Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
I am so happy to bring this amazing lemon coffee cake into your life. It’s dense and moist just like a classic coffee cake, but is baked with lemon cream cheese, tart lemon curd, and a fine crumble topping. This cake is creamy, sweet, tangy, crunchy, and just so delicious. It’s what every brunch needs.
Tips for making the BEST lemon coffee cake
The cream cheese layer is what takes this recipe over the top, but the lemon cake itself it so delicious that you could make it all on its own. It’s dense, moist, and bursting with zesty lemon flavor. Here are my top tips to ensure it turns out just right:
- The Flour – I say this in almost all of my recipes, and for good reason! Flour is the number one reason why recipes can flop because it is so easy to use too much. To ensure you have the right amount, gently spoon it in your measuring cup and level it off with a flat edge. Don’t pack or shake it down and don’t scoop directly from the flour bag or container. It can become compacted into the measuring cup, leading to way too much flour in the recipe. If you can, use a food scale first.
- The Lemon – A simple trick I like to use in every lemon recipe is to rub the lemon zest into the sugar before starting the batter. This helps loosen up the zest and release those natural oils. It enhances the lemon flavor to create a really delicious lemon cake.
- Moisture – The reason why this cake is so dense and moist is mainly due to the use of sour cream. Sour cream is a classic coffee cake ingredient for this exact reason. It falls more on the acidic side, creating a tender texture that helps leaven the cake (especially paired with baking soda and another acidic ingredient like lemon juice). I recommend sticking to sour cream, but you can also use full fat Greek yogurt as well.
How to layer coffee cake with cream cheese
This is when a springform pan comes in handy. It has tall straight sides that is perfect for this dense lemon coffee cake.
When the batter is ready, pour it into the bottom of your pan and spread it even. Make sure it touches all sides.
Next, spread an even layer of the cream cheese filling on top. This is a delicate process so here’s what I like to do to make sure it doesn’t blend into the cake batter: gently spoon the cream cheese all around the surface of the cake batter. Using this method will cover the most surface before going in with a spatula to even it out.
Then, take a spoon or small offset spatula and gently spread it even. Leave about a 1/2 inch gap all around the edge of the pan and repeat this same process with the lemon curd. Sprinkle all of the crumble on top and it’s ready to bake!
Tips for baking lemon coffee cake
Since there are so many layers to this lemon cream cheese coffee cake, it can be difficult to tell when it’s done. To ensure yours turns out just right, here are a few tips:
- Assess the crumble on top. It might still look a little wet, but it should be slightly darkened in color with golden edges. As the cake cools, the crumble will fully set and not look so underdone.
- Do the jiggle test. Since the center is essentially a cheesecake, the cake itself will jiggle a bit when it’s hot. To make sure it’s done, give the cake a nudge inside the oven. If the center wobbles like a bowl of milk, it’s not done. If it jiggles like a jello mold, it’s ready.
- Completely cool the cake. This allows all the layers to set so each slice can show of these gorgeous flavors.
Different fruit toppings
I love to use homemade lemon curd for this recipe because I find it’s much more flavorful than store bought. HOWEVER, I’m aware that there are a lot of steps to this recipe so it’s totally fine to take a shortcut and use store bought!
This recipe also works great with other fruity spreads. Feel free to substitute the curd with your favorite fruit jam just as long as it’s thick and not too runny.
Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake FAQs
Yes! Just swap the flour with a gluten-free all-purpose baking flour. I like Bob’s Red Mill (the blue bag) or King Arthur measure for measure.
You could definitely skip the curd and just go for cake, cream cheese, and crumble. It’s up to you! Or swap the curd with your favorite fruit jam.
Yes, you can make the curd a few days in advance and store in the refrigerator.
Store this cake in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 6 days.
For more lemon desserts, check out my:
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Lemon Cupcakes
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Lemon Zucchini Bread (GF DF)
- Lemon Blueberry Loaf
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- Gooey Lemon Butter Cake
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram if you make this lemon cream cheese coffee cake. I love seeing my recipes come to life in YOUR kitchen! To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, the buttons above or below this post, or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make this lemon coffee cake:
Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes + 1 hour cooling
- Yield: 12-16 slices
Description
This moist lemon coffee cake is taken to the next level and layered with lemon cream cheese, lemon curd, and a fine crumble sprinkled on top! It’s SO lemony and well worth all the dirty dishes required to make it.
