This Lemon Coffee Cake is a light and zesty cake with a delicate crumb. This delicious morning treat has a brown sugar and cinnamon crumb topping with a light glaze on top.
If you love coffee cake as much as I do, be sure to check out some of my other favorite recipes like my Coffee Cake Muffins, Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake, or my Blueberry Babka Coffee Cake.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
I recently found If & When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste and I was so intrigued with the ingredient that I immediately wanted to try baking and cooking with it. They use organic Meyer lemons, sea salt, peppercorn, cassia bark, allspice, and bay leaf. And this lemon paste can be used for sweet or savory recipes!
This paste is very concentrated, which made it easy to add into a cake recipe I was somewhat familiar with. You could easily add this into a cake or cupcake recipe you bake often, and it would provide a lightly sweet lemon flavor.
This Lemon Coffee Cake has a delicate crumb and zesty flavor. It has a signature brown sugar cinnamon crumb, and I also used the lemon paste in the glaze (which is essential to all coffee cakes in my opinion) and the concentrated flavor made the glaze the perfect balance of sweet and lemon.
Ingredients for Lemon Coffee Cake
Costco Kirkland Organic Cane Sugar
If & When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste
Homemade Organic Dark Brown Sugar
Frontier Co-Op Organic Korintje Cinnamon
Frontier Co-Op Organic Cardamom
Florida Crystals Organic Powdered Sugar
Organic Lemon
Why Organic
Why use organic ingredients in this recipe? You all know I’m a huge organic advocate, and I bet you may be thinking sometimes, Why would I even bother to use organic ingredients in something that is so sweet and indulgent? But, that is the exact reason why you should use organic ingredients! Sweet things need to have flavor in order to be good, otherwise they are just sweet and they don’t taste like much else. Organic ingredients are more pure than conventional ones, therefore they actually have more flavor than the non organic options. Say it with me, organic means more flavor! And not just more flavor but a more true and pure flavor. And organic ingredients are much healthier for you to eat in general as they do not contain GMOs or anything artificial. Plus, you are being environmentally friendly when you choose organic ingredients!
So, I highly recommend that you buy the best organic ingredients for this recipe! You can also shop my Amazon Storefront for all my favorite organic ingredients here. Tip – hover over each ingredient to see the name. And if you want to learn more about organic foods and the difference, read my post here on Food Labels and What They Mean.
Lighten up your Brunch with this light and fluffy Lemon Coffee Cake with a crumble topping and a sweet glaze. Using a lemon paste in this coffee cake provides so much lemon flavor with very little effort.
Ingredients
- Batter
1/2 cup (113 grams) organic salted butter, softened
3/4 cup (170 grams) organic cane sugar
1 tablespoon If and When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste
2 organic large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup (57 grams) organic sour cream, room temperature
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon organic milk, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (212 grams) organic cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Topping
3/4 cup (95 g) organic all purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 g) organic packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons (28 g) organic cane sugar
1 teaspoon organic cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon organic cardamom
6 tablespoons (85 g) organic salted butter, melted
- Glaze
1/2 cup (71 grams) organic powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon If and When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste
2 tablespoons water
Zest of one organic lemon
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
- To make the batter: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and If and When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste. Mix on low until combined and no chunks of butter remain. Add the eggs, sour cream, and milk and mix on low until combined.
- In a separate bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder, and sea salt and whisk together. With the mixer on low, slowly add the cake flour mixture to the butter mixture and continue to mix on low until combined into a smooth batter, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread out evenly.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Set a timer. While the cake is baking, prepare the topping.
- To make the topping: Add the all-purpose flour, dark brown sugar, cane sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom to a medium bowl and swirl together. Add the melted butter and fold together with a spatula until you have a paste.
- Once the timer goes off, remove the cake from the oven and using your hands, crumble the topping onto the partially baked cake batter. Return the cake to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.
- To make the glaze: Add the powdered sugar, If and When Moroccan Preserved Meyer Lemon Paste, and water into a small bowl and whisk together. Using a pastry brush, brush the glaze on top of the cake. Top with lemon zest.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
Notes
- Gluten Free – Replace the cake flour with 212 grams (1 1/3 cups) organic gluten free flour blend and replace the all purpose flour with 95 grams (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon) organic gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude – Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes, remove and add topping, then bake again for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
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