Name: Cinnamon Roll Swirl Coffee Cake From Scratch
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups butter (softened); 3 cups granulated sugar; 3 eggs; 1 1/2 cups sour cream; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup butter (melted); 1 cup brown sugar; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon; 2 cups powdered sugar; 1/4 cup milk; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

This super moist Cinnamon Roll Swirl Coffee Cake is worth making from scratch! Rich, moist coffee cake is swirled with a cinnamon roll filling and topped off with a simple glaze. It is to die for!

cinnamon roll swirl coffee cake served on a plate.

The first time we made a cinnamon swirl coffee cake was years ago from a fellow family member’s blog (that’s right, blogging runs in the family). The recipe was called Honey Bun Cake. It was absolutely delicious, and we’ve made it several times since. Her recipe uses a cake mix but we wanted a “from scratch” version, since that’s more The Stay At Home Chef style. We know how easy it is to reach for the cake mix, but trust us, it is worth the extra effort to make coffee cake from scratch.

We’ve all experienced dry, crumbly, sub-par coffee cake. It is usually store-bought and always served at a women’s luncheon of some sort. We make it a rule to avoid the coffee cake at such events because we have simply become so spoiled with this homemade coffee cake. It is super moist, and thick, and decadent….everything a coffee cake should be. The batter is quite thick, much thicker than a cake mix so don’t be surprised by that. That’s exactly how it is supposed to be.

Swirl Options for Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake:

You have a couple of different options for the cinnamon swirl. You can simple swirl it in up top like we’ve done here, or you can layer it by pouring half the batter into the pan, doing a swirl layer, then the remaining half of the batter and another swirl layer. Feel free to do whichever works best for you.

Where is the coffee? Why is it called coffee cake?

Now, before anyone gets mad about calling it a coffee cake, let’s get one thing straight: coffee cake doesn’t have any coffee in it and it isn’t supposed to! It’s called coffee cake because it is meant to be served up with coffee. The sweetness of the cake is a delightful balance to the bitterness of coffee.

Storage Instructions:

This cake stays good for about 3 days before it starts to dry out. Make sure you cover it after it has been sliced into, otherwise it will dry out immediately. Store at room temperature.

If you like this recipe, you may be interested in these other delicious pastry dessert recipes:

Watch the video below where we will walk you through every step of the recipe with a video demonstration.