Ingredients
Crumble
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (65g) all-purpose flour or 1-to-1 gf baking flour, spooned and leveled
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Lemon Cream Cheese
- 8 ounces full fat cream cheese, room temp
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 large egg, room temp
Lemon Cake
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
- 1 large eggs + 1 egg yolk, room temp
- 2/3 cup (160g) sour cream or Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups (160g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (200g) lemon curd (store bought or homemade recipe in notes) (or use your favorite jam!)
Instructions
Lemon Curd
- If going the homemade route, make this first by following the recipe in the notes!
Crumble
- In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, and salt.
- Toss in the cold and cubed butter and use your fingers to mush it into the dry mixture to create a very fine crumb. The mixture will overall appear very dry which is what we want! Store in the refrigerator.
Lemon Cream Cheese
- In a medium bowl, mash together the cream cheese and sugar with a fork and mix until smooth. Then mix in the zest and egg.
- Switch to a whisk to mix out any lumps and once smooth, set aside.
Lemon Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F and grease the inside of a 9” springform pan. Remove the ring and lay down a sheet of parchment paper over the bottom plate. Return the ring to create a fully covered bottom.
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add the sugar and zest and use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar, releasing even more flavor.
- Then add the butter and mix on medium high speed until smooth and pale.
- Mix in the egg, egg yolk, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth.
- Scrape down the bowl and mix in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Once combined, mix in the flour until smooth.
- Spread the batter into the pan. Then carefully spread the cream cheese on top in an even layer, leaving a ½ inch border around the edge.
- Carefully spread the lemon curd on top, also leaving a small ½ inch border, and then top with all of the crumble.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the top is lightly golden with darker/wrinkly edges and the cake is jiggly (not liquid) in the center.
- Allow to cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely, about 2 hours.
- Once chilled, it’s ready to slice and enjoy!
Notes
Lemon Curd
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1/3 cup (80g) fresh lemon juice (2-3 large lemons)
- 1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, sliced
- Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and eggs in a medium saucepan until smooth and combined. Then whisk in the juice.
- Place over medium heat and whisk occasionally until it starts to steam and bubble, then whisk constantly until thickened, about 5-8 minutes.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the butter to melt.
- Pour the curd into a wide and shallow dish and place in the refrigerator uncovered to chill and thicken.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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Meet Jenna
I’m the creator, baker, and photographer behind Butternut Bakery. Here I share desserts for every diet because I believe everyone should have a chance to indulge!
Yum, delicious! I used Bob’s GF flour and raspberry jam. So good! Definitely want to try the original lemon curd version next. Thanks!!
Hi Jenna,
Love your recipes but my crumble melted into the cake! I cut it very cold and kept it the fridge. I even turned down the oven temp to 325. Not sure what happened, I was so excited for this recipe! Oh, I did use store bought curd – could that have been the problem? Thx so much!
Did you bake at 325 the entire time? That could cause the crumble to melt too much! It will also look a little melted at first, but once it’s cooled it will firm back up.
I’d live to make this for an event but need a larger , more crowd-friendly bake to avoid a riot. Can I double and make in a lined 9×13?
It might struggle to bake all the way through in a larger pan! You best best is to double it and bake in two separate pans.
One of the best coffee cakes I have ever baked in my 60+ years of experience! I did add a 1/2 tsp. of lemon extract to the lemon cheese layer as a flavor boost to the grated lemon peel. Can this cake be frozen??
Sounds so good! Yes, it should freeze just fine.
I was wondering if you or anyone else tried to make this with a Gluten Free Flour Blend and if so do you have any suggestions? Being this Coffee Cake has so much added moisture I wondered if anyone had a problem with using GF 1 to 1 Flour Blend and it absorbing the moisture like GF Flours have a problem with. I’m going to give it a try anyway but thought I would ask.
Decided to make into muffins. Baked for 20 mins. Made 12 huge muffins. Had lots of crumble left over so can cut that in half for muffins. I like that these aren’t overly sweet, could eat for breaky with my coffee. Thanks for the recipe!