Did I mention I am drowning in lemons ? This is the PERFECT coffee cake to use in conjunction with my super simple homemade lemonade to use up a bunch of lemons. In the Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake you use most of the rind — as in lemon zest. In the homemade lemonade you use all the juice. Wha la. It’s a Two-fer!
I found this recipe by reading my old FB based “blog” and thought – gosh almighty – THIS is why I’m making this blog more formal! I raved about the recipe – even had comments from those in the hood I shared it with – that this was a winner recipe. And, I’ve not made it again until today. Why? It was way way way down in my FB feed / posted in April of 2019. That’s even before covid… sorta like B.C (nearly? ha ha ha)
So here’s how this Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake goes…
- Get some eggs, butter and sour cream or plain yogurt out of the fridge and let it get to room temp.
- Grease a 9X13 pan.
- Get out and organize all the ingredients / zest the lemons / juice some lemon. *
- Make the streusel and set aside.
- Mix up the cake dry ingredients.
- Mix up the cake wet ingredients and combine dry.
- Alternately layer the cake – cake mix / streusel / cake mix / streusel.
- Bake cake.
- Make glaze.
- Glaze cake after the cake is cool.
- Share with friends else you will gain 100 lbs….
Not really – but it seems like it. Can’t wait to see what the calorie count is after I get through adding the recipe !
* You can juice all the lemons and use the extra juice to make homemade lemonade. You could also freeze the lemon juice in an ice cube tray for future use.
Recipe Originated with our Friends King Arthur Flour
This Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake recipe originated on KAF website here. I want to be super clear : I LOVE KAF. I buy many, many, many of their ingredients and flavors and love their recipes and products. Their flour is *almost exclusively used in my house. But sometimes I wonder – are their recipes made in order to sell their products ? I’m sure they are… Sometimes you have to adjust them for when you don’t have each and every item they sell. I mean, I have a LOT of KAF stuff in my kitchen, but not every single ingredient. So I make changes. And… one of my all time favorite recipes is a cinnamon streusel coffee cake – that has the cinnamon sugar in the middle of the cake – so of course I had to make it thata way… with the streusel in the middle.
A super quick lesson on Lemons before we get started
Didja ever wonder how much juice is in the average lemon? I did – especially when I’m writing recipes on lemon and lemon juice. I found a reference that I thought I’d share… the average lemon is about the size of a tennis ball and has between 2 – 3 Tbl of juice. An ounce of lemon juice is about 2 Tbl. So each lemon has about 1 – 1.5 Oz of lemon juice.
But then there are my Lemons. They are Uge. (say it with a Chicago accent….the H is silent…). I got a Cup of Juice out of three lemons…
Lemon Streusel Coffee Cake
Equipment
- Kitchenaid Mixer
- 9X13 Baking Pan
- Handheld Citrus Juicer
- Microplaner
Ingredients
Streusel
- ¾ C All Purpose Flour (KAF) – didn't weigh it…
- ½ C Brown Sugar
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon – heaping !
- pinch Salt
- 6 Tbl Butter – COLD – cut into ½" pieces
- ¾ C Old Fashioned Oats
- 1½ Lemons – Zested
Cake – Dry Ingredients
- 241 g All Purpose Flour (KAF) – Weigh it if you can – else it's about 1 3/4 C the way I measure.
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Salt
- 3 Lemons – Zested
Cake – Wet Ingredients
- 4 Tbl Unsalted Butter – Room Temperature
- 1/4 C Vegetable Oil
- 1 C Sugar
- 3 Large Eggs – Room Temperature
- 1 C Sour Cream or Plain Greek Yogurt – I use LF Sour Cream b/c that's what I always have
Lemon Glaze
- ½ C Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tbl Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Get out and organize all of your ingredients.
- Grease 9X13 pan and set aside.
- Preheat your oven to 350℉.
Make the Streusel
- Stir together the dry ingredients (Flour / Sugar / Cinnamon / Salt)
- Using a pastry cutter – cut in the cold butter.
- Stir in the Oats and the Lemon Zest.
- Set Streusel aside.
Prepare the Cake
- Mix the Dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
- In your mixer – blend the oil and the room temp butter till well combined.
- Add in the sugar and whip for a while – trying to get a whippy texture. This mixture will not be so light and creamy as it is part oil – and not the typical cake butter / sugar creaming… Try to get air into the mixture, though.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each – scraping the bowl down as needed.
- Add the sour cream – scraping the bowl down as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients, stirring just until incorporated. (Don't over mix – you don't want the flour to develop gluten.)
- Layer the cake – first layer 1/2 of the batter. Dollop the cake batter into the pan and then carefully spread as evenly as you can.
- Second layer – is a bit less than 1/2 of the streusel. (Putting more streusel makes it hard to cover with the remaining batter.)
- Third layer – is the last of the cake batter – again dollop the cake batter around and then carefully spread. It will be a bit tricky since the streusel is going to stick and make it harder to cover readily.
- Fourth / top layer – is the remaining streusel.
- Bake at 350℉ for 29 or 30 minutes in your 9X13.
Make the Glaze
- Mix up lemon juice and powdered sugar. After you get the consistency you want – put the glaze into a zip lock bag and set aside.
- After the cake has totally cooled, cut a corner off your zip lock bag of glaze and drizzle the glaze on the cake.
- Serve the cake to friends and family !
Determined not to like yet another indulgent sugary thing, I gave this streusel a try. What I loved is that it wasn’t too sweet, but it was just sweet enough that I kept going back for another bite, and another, and suddenly, the whole thing was gone! It was the perfect balance of lemon flavor (definitely not too tart) and a touch of sugar. I’d be proud to take this to anyone’s home, knowing that it will likely please every palate at the table.
Jackie – So so glad you liked it – thank you for sharing your feedback!
Very tasty! Fun for breakfast with a good cup of coffee. Very good texture and tang. Nice and moist. Be good with crumble topping to instead of the oats.
John – glad you enjoyed the lemon Streusel. The last time I made this I too thought maybe I ought to zip up the oats in a food processor to help along the texture a bit. Maybe I’ll try that next time and update the recipe. But overall it seems you enjoyed it very much so that is what counts !