This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.
A super easy Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake recipe using a box cake mix, brown sugar, cinnamon, and graham cracker crumbs! SO GOOD!
Coffee Cake Recipe
I found this Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe in a magazine months ago and it was love at first sight. Not only did it look amazing, but it seemed to be one of those recipes that everyone and their mom would rave about at a potluck. This is my new go-to dessert recipe for all future life events.
Main Ingredients Needed
This Coffee Cake Recipe is beyond easy and can be whipped up in about 20 minutes or less. Then let it bake for about 40 minutes. By then you’ll have a house that smells delicious and a tasty treat to try. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
- Graham Crackers – this is to make the streusel. If you are an international reader, digestive biscuits will work too!
- Brown Sugar – this is to sweeten the streusel. Once it starts baking the sugar starts to caramelize a bit and is SO yummy.
- Walnuts – or pecans! Make sure to chop them so you have small crunchy bites instead of big ones. Also, if you can’t have nuts, just leave this bit out and replace with more graham crackers.
- Ground Cinnamon – to flavor the streusel!
- Butter – this is melted and is used to hold the streusel together.
- Yellow Cake Mix – you’re going to need a good yellow cake mix and everything needed to make the batter.
- Confectioners Sugar – to sweeten the glaze.
- Milk – this is used to loosen the glaze so it’s pourable.
Love cinnamon-infused desserts? Try these out: The Best Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, Cinnamon Swirl Donut Bread, Instant Pancake Mix & Cinnamon Roll Syrup, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Encrusted French Toast.
How to Make Coffee Cake
So the coffee cake is based on a yellow cake mix (easy!) and creates a streusel out of graham cracker crumbs, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. You layer the two together and bake. It bakes perfectly because you used a cake mix and when you cut into it, it’s the epitome of coffee cake perfection. Here’s how to make it:
- In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon. Stir in butter; set aside.
- Prepare cake mix according to package directions.
- Pour half of the batter into a greased 13×9-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with half of the graham cracker mixture. Carefully spoon the remaining batter on top. Sprinkle with the remaining graham cracker mixture.
- Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For the glaze-combine confectioners’ sugar and milk; drizzle over cake.
Serve with coffee, milk, hot chocolate or whatever else you like with your coffee cake!
Tips and Tricks
Lots of streusel – You might question yourself as you’re layering it between the cake batter because it’s a lot of streusel, but you put it in the oven, take a big gulp and it will come out perfectly!
Glass Pan – I love using a glass 9×13 pan because it’s less likely to develop crusty edges like it would in a nonstick baking pan. Just grease it well, and you will be good to go!
Mixing – No need to use an electric hand mixer or even a stand mixer for this coffee cake recipe (though you totally could….I hate the dishes) I just used a bowl, a whisk and some elbow grease for my cake mix.
The Glaze is Optional – but I think it makes it look super pretty! It’s not optional at MY house. Ha!
More Coffee Cake to Try!
- Apple Coffee Cake Recipe
- Lemon Buttermilk Crumb Cake
- Lemon Cranberry Coffee Cake
- Cinnamon Roll Cake Recipe
This coffee cake is basically divine, so try it out and let me know how you like it in the comments! Printable recipe card below, enjoy friends 🙂
Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2/3 cup butter melted
- 1 package yellow cake mix regular size
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, brown sugar, pecans, and cinnamon. Stir in butter; set aside.
- Prepare cake mix according to package directions.
- Pour half of the batter into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Sprinkle with half of the graham cracker mixture. Carefully spoon the remaining batter on top. Sprinkle with the remaining graham cracker mixture.
- Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For the glaze-combine confectioners' sugar and milk; drizzle over coffee cake.
I have the same recipe from the little paper cookbook Taste of home, Fall Baking.
This is a great recipe i switched to after finding it awhile ago. I always loved Sarah Lee pecan coffee cake when i was a kid. This is as close as I have found so far. Guess great Chefs think alike. Love your other recipes.
Do I wait til the cake is completely cooled before adding the icing?
you can!
[…] Recipe: laurenslatest […]
Oh my, I am a coffee cake junkie and just have to try this! Hoping that my family will love it just as much as I do, so I am not forced to eat all of it so it doesn’t go to waste!!
I made this for the first time today. Love this! It will make a great dish to take for the next church pot luck. I have a question. I used a glass container to bake. It took 55 minutes to bake. Is that normal?
I’d like to make this but I can’t use the nuts. Should I just substitute more graham crumbs in place of the nuts?
If I made this on a Thursday evening for a Saturday breakfast (kept covered), would it still be fresh? Should I hold off adding the glaze until I’m ready to serve?
Add cinnamon chips instead of nuts
Can you use a French vanilla cake mix instead?
[…] Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe […]
[…] Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe […]
I make coffee cake or breakfast treat for a committee I’m on every couple of weeks. This is has been going on for years! They said this was the best ever!! It was so yummy and amazing even days later so I bet it would freeze well! Any did I mention easy??!!
