The Genius Way To Make Coffee Cake More Shareable

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The best three things about homemade coffee cake are taking a break, sharing some over a cup of coffee, and the simple pleasure of eating cake any time of day. Many consider coffee cake a morning or brunch food, eaten with a fork, and requiring napkins for errant crumbly streusel bits. But what if that same soft, sweet, cinnamony goodness was more mobile and easier to share among friends and family? Imagine multiple personal-sized, handheld coffee cakes — no plate, no utensils, but all the things you love about this feel-good cake. There's a way to make that happen: Turn your favorite coffee cake recipe into a batch of muffins. 

This approach instantly makes coffee cake more shareable and easier to transport, while fitting perfectly into gatherings such as tailgates, picnics, wedding showers, fishing trips, happy hour with friends, or afternoon tea in the garden. They also fit nicely into lunchboxes and portable storage containers like these MinBoo bamboo ones. Muffin-style coffee cakes also tend to stay fresh longer than traditional ones baked in a pan and cut into slices. Individual cooked muffins typically remain whole until eaten, with less exposure of the inner crumb to air and so less chance of drying out.  

Granted, it's easy to pour a whole batch of batter into a single pan, cook, and top with streusel in one fell swoop. But with a few extra minutes, you get the same taste, a similar texture, and even more deliciousness packed into a compact, accessible, traveling snack.

There's almost no coffee cake recipe that can't be converted into a muffin-friendly version. It generally requires a few tweaks to cooking times, but ingredients largely remain the same, as do oven temperatures, somewhere between 325 and 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Muffins bake faster than large cakes because each contains a smaller amount of batter, meaning that heat penetrates to the center more quickly. So you'll need to adjust the baking time downward, sometimes by as much as 40% to 50%, depending on how full the wells are. 

Another thing to be aware of is the topping, typically streusel in a traditional coffee cake recipe. You can sprinkle streusel on each muffin just as you would on the cake, or layer some streusel inside the batter so each bite has crumbly bits. This adds delightful contrast and crunchy texture to your coffee cake muffins. 

This also works well with fruit-infused coffee cakes, including this apricot buttermilk coffee cake with streusel topping. The compact muffin form helps keep the apricots tucked nicely inside the muffin, along with the buttermilk and streusel layers. Layering takes a bit of extra time, but it's worth the portability and strategically placed ingredients. It also ensures that each muffin gets a curated crown of cinnamon brown-sugar streusel, piled as high as you'd like. For more helpful hints, check out our 18 tips for making the absolute best muffins, and try the coffee cake muffin transformation in any of our 8 tasty coffee cake recipes.