Rich Chocolate Coffee Cake with Easy Streusel Topping

This rich and moist Chocolate Coffee Cake is topped with a crumbly, buttery cinnamon streusel and topped with a drizzle of chocolate icing. The flavor combination of chocolate and cinnamon is delicious anytime of the year! It's perfect to serve alongside a warm cup of coffee for breakfast or brunch, or a scoop of ice cream at dessert!

If you’re a chocolate lover then you have to try this chocolate coffee cake! This soft and tender chocolate cake is covered with a homemade cinnamon streusel made of sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon. This coffee cake is perfect for breakfast, dessert, or as a snack with a cup of coffee! 

After making my orange coffee cake and almond coffee cake, I knew I needed a chocolate coffee cake recipe next! This rich chocolate cake gets its chocolate flavor thanks to dutch-processed cocoa powder. This is a crowd-pleasing dessert cake that everyone is going to love and is so much better than a traditional plain coffee cake. 

If you’re looking for even more chocolatey recipes, then you have to try my chocolate blueberry cake, triple chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip loaf cake! 

why this recipe is amazing

• This moist chocolate coffee cake is the perfect recipe to make for your next brunch, bake sale, or get-together! 
• It’s a sour cream coffee cake recipe that uses just 11 simple ingredients that I bet you already have in your pantry.
• The chocolate coffee cake mixed with the cinnamon crumb topping is the perfect cozy combo that I can’t get enough of. It’s the best flavor combo! 
• This is seriously the easiest coffee cake recipe and takes just 20 minutes to prep, just like my caramel coffee cake!

ingredients

• Unsalted Butter: I always recommend using unsalted butter in your baking, that way you can control the level of salt in the recipe.
• All-Purpose Flour: I’ve only tested this coffee cake recipe with all-purpose flour.
• Granulated Sugar: we’ll need granulated sugar for both the cake and the streusel!
• Cocoa Powder: make sure to use dutch-processed cocoa powder! Dutch processed is a darker cocoa powder and it reacts differently with leaveners than natural unsweetened cocoa powder. You can typically find it in most grocery stores.
• Milk: I recommend using whole milk if you can, it adds more flavor and richness to the cake.
• Sour Cream: using sour cream is going to give your cake a soft and fluffy texture. I would use full fat!
• Ground Cinnamon: it wouldn’t be a coffee cake with cinnamon streusel without some ground cinnamon. This with the chocolate is an elite combo.
• Egg + Egg yolk: I used a whole egg + an egg yolk to add extra moistness to this cake.
• Vanilla Extract
• Baking Powder: This is our leavener in this recipe.
• Salt
• Powdered Sugar: I used this for the chocolate drizzle on top of the cake. Feel free to skip this part, or just melt chocolate chips and drizzle on top for a richer chocolate taste!

Pan Sizes

I tested this recipe in a few different pans, an 8x8 square pan made my favorite cake with the density of the cake and crumb layer. You could also use a 9 inch round cake pan if you want to. A 9x9 square pan will be too large for this recipe.

If you want to make this into a 9x5 loaf pan, the baking time will be a bit longer, between 40-50 minutes.

step by step instructions

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°Fahrenheit. Grease and line an 8x8 square baking pan with parchment paper, making sure there is enough parchment hanging over the sides.

Step 2: Make the streusel. In a small bowl, melt the butter and let cool slightly. Mix in the flour, granulated sugar, and cinnamon. Toss until you have coarse crumbs. Place this in the fridge while you make the cake .

Step 3: In a large bowl, mix the room temperature butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream.

Step 4: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

Step 5: Pour half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, followed by the milk. Then follow up with the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

Step 6: Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan, using a small offset spatula to spread it. Top the cake with the crumbled streusel mixture.

Step 7: Bake in the preheated oven for 33-38 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 8: Once cooled, top with chocolate icing- in a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and 2 teaspoon milk until smooth (add more milk as needed). Drizzle the sugar glaze over the cake, slice, and enjoy. 

Tips & Notes

• When measuring the flour and cocoa powder, I recommend scooping the flour or cocoa powder with a spoon into your measuring cup and then leveling it off. It’s so easy to add too much flour or cocoa powder which is going to make the coffee cake dry and dense! You could also use a kitchen scale for super accurate measurements.
• Once you’ve added your dry ingredients to your cake, make sure not to overmix the cake batter. Stop mixing as soon as it’s all combined, or it will change the texture of your finished cake. The batter should be thick.
• Depending on your oven, your cake might need more or less time! To check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake. If it comes out with no crumbs and is clean, your cake is done! I always recommend having an oven thermometer!
• When lining your pan, don’t just line the bottom. You want a parchment paper to hang over the sides of the pan. This will make it a lot easier to take it out of the pan!

Storage and Reheating Instructions

This chocolate coffee cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days, or up to a week in the fridge. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months. 

To freeze, allow the cake to cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and then tinfoil, and placing in the freezer. I like to slice my cake into individual slices before freezing, but you can freeze the entire cake whole. Allow the cake to sit at room temperature until defrosted to serve.

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