Soft and buttery Cranberry Coffee Cake with fresh cranberries. This coffee crumb cake is a perfect balance of tart, sweet and a slight crunch from pecans! Made in One Bowl and with simple ingredients.
Try my High rising Pumpkin Muffins next! More sweet and easy Breakfast recipes for you!
What is your favorite Thanksgiving Breakfast? Does it involve pumpkins? Apple Cinnamon Rolls? Healthy muffins?? Pecan Pie Bundt Cake??? I am not judging!
My Holiday Breakfast recipes most certainly include crannies, pecans and a ton of cinnamon streusel topping. And if I can manage to get them all in one treat, heck I am the luckiest girl on planet!
You will want to eat this Best Cranberry Cake everyday till Christmas. Yep, it is that good! Between the soft and buttery crumb and sweet cinnamon streusel, you will fall for fresh tart crannies and toasty pecans through out the cake.
And super easy to make too! Lets see what we will need!
Coffee Cake ingredients:
- Butter: Always use room temp butter for this recipe. It will help in making a soft and perfectly risen cake.
- Egg: For binding and lifting the cake. Remember to take the egg out at least 30 minutes before you plan to make your batter. Or place egg in warm water for 5 minutes to speed up this process! 😉
- Flour: I have used all purpose flour, if you desire you may replace half of apf with white whole wheat flour.
- Leaveners: We will need both baking powder and baking soda in this buttermilk coffee cake recipe.
- Vanilla and salt: Vanilla for flavoring the cake and salt is used in the batter to balance sweetness and enhance flavor profile of the cake.
- Orange zest: You will require zest of 2 oranges. Optional, but tasty!
- Fresh cranberries and pecans: Use pecan halves and whole cranberries for your cake to look like the pictures.
For the Cinnamon Crumb Topping: We need more butter, flour brown sugar, cinnamon and a little salt.
How do you make a coffee cake from scratch?
- We will begin by creaming butter and sugar till pale and fluffy
- Next goes in egg, zest and vanilla.
- Then sift in all our dry ingredients along with nuts and fresh whole cranberries
- And pour buttermilk in. Fold everything to form the batter.
- Prepare the crumb topping by mixing all the topping ingredients into melted butter, pour over cake batter and bake!
Breakfasts can't get any easier and any more festive than this! One bowl, simple ingredients and a huge appetite is all you need to bake this beauty!
And look how perfect the interior looks!
Does coffee cake have coffee in it?
Coffee cake seldom contains coffee in it.
Coffee cake is usually flavored with some kind of fruit, berries, spices or nuts and has a crumb/streusel topping over it. Also coffee cake may/may not be glazed.
This cake is infact usually best enjoyed with a warm cup of coffee!
More fall Breakfast ideas for you!
Mini Cinnamon Monkey Bread from scratch
Super chewy Almond Blueberry Bars
Try this Cranberry Orange Cake and tag me in your gorgeous clicks. Seeing your pictures makes me so happy!!!
Cranberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- ½ Cup Butter (unsalted, room temp)
- ½ Cup Granulated sugar
- 1 large Egg (room temp)
- 1 Cup All purpose flour
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup Buttermilk (room temp)
- 2 Tbsp Orange zest (from 2 medium-large oranges)
- ½ Cup Pecan halves
- 1 Cup Cranberries (Fresh/frozen, I used fresh)
For the Streusel Topping:
- 3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Granulated sugar
- ¾ tsp Cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- ¼ cup Butter (unsalted, melted)
- ½ Cup + 1Tbsp (68 gms) All purpose flour
Instructions
To make Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- Mix all the topping ingredients in a small bowl and add melted butter to it. Mix with a fork till pea sized crumbs form. Set it aside.
To make Cranberry Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F and line a 6 inch or 8 inch baking pan with parchment or alternatively you may grease it with butter and flour then. Set it aside too.
- Now in a medium bowl, using hand held or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until very creamy and fluffy. About 2-3 minutes.
- Next add in egg, orange zest and vanilla. Mix in only till egg disappears into the batter.
- Fold sifted dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in the batter, alternating with buttermilk.
- Also fold in cranberries and nuts. Save a few to top of streusel (optional).
- Pour in the prepared pan and top with the crumb topping. Top with remaining pecans and cranberries.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for 20-25 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Coffee cake can be stored at room temp. for 2 days, covered tightly.
- Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- You can also freeze this cake in an airtight container for 2 months. Thaw on counter top or overnight in the refrigerator. Reheat individual slices to your liking in microwave/oven before enjoying.
This looks perfect! Coffee cakes are so delicious, I could just go for a slice of this now with my afternoon coffee!
This is too good to save just for the holidays! It was a huge hit in our house.
I LOVE cranberries and coffee cake! Ive never thought to pair them together, but wow does it sound amazing!
I love that you can also use frozen cranberries in this recipe! I keep them in my freezer all year round! This is the perfect way to use them up!
This was just incredible! I love the tartness the cranberries add 🙂