The Butter Tip To Consider For Denser Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is one of the best dishes out there, perfect for either breakfast or dessert (both of which pair wonderfully with, of course, coffee). If you're a fan of a good coffee cake, like so many of us are, then you'll be interested to hear about the butter tip that will lead to a denser version of the cake.

In order to achieve a dense coffee cake, there's one important step you need to do: Melt the butter. There is a huge difference between how softened butter versus melted butter will affect a recipe, so it's important to understand when to use which. Most cakes call for softened butter because the butter will become aerated during the creaming process (beating the butter with sugar) to give the cake a lighter texture. Because we want a denser texture with coffee cake, we want to avoid aeration — thus, it's best to use melted butter.

Using melted butter will go a long way in making the perfect coffee cake, but there are plenty of other tips you can keep in mind next time you take on this endeavor. For example, you may want to try adding sour cream to your coffee cake recipe, which will enhance the moistness of the cake and balance the sweetness to ensure that the end result isn't overly sweet.

Another great addition to coffee cake? Actual coffee. There are plenty of recipes out there – sometimes described as "coffee coffee cake" — that you can reference that include brewed liquid coffee, or you can simply add in instant coffee or instant espresso to your preferred recipe.

Additionally, if you'd like to change it up a bit and add a nutty flavor to the coffee cake, there's an easy way to do so: Use almond flour. For this method, you can turn to Tasting Table's nutty coffee cake recipe, which uses both all-purpose flour and almond flour.