Lemon Coffee Cake with Sweet Cream Cheese Filling

Lemon Coffee Cake

This delicious coffee cake starts with a lemon coffee cake base. It’s a classic coffee cake made super moist and full of lemon flavor with the addition of lemon Greek yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Then, I add a sweet lemon cream cheese layer that’s smooth, creamy, and filled with classic cheesecake flavor. Finally, I add a simple, sweet crumb topping to balance out the tang of the citrus. It all comes together to make a delicious dessert or snack that’s loaded with deep, lemon flavor and the perfect amount of sweetness.

Why You’ll Love This Lemon Coffee Cake

• It’s so moist, and it features three layers of deliciousness.
• It has a sweet, lemon cream cheese layer that takes classic coffee cake to a totally new place.
• It’s absolutely an incredible lemon dessert that the whole family is going to flip over.

Tips

• Bring your egg to room temperature for easy incorporation and the best rise.
• Fully soften your cream cheese for complete mixing. Otherwise, you’ll end up with little raw bits of cream cheese. 
• Be sure you hit every surface of your baking dish with nonstick spray to prevent sticking.
• Only mix your wet and dry coffee cake ingredients until just combined. Too much mixing leads to a tough cake.

Variations

• Try adding nuts to the coffee cake batter for more flavor and texture.
• Change the flavor of your coffee cake to another citrus by using pineapple or orange juices.

What to Serve with Lemon Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is a great snack or dessert, but it’s also an excellent sweet breakfast. As a result, you can serve a variety of dishes with it.

• Coffee
• Milk
• Green tea
• Orange juice
• Oatmeal
• Sausage
• Eggs
• Bacon

Recipe FAQs

What flavors go with lemon cake?

Lemon pairs wonderfully with a variety of fruits. Combine your lemon with other fruit flavors like:

• Apple
• Apricot
• Banana
• Berries
• Cherry
• Coconut
• Cranberries
• Grapes
• Kiwi
• Lime
• Mango
• Nectarines
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Pears
• Plums
• Rhubarb

Does coffee cake have to be refrigerated?

Normally, it doesn’t. However, this coffee cake has a cream cheese-based layer, so it should be refrigerated.

What makes a cake nice and moist?

There are a few things that make a cake moist. Sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, or applesauce all help make a moister, more tender cake. In addition, you can go all-out and use cake flour in place of all-purpose flour for an even moister, more tender crumb.

Can you freeze lemon coffee cake?

You can! This coffee cake freezes beautifully for up to a month.

How to Store Leftover Lemon Coffee Cake

Store your coffee cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. For longer storage, wrap the coffee cake tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of aluminum foil and freeze it for up to a month.

Lemon Coffee Cake Ingredients

This recipe only uses simple baking ingredients. You probably have most of them in your kitchen right now, and any that you don’t are easily found at your local grocery store.

• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Large egg + egg yolk
• Lemon Greek yogurt
• Cream cheese
• Fresh lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• Vanilla extract
• Butter

For the complete list of ingredients, and actual measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

How to Make Lemon Coffee Cake

Making this coffee cake is a snap. It only takes a few simple steps and a few minutes. It’s just that easy.

Step 1: Prep

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×9 baking pan with non-stick spray. Set it aside.

Step 2: Combine the Dry Coffee Cake Ingredients

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

Step 3: Combine the Wet Coffee Cake Ingredients

In another bowl, beat oil and sugar for 2 minutes. Next, beat in the egg. Finally, add the lemon yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon zest, and mix until combined.

Step 4: Make the Batter

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the baking dish.

Step 5: Make the Lemon Cream Cheese

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla until combined. Then, spoon it over the coffee cake batter and spread evenly.

Step 6: Make the Crumb Topping

In a small bowl, stir the flour, sugar, and butter together until crumbly. Then, add the boiling water and mix until combined. Spread an even layer of mixture over the cream cheese layer.

Step 7: Bake

Bake the coffee cake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Then, remove it from the oven and let it cool one a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Enjoy warm or cold!

Try This Delicious Lemon Coffee Cake Today

This lemon coffee cake is loaded with sweet and tangy flavors that everyone will love. Tender, moist lemon coffee cake topped with a layer of sweet, lemon and cream cheese filling and a layer of sweet crumb topping make a winning combination that people can’t get enough of. Give this recipe a try, and I guarantee you’ll make it all the time! 

More Delicious Lemon Desserts

Cream Cheese Lemonade Pie – This creamy, tart and absolutely delicious lemonade pie is one of the most popular dessert recipes on the blog. It’s refreshing and only takes a matter of minutes to whip up and after it’s chilled in the fridge, it is a lemony dessert everyone will want the recipe for. It’s that good.

Luscious Lemon Cheesecake – A creamy, lemony, tart cheesecake with a lemon curb topping that is absolutely delicious and is a family favorite cheesecake recipe.

Lemon Cheesecake Squares – These delicious cheesecake squares are creamy, refreshing, lemony and topping with a homemade blueberry topping. Two favorite flavors in one dessert.

And, here is a Lemon Pretzel Dessert from our other blog, Deliciously Seasoned, that tastes amazing with both sweet and salty flavors.