Coffee Cake Muffins
These Coffee Cake Muffins are your favorite coffee cake in delicious muffin form, complete with buttery crumb topping and filling. They are moist, buttery, and crumbly–their lovely texture and cinnamon sugar flavor is sure to become your new favorite breakfast.
If you’ve been around here long, you know that our crew loves a good coffee cake recipe for breakfast! It is one of our favorite go-to breakfasts and it is always a crowd pleaser. So, I am very excited to have a new favorite coffee cake recipe–these Coffee Cake Muffins. Who doesn’t appreciate good muffin recipes?!
Now that we have started back to school and have even busier mornings than usual, it’s so helpful to have an easy-to-grab option for everyone. I love to make a big batch of these muffins for those mornings, and we still get to have our favorite coffee cake! And any leftovers make the very best afternoon snacks.
The addition of the streusel topping to both the center and the top of the muffin, really makes these something special. Your family will be sure to love them, too!
Looking for more coffee cake recipes to make for breakfast? Check out my Streusel Coffee Cake and Pancake Mix Coffee Cake recipes. Each is a favorite recipe that I know many of you already love!
How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
Grease or paper line a 12 muffin pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients–flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk sugar and melted butter together.
Add vanilla extract, eggs, and milk to your butter mixture and whisk again until combined. You can use a hand mixer if you want or a stand mixer on medium speed.
Stir in your flour mixture to your wet ingredients until just combined.
In a separate bowl, make the filling by stirring the brown sugar and cinnamon together.
Next, stir in the melted butter until the mixture is thick and crumbly.
Divide one half of the muffin batter between the 12 muffin cups. I like to line mine with paper liners.
Sprinkle each half with half of the filling mixture.
Repeat the process by topping the filling mixture with the second half of the muffin batter.
Finish by topping each muffin with the second half of the filling.
Bake the muffins in the oven and then remove when done.
Place them on a wire rack to cool.
While the muffins are cooling on a wire rack, stir the icing ingredients together in a small bowl until they are smooth.
Note: Be sure to remove the muffins from their pan while they are warm, in case any of the sugar filling mixture leaked out during baking (when it cools, the sugar will act as a glue and make it hard to remove them from the pan).
Drizzle the icing mixture over the muffins.
Serve the muffins hot or cold! They pair beautifully with a cup of your favorite coffee.
Ingredients in Coffee Cake Muffins
- Flour: All purpose flour is the best option for baking and serves as the base of this recipe. To make this recipe gluten free, substitute your favorite one-for-one gluten free baking flour blend.
- Baking Powder: Baking soda is an important ingredient in baking. As an alkaline, it helps the dough to rise and become light and fluffy!
- Salt: Salt is a small but mighty ingredient in baking recipes. You don’t need much but the effect on the overall flavor is so important! I like to use sea salt for this recipe.
- Sugar: Just a little sugar helps to give these muffins just the right amount of sweetness. I like using cane sugar because it is a healthier option and has a more complex flavor.
- Butter: I recommend using unsalted butter if possible. To make this recipe dairy free, substitute with your favorite plant-based butter.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract gives both your muffins and icing a more complex flavor.
- Egg: You’ll need one egg for this recipe. It will help bind together the rest of the ingredients and help to give a great texture.
- Milk: You can use your preferred milk for this. To make this recipe dairy free, substitute with your favorite plant-based milk.
- Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is refined sugar with some molasses added and has a smooth, almost caramel taste. Use dark brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand and it should work about the same!
- Cinnamon: You can’t have coffee cake without cinnamon! It is and important part of the classic coffee cake flavor.
- Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar is best for frosting because it dissolves so much faster than regular sugar and helps create a smooth texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Once they are fully cooled, you can store your Coffee Cake Muffins in an airtight container on the counter at room temperature for three days and in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Coffee Cake Muffins have the same distinct flavor as regular coffee cake–buttery and moist, with a delicious cinnamon and sugar flavor.
Coffee cake almost never has coffee as an ingredient, though back in the 1800s when this recipe first started to become popular some recipes did contain coffee. But it sure does taste good paired with coffee!
Coffee cake is named for the fact that it is such a popular breakfast cake that is paired with coffee. I have to agree that it’s the very best way to enjoy it!
Yes, of course! Just make it in a 8×8 pan and layer away! You’ll have to adjust the baking time a bit. These also make great mini muffins, though they are harder to layer in those tiny pans, so I usually just at the streusel cinnamon sugar layer on top and don’t worry about the middle layer!.
I am sure you once you try this easy muffin recipe with its crumbly streusel topping, it will quickly become the best coffee cake muffins you have enjoyed in awhile! Make sure you take time to enjoy these fluffy moist muffins by yourself with your choice of hot drink this fall!

Coffee Cake Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅓ cup Sugar
- ¼ cup Butter Melted
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 Egg Beaten
- 1 cup Milk
Filling/Topping
- ¾ cup Brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Cinnamon
- 2 tbsp Butter melted
Icing
- 1 cup Powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp Milk
- ½ tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside
- In a larger mixing bowl, which sugar and melted butter together
- Add vanilla, egg, and milk, and which until combined
- Stir in dry ingredients until just combined
- Make the filling by stirring the brown sugar and cinnamon together
- Then stir in melted butter until thick and crumbly
- Divide half the muffin batter between 12 muffin cups
- Sprinkle with half the filling mixture
- Repeat by topping the filling mixture with the second half of the muffin batter, then ending by topping the muffins with the second half of the filling
- Bake in center of oven for 15-18 minutes, until the muffins begin to brown on the edges
- The toothpick test doesn’t really work on these because of the gooey filling
- Remove from oven and let them cool 5-10 minute before removing from pan
- While the muffins are cooling, stir icing ingredients together until smooth
- Drizzle icing over muffins
- Serve hot or cold
- Note: You will want to remove these from the pan while they’re warm in case any sugar mixture leaked out during baking. When it cools it can act as glue and make it hard to remove them.