Strawberry Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze — Sweet, juicy strawberries are found in every bite, and the cream cheese glaze is the perfect tangy complement to the creamy, sweet cake.
Easiest Strawberry Coffee Cake Recipe
I used every trick in the book I know to create a soft, moist, and tender buttermilk coffee cake recipe. All those tricks paid off, and it’s the best coffee cake I’ve ever made.
It comes together in one bowl in minutes. Not only that, but I combined all the ingredients in the bowl all together, all at once, rendering it like using cake mix. Dry, wet, oil, eggs, all at once, beat it together, pour it in the pan, and bake.
No sifting together dry ingredients and setting aside, then creaming butter and sugar until fluffy, or adding eggs, one by one, before carefully folding in the dry. Not necessary. Wham-bam, slap it in the pan.
A month ago I made this Blueberry and Jam Buttermilk Coffee Cake and couldn’t get it out of my mind. That cake almost uses the dump-together method, with just a very quick whisking of the dry ingredients before adding the wet. It used to be my favorite coffee cake, until this one.
For this strawberry coffee cake, I added sour cream in addition to buttermilk, and used oil instead of butter. The trifecta of sour cream, buttermilk, and oil is guaranteed to result in good cake karma.
They add moisture and richness, and the cake retains some lightness and fluffiness, courtesy of the buttermilk.
Before baking, I sprinkled turbinado sugar over the top, which creates a slightly crunchy, chewy, and sweet crust. Underneath the golden browned top lies a moist, rich, soft, creamy, dense, yet tender interior.
While baking, the top domes and the strawberries sprinkled on the surface before baking sink down, creating potholes and craters filled with sweet, juicy berries. Best potholes ever.
The vanilla coffee cake glaze is truly the icing on the cake. It’s sweet, tangy, and the perfect creamy complement to the strawberries and cake. If you have extra frosting and don’t eat it all with a spoon, use it as a dip for fresh fruit.
I love this cake. It’s my new go-to cake batter for fruit-based coffee cakes. Sweet, soft, tender, fast, and easy.
You can make this cake faster than you can go to the grocery store and buy one. It’s the perfect lazy weekend morning cake or for brunches or showers. Or for Wednesday nights after work.
Move over, Entenmann’s. I never need you again.
What’s in the Strawberry Coffee Cake?
To make this strawberry coffee cake recipe you’ll need:
- Egg
- Granulated sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Sour cream
- Buttermilk
- Oil
- Vanilla extract
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Salt
- Strawberries
- Turbinado sugar (optional)
And for the simple coffee cake glaze, you’ll need:
- Cream cheese
- Sugar (granulated or powdered)
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Strawberry Coffee Cake
Simply whisk together the coffee cake ingredients, then fold in the chopped strawberries. Turn the batter into a 9-inch springform pan and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
I baked it for 30 minutes at 400F, then lowered the temperature to 375F, and baked for 25 minutes. I probably should have pulled it out about 5 minutes before I did because the edges got a little dark, but I lost track of time. Whoops, it happens.
If at any time you feel your cake is becoming overly browned before the center is setting up, cover it with foil.
Let the coffee cake cool completely before drizzling with glaze.
Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?
Yes! Even though it’s strawberry season, I used frozen strawberries because my family ate the fresh ones I was going to bake with. I rarely bake with fresh fruit because it’s more expensive and usually gets eaten before I can squirrel some of it away to bake with.
If you’re using frozen fruit, thaw it only as much as necessary to slice it, before sprinkling it on top of the batter. Frozen fruit runs and bleeds less than thawed.
Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes, you can double the ingredients and bake it in a 9×13-inch pan. However, you may not need to double the glaze — it really just depends on how much glaze you like on your coffee cakes!
Tips for the Best Coffee Cake
Most any fresh or frozen fruit could be used in this recipe, including blackberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, pears, plums, or cherries. This batter will make any fruit taste like a million bucks.
I baked it in a 9-inch springform pan, and although you maybe could get away with a standard 9-inch cake pan, I like being able to remove the ring so I don’t have to invert the cake to get it out. Plus, springform pans have higher sides and I like the extra insurance so there’s no chance of an overflow.
A tip is to place your springform pan on a baking sheet so if there’s a leak, the baking sheet catches it rather than the bottom of your oven.
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Strawberries and Cream Coffee Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sour cream, very thick Greek yogurt may be substituted, although I have not tested it
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ¼ cups frozen or fresh strawberries, halved and loosely packed
- 2 to 3 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (2 tablespoons granulated sugar may be substituted)
Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze
- about 3 ounces, about 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar OR about 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, granulated sugar prevents glaze from getting as ‘crunchy’ when exposed to air, but doesn’t incorporate as smoothly as confectioners’ sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside (I fear a regular 9-inch cake pan won’t quite be deep enough; but an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan is okay).
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and hand mixer), combine first 10 ingredients (through salt), and mix on medium-high speed until smooth and combined, about 2 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and mix on medium-high speed until smooth and combined, about 1 minute.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan.
- Arrange strawberry slices uniformly over the top of batter (looks like a lot but they sink down and shrivel while baking).
- Evenly sprinkle with 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar.
- Bake at 400F for 30 minutes.
- Lower the temp to 375F and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until cake is golden, set in the center (it will likely be domed), not jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling, but no batter.
- Allow cake to cool in pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before removing from pan and turning out onto a rack to cool completely.
- While the cake cools, make the glaze.
For the Glaze:
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and beat until smooth, either with a whisk or a mixer. Play with ratios of all ingredients to suit your tastes.
- Drizzle glaze over cake in big ribbons, going up and back, over the surface (the photos show the glaze skimpier because I wanted the strawberries to be visible, but I used all the glaze after the photos were completed).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Coffee Cake Recipes:
ALL OF MY COFFEE CAKE RECIPES!
