Strawberry Coffee Cake with Cocoa Crumbs

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 8 servings
  • Total: 1 hr 50 min (plus cooling time)
  • Active: 30 min
Fresh strawberries hide in the sour cream coffee cake batter for a sweet surprise upon cutting into. The cocoa crumb topping adds a nice balance.
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Ingredients

Crumb Topping:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch fine salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

Cake:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups fresh chopped strawberries

Directions

  1. For the crumb topping: Combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter and mix thoroughly with your fingers or a fork until all of the butter has been evenly distributed and incorporated into the flour. Form into small to medium clumps with your fingers.
  2. For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch square cake pan.
  3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
  4. Beat the butter and granulated sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour, beating until just incorporated.
  5. Spoon half of the cake batter (it will be very thick) into the prepared pan and smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle the strawberries on top. Spoon the remaining cake batter on top and smooth the top. Sprinkle on the crumb topping.
  6. Bake until the cake and topping are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in the pan 20 minutes, then invert onto a plate; re-invert onto a rack to cool completely.
  7. For the glaze: When the cake is cool, whisk the confectioners' sugar and milk together in a medium bowl until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let set.

Cook’s Note

When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off the excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.)

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Lena Kove

Flavor &amp; taste: Without the glaze it's quite delicious, the cocoa and the strawberry flavors pair well with the fluffy and slightly sweet coffee cake. The strawberry also cooks nicely inside and adds some nice extra moisture to every bite. When the glaze is added which I drizzled on, it softens the flavor of the strawberry and cocoa plus adds a bit more sweetness. Though still overall I would say the flavor on the cake is perfect for a nice treat without overwhelming one or triggering cavities. This opinion I have for it applies to it with or without the glaze. I will be keeping this recipe for future use, that is how much I like it. <div><br /></div><div>I would also highly recommend this coffee cake for individuals with a serious love of chocolate, as the cocoa really satisfies the craving. <br /><div><br /></div><div>General recipe making thoughts info.: Very easy to make though I do recommend prepping everything in advance so it's at the right temp. (room temp.) I also made the glaze to go on top that was suggested, using 3tbsp. milk and 1.25 cup powdered sugar. One thing I did do dif. is I used strictly whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose since I prefer whole wheat pastry flour for taste, texture, and fillingness reasons. If you copy me and do this remember it MUST be whole wheat *pastry* flour, not regular whole wheat flour since regular whole wheat flour is way too dense and will mess up the fluff. With the strawberries it didn't specify how small to chop so I chopped them pretty small. Last note: I mainly use organic &amp; high quality ingredients which does affect the flavor. Even if you normally don't use organic ingredients, I do highly recommend one use grass fed butter or organic butter for baking and organic strawberries, since those two ingredients specifically do have major quality differences. Grass fed butter is sweeter and organic strawberries tend to pack more flavor and juciness. Also if you make the glaze, using organic milk will make the overall glaze slightly more sweet since organic milk has a more creamy/sweet flavor.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Tips for those who don't bake often: 1. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temp. (not cold) before preparing the dough and crumble. </div><div>2. For the crumble, make sure the softening butter fully absorbs the flour sugar etc. mixture as otherwise it won't bake right. This also applies to the creamed butter and sugar if you use larger grain sugar such as organic cane sugar. To make sure it fully absorbs, after mixing, just let it sit for like 5 minutes, before following the next steps.</div>

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