Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

A tender, light lemon coffee cake layered with a cream cheese filling and bright lemon curd, then topped with a buttery streusel. The perfect sweet-tart coffee cake for breakfast, brunch, or desser

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 10

Servings servings

Calories 468kcal

Author Leigh Anne Wilkes

Equipment

Ingredients

Cake

1/2 cup butter salted, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp lemon zest
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Layer

8 oz. cream cheese softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup lemon curd

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbsp lemon zest
4 Tbsp butter salted, cold

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease or butter a 9 or 10 inch spingform pan.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, Mix together butter and sugar in a bowl, beat until light and fluffy.
Add in eggs, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
Pour in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat to combine, do not overmix.
Spread batter into prepared pan.

Cream Cheese Layer

In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar with a hand mixer. Beat until light and fluffy and well combined.
Spread mixture over the top of batter in pan. Leave about 1/2"to 1" border of batter showing.
Spread 3/4 cup of lemon curd over the top of the cream cheese mixture.

Streusel Topping

Combine streusel topping ingredients into a medium size bowl. Add in lemon zest and stir to combine.
Add in butter, cut into small pieces and use a pastry blender to combine. Work the mixture until it resembles small pebbles.
Spread streusel over top of lemon curd.
Bake in 350 degrees F oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on a rack for 20-30 minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.
In a small bowl combined powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to make a nice drizzling consistency. Drizzle over top of coffee cake.

Notes

Use room temperature ingredients. Make sure your cream cheese, butter, eggs, and dairy are at room temperature. This helps the batter mix smoothly and creates a tender, even crumb.
Don’t overmix the batter. Mix just until the ingredients are combined. Overmixing can make the coffee cake dense instead of light and tender.
Use fresh lemon for the best flavor. Fresh lemon zest and juice give this cake its bright flavor. The zest is especially important because it adds intense lemon aroma without extra liquid.
Homemade or store-bought lemon curd both work. If you want extra lemon flavor, add a layer of lemon curd over the cream cheese layer. Homemade lemon curd is wonderful, but a good quality store-bought curd works perfectly and saves time. You can also leave it out for a more subtle lemon flavor.
Spread the cream cheese layer carefully. Dollop the cream cheese mixture over the batter and gently spread it. This helps keep the layers distinct and prevents the batter from mixing together.
Cold butter makes the best streusel. Use cold butter when making the streusel topping and work it into the flour mixture until crumbly. This creates those delicious bakery-style crumbs.
Check the center for doneness. Because of the cream cheese layer, the cake may take slightly longer to bake. A toothpick inserted near the center should come out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs or a bit of cream cheese on it.
Let the cake cool before slicing. Allowing the cake to cool for at least 20–30 minutes helps the cream cheese layer set so you get clean slices. Also allow it to cool before drizzling with glaze.

Nutrition