[…] Graham Streusel Coffee Cake […]
so where does the coffee part come into the desert, or is it a coffee cake box mixture
Its made to serve WITH coffee, doesn’t necessarily have coffee in it….though i have seen some coffee cakes with coffee added.
It’s a classic recipe, meant to be enjoyed with a cup of coffee. Hence, coffee cake. No coffee IN the cake. Cake to enjoy with coffee. Like tea cakes.
[…] I start up making sweet treats, it’s hard to stop. First my son’s birthday cake, then this Streusel Cake and now NUTELLA HOT FUDGE SAUCE. Let that sink in for a minute. Hot fudge sauce made with a whole […]
I have made this twice now. The first time I followed directions exactly using walnuts. I found the brown sugar over powering. Every body else loved it. It was good just a tad too sweet for me. The second time I upped the Graham crackers to 2 cups and cut back to a 1/2 cup of brown sugar and used pecans instead. I taste tested the topping and it seems perfect to me. It’s in the oven now and I can’t wait to try it!
I have been craving coffee cake and I will be making this recipe because it looks amazing!
OMG I need this in my life right now! And it looks SO easy!
I love this recipe! In el of my kids favorites!
Sounds easy love coffee cake. Can’t wait to try!
Has anyone tried baking it without the nuts? Wondering if it would still turn out good?
As a newer mom, I love the fact that this uses a boxed cake mix. Thank goodness for shortcuts sometimes. Can’t wait to try it!
YUM! Making this weekend for brunch!
I love the semi-homemade recipes you share! (Well, I love ALL the recipes really.) tried this one and it was another hit.
Not having dairy while breastfeeding my milk protein sensitive baby has me dreaming about the day when I can bake with regular butter and milk again. Cakes just aren’t the same! This coffee cake looks delicious and can’t wait to be able to try it and drown it in glaze!
I have made this 3 times since this was posted. My family and dinner company loved it! Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe. It was so delicious! Coffee cake is my favorite breakfast.
This looks so yummy! I love your posts, and I have such a sweet tooth, so definitely going to add this recipe to my notebook of recipes to try!
Finally another way to use up graham crackers. My hubby loves coffee cake, can’t wait to try this!
I love your Blog and am going to try this recipe over the summer when I have more time with my kiddos!
This look delicious and easy to whip up on a Sunday morning. Will try asap.
I can’t wait to make this! I love graham cracker crumbs and this sounds awesome. P.s.can’t wait to read about how your kids like nyc!
Looks delish
This might need to be made soon with chocolate added????
I was looking for something to pass along to a friend whose husband is overseas – hoping it will go well with an egg bake or homemade egg mcmuffins – and I think this is it! Thanks!
Yum!! I’m going to make this asap! I love reading your blog and watching your fun adventures in NYC! Can’t believe it’s been so long since our BYU-I telefund days!
This looks amazing. I need to try it! It’s going on one of my Pinterest boards right now. 🙂
Looks so yummy!
This looks so yummy, i can’t wait to try it.
I’m not a fan of yellow cake and may try this with spice cake mix this weekend. It looks delectable!
OMG I need this in my life.. Looks amazing!! My favorite dessert is coffee cake. Or anything sweet with cinnamon and brown sugar.. 🙂
This looks so yummy! I have a love for coffee and all things that go with it… Including coffee cake 😉
I love following your blog! Every recipe I’ve tried so far has been easy and delicious, and I love the family updates and adventures. I hope you guys are enjoying New York, and I can’t wait to try this recipe!!
This looks so good! My husband always requests coffee cake for Father’s Day so I’m trying yours this year to mix it up! Thanks for sharing.
This looks so good! Can’t wait to try it!
This is something I’m definitely going to make, we love coffee cakes.
Bought the ingredients to make this on the weekend!
Hi Lauren, I’m from Australia and am just wondering if I can’t get hold of Graham Crackers, do you know if they’re like digestive biscuits? I’m not sure what the substitute would be to get this lovely cake right. Thank you x
If those are the same things as they are in Canada, then yes, those should work!!
I made this and it was so good !! Only thing I did diff was doubled the icing and I also added almond flavoring – so good.
Made this today and OMG, this is the best thing I have made in months. I bake a lot, but haven’t done a coffee cake in ages. This is TO DIE FOR and I will be making this again and again. Thanks Lauren!
Awesome!! Glad you liked it!
Any brand cake mix u prefer ? Looks heavenly.
can you use a white cake mix instead?
sure!
Hey! In your post, it says the streusel (YUM) is made with walnuts, but the recipe says pecans. Are they interchangeable? I love coffee cake in a big way and would love to make this soon!
Hope you can get some sleep! Hang in there!
Yes, totally interchangeable! Not sure why I typed pecans!! Haha! I used walnuts 🙂
Instantly loved your ‘streuseled’ heaven cake. I also had a little laugh reading your story of hiring a babysitter while you worked down the hall…laughing with you!