Blueberry Coffee Cake with Streusel Topping — An EASY, no-mixer cake studded with juicy blueberries and topped with big buttery streusel nuggets that are just SO GOOD!!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake — Between the cinnamon-sugar crust AND the cinnamon-sugar swirled through the center, this EASY coffee cake is IRRESISTIBLE!! Soft, fluffy, light, and of course it’s perfect with coffee!!
Coffee Crumb Cake— This coffee crumb cake recipe couldn’t be easier to make! It’s made with boxed yellow cake mix, which is used in both the batter and the crumble topping.
Glazed Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake — A very fast and straightforward cinnamon coffee cake to make and isn’t fussy at all. It’s moist, dense, and way easier to make than actual cinnamon rolls!
Glazed Pumpkin Coffee Cake – A FAST and EASY no-mixer pumpkin coffee cake with rich pumpkin flavor and topped with big buttery crumbles!!
Vanilla Coffee Cake — The cake has enough density to give it some heft and body, but it’s still light, springy, bouncy, and fluffy.
Could you balance the sugars in the glaze by halving each? Wouldn’t you have it incorporate well, plus have some protection from going crunchy?
You can halve them if you want but I honestly love this cake, I don’t find it too sweet by any means, and I love love love the cake :) and would encourage you to make as written. You could reduce by 1/4 cup or so, but more than that, I dunno…I really would not. It’s cake, it’s a treat. Enjoy the recipe (mostly) as written is my advice.
can i make this cake without strawberries? i’ve been searching for a moist cake recipe for a while now.
Yes you can – it won’t be as moist and won’t taste the same without the berries, but yes, overall, very moist & easy cake. Reduce baking time to acct for missing berries, too!
i followed the recipe faithfully and it did not turn out well! it didn’t taste bad, per se, but all my strawberries sunk to the bottom! so sad!
Hmmm, not sure what to say because I truly love this coffee cake. It’s probably in my top 3 cakes on my entire site. Did you use fresh berries? I always make it with frozen. Maybe one of your ingredients was less than fresh – from eggs to baking powder. It’s just hard for me to troubleshoot without more info. Sinking to the bottom – coat your fruit in flour (lightly) before adding it to the batter. That’s a trick for any bread or cake with fruit in it to prevent sinking. Thanks for trying the recipe.
I subbed the 1 cup of all-purpose flour with 1 cup GF all purpose flour and it turned out wonderfully! It was moist, delicious, and the texture was still perfect. I will definitely be making this again!
Glad to hear that this was an even/one-for-one swap with GF flour for the regular and that it turned out beautifully! Thanks for trying it and LMK!
Oh my wow this looks so amazing!!!! You are one clever chicken. Can’t wait to try it out!
Hi! I made this today and it’s delicious! My family loved it. My glaze came out really thick though. Did you add any liquid? Mine was more like frosting.
Glazes/frostings – fine line where one begins and the other ends. If you prefer a thinner one, just use less sugar next time OR a teeny tiny splash of cream/milk. I like mine on the thicker side.
Glad you loved the cake! Thanks for trying it!
I made this cake this afternoon and just snuck a little bite. It is delicious! My baking time was a lot less than the recipe stated though. I baked it for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and then 10 minutes at 375. It was very nicely browned but still very moist thanks to the delicious (just picked!) strawberries. This is definitely a keeper! Thanks Averie!
Thanks for trying it, Leigh! And yes, baking times could vary widely based on how juicy/dry the fruit is and the types of sour cream (some are really wet/loose, some are more dry), etc. Glad you snuck a bite and that it was delicious! Thanks for trying the recipe and LMK! This is my fave coffee cake I’ve ever made!
I think I’ll make THIS for my potluck! I only have really been looking through your website :-) Everything always looks so amazing. I couldn’t decide between your Clafoutis or this or…anything else. For something berry-based this looks great.
YES! MAKE THIS if you want fruit-based. It’s light years ahead of any other fruity dessert on my site. You will be the hit of your potluck!
Did YOU use granulated or confectioners sugar?
in both the cake and glaze, I used granulated. There’s the option for confectioners’ sugar in the glaze as noted in the recipe. But I used granulated in both places.
Thanks for always replying, appreciate it. I’ll let you know how it is :-)
Oh my! I am loving this recipe, it’s so simple :) and looks delectable!
Stunning! The photos, the styling, and obviously the coffee cake too. :)
Thanks my friend. I took the pics on SUCH a bright, bright day and they are really bright but that was life that day :)
This will be my next brunch coffee cake…looks AMAZING Averie!!!
Carol it’s my FAVE coffee cake I’ve ever made, hands down. You have got to try this one if you need an EASY coffee cake!
Yum, yum, YUM!
Love the cream cheese glaze.
This looks wonderful Averie, I love using buttermilk in cakes, it gives such a lovely texture! Frozen fruit is good too :-)
If this is like the Blueberry Coffee Cake, which it seems similar, this is such a TREAT! We loved it, including my chocolate loving husband. He really really liked the blueberry cake. I have all these ingredients so looks like I’ll be making this soon! Yipee!
It is like the Blueberry Cake, but even one-ups that recipe! This cake batter/cake base is even more delicious, moist, flavorful and I love it even more! Oil and sour cream just add even more moistness to it and we loved it so much! If you try this version (with any fruit, i.e. blueberries, strawberries as written, etc.) LMK what you think of this one vs. the other one!
That strawberry coffee cake looks so good!
I love the simplicity of this cake – one bowl and you’re good to go! And it’s just so damn preeeetay! I want to start with biting off the delicious glaze!! :)