This Raspberry Coffee Cake deserves your attention if you want to make a crowd-pleasing dessert. With its moist and tender cake, tangy yet sweet raspberry filling, crunchy topping and yummy glaze, this cake is one that people will want again and again. The recipe looks like it contains a lot of steps, but it’s much simpler than it seems. You can also take a few shortcuts to help make the process go faster.
This is a wonderful cake to bring to a party or make when you have company. The filling needs refrigeration, but it stores well and if you have leftovers (emphasis on “if”), they can last for several days. This cake doesn’t take that long to make and uses basic ingredients that are easy to find if they’re not already in your kitchen.
Raspberry Coffee Cake Ingredients
- Raspberries: Use unsweetened raspberries for this (in other words, no sweetened purees).
- Lemon juice: Lemon juice helps keep the flavor of the raspberry filling nice and light after cooking.
- Sugar: Raspberries can be a bit tart, so sugar helps sweeten the mixture. Plus, as the sugar melts, the whole mixture will become more like thick syrup or jam.
- Cornstarch: This will thicken the filling.
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose has the right protein and gluten level for the cake to have good structure once baked.
- Sugar: Sugar in baked goods helps them become more dense or cake-like.
- Baking powder and baking soda: Baking powder makes the batter rise. However, here you’ll want to add that extra baking soda to work with the acidity from the sour cream. Using sour cream to flavor and tenderize batter can add too much acid to the mix, which neutralizes the baking soda in the baking powder. So, you add a little more baking soda in addition to the baking powder to help account for that extra acidity.
- Cold butter: Cold butter makes dough flakier.
- Eggs: These bind the ingredients for the batter.
- Sour cream: This makes the cake more moist and rich without adding a lot of extra liquid.
- Vanilla extract: This gives the cake a warm vanilla flavor that doesn’t compete with the raspberry filling.
- All-purpose flour: This gives streusel topping its crumbly texture.
- Sugar: This sweetens the topping.
- Butter: Butter binds together the flour and sugar, as well as the nuts.
- Chopped pecans: These add some crunch to the streusel topping.
- Confectioner’s sugar: This creates a smooth, white glaze that stands out on the streusel topping. Use confectioner’s sugar because the cornstarch it contains will prevent the glaze from dissolving into the warm cake.
- Milk: This turns the sugar into a drizzly glaze without making it too watery.
- Vanilla extract: This adds flavor to the glaze that’s warmer than that of just “sugar.”
Directions
Step 1: Make the raspberry filling
Cook the raspberries in water over medium heat for five minutes in a large saucepan. Add the lemon juice to the raspberry mixture and combine the sugar and cornstarch in another bowl. Mix those and gradually stir them into the raspberry mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil and then cook, stirring for two minutes. The mixture should thicken. Once it does, let the mixture cool.
Step 2: Mix the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in the cold butter until the entire mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Be prepared for the batter to be stiff.
Step 3: Assemble the unbaked cake
Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan. Spread half of the batter into the pan and spread the raspberry filling over that half of the batter. Add the rest of the batter on top of the filling with a spoon. In another bowl, combine the flour, sugar, softened butter and pecans to make the topping and sprinkle the mixture over the top layer of batter.
Step 4: Bake and glaze the cake
Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is golden-brown. Mix the confectioner’s sugar, milk and vanilla extract and drizzle the glaze over the warm cake.
Raspberry Coffee Cake Variations
- Use raspberry pie filling: If you don’t want to deal with cooking the raspberry filling, use a can of pie filling instead.
- Use blueberries instead of raspberries: You can easily use blueberries instead of raspberries in the filling. If you do, add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest to the cake batter. You may also want to try this blueberry coffee cake with streusel topping.
- Leave out the pecans: You can make this nut-free by leaving out the pecans. Try topping the cake with fresh raspberries, like in this raspberry sour cream coffee cake recipe.
How to Store Raspberry Coffee Cake
The raspberry filling can’t sit out on the counter, so store cooled leftover raspberry coffee cake in the refrigerator. Place it in an airtight container and eat it within a week.
Can you freeze Raspberry Coffee Cake?
If you’re not going to eat the rest of the coffee cake within the week, freeze the individual slices. Cut up the remaining cake once it’s completely cool, wrap each piece with two layers of plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and place the packets into an airtight freezer container. You can store these in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw slices in the refrigerator and eat.
Raspberry Coffee Cake Tips
Can you use frozen raspberries?
Yes, you can. But watch out for extra moisture from thawing ice. Let the frozen raspberries thaw in the refrigerator and drain away the excess water and press them through a strainer if you want to remove the seeds. Cook the filling as directed. (You can save those fresh raspberries for one of these raspberry desserts instead.)
What can you do if the batter is too thick to spread?
This batter can be very stiff and difficult to work with. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, to make the batter easier to stir and spread.
Can you use something in place of sour cream?
If you don’t have sour cream and can’t get to the grocery store to buy more, use plain yogurt instead. Don’t change the amount used. Try to use full-fat/whole-milk Greek yogurt if possible. Whole-milk non-Greek yogurt can work, too. Just keep in mind that non-Greek yogurt is not as thick and could affect the texture of the cake. Low-fat yogurt is a little too thin to be a perfect substitute but it might work in a pinch. Learn more about sour cream substitutes if you don’t want to use yogurt.
