cake should be set enough to support the top layer of streusel but still has enough baking left to do to hold the crumbs in place.

Ideas for Customizing the Flavour of Your Coffee Cake

• Rub lemon or orange zest into the sugar before creaming it with the butter, to brighten the cinnamon flavour.
• Play with the spices in the streusel, like cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, or allspice. A little goes a long way!
• Play with adding different extracts to the cake batter, such as almond, orange, or lemon.
• Add espresso powder to the cake batter or streusel to enhance the cinnamon flavour and make it a true coffee cake.
• Add mix-ins to the cake batter, like chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or dried fruit.

Making Ahead & Storing Leftovers

• You can make the streusel crumb layer and store in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
• Store the baked cake in an airtight container at room temperature if you used water in the glaze. If your glaze has cream or milk in it, you’ll need to store the cake in the fridge.
• You can tightly wrap and store the baked cake in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 3 months. I recommend slicing the cake into squares and wrapping them individually, so you can take one or a few squares out at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions