So I’m sure you’ve heard of a sweet tooth before? In fact, you might even have one yourself. My sweet tooth really flares up when I am pregnant.
With my first little guy, my sweet tooth was so bad I had a major bill to pay at the dentist when it was all said and done.
As in SEVEN cavities. Yikes.
My dentist kept trying to figure out why all of the sudden my teeth were rotting out of my head.
He asked if I drank a lot of soda. No.
How about sugary coffee? No.
Suck on a lot of mints? No.
Then I confessed, “I am mildly addicted to Jujubees.” Mystery solved.
But did you know it’s also possible to have a fat tooth? If you crave buttery, creamy, fried foods, you might have a fat tooth. That’s where I’m at right now.
I can tell because I want to pour half and half on my morning bowl of cereal and I have to go out of my way to avoid driving by a Dunkin Donuts.
Too dangerous.
This Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Lemon Coffee Cake is just what I need. I love the light lemon flavor, the sweet, moist coffee cake, and the crunchy, crumbly topping.
And we all know I love using Greek yogurt whenever possible to lighten it up a little bit. Just don’t tell my fat tooth!
But if you are not able to find Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese, feel free to use regular cream cheese. You can also add more lemon juice or a small amount of lemon extract if you prefer a stronger lemon flavor.
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Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Lemon Coffee Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 16 (small servings) 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Lemon Coffee Cake is sweet and moist with a light lemon flavor and a creamy, crumbly topping.
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Layer
- 8 ounces Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese, softened (regular cream cheese is fine too)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Coffee Cake
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- zest of one lemon
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (add more for stronger lemon flavor)
Crumb Topping
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cold cubed butter
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8 x 8 inch baking dish by lining it with parchment paper, leaving extra paper hanging over two of the sides. If you don’t have parchment paper, spray the dish with non-stick cooking spray.
For the Cream Cheese Layer
- In a medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, sugar, egg, and lemon juice until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
For the Coffee Cake
- In another medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, mix oil and sugar. Add egg and mix well.
- Add Greek yogurt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix well on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the batter and mix until incorporated on low speed. Be careful not to over mix.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth it out to the edges.
- Carefully spread the cream cheese mixture over the top of the batter, spreading it almost to the edges.
For the Crumb Topping
- To make the crumb topping, pour the flour, sugar and cold cubed butter into a medium bowl, and using a pastry cutter or two forks, cut the butter into the flour and sugar until you are have pea sized crumbs of flour coated butter. Pour the crumb mixture over the cream cheese layer.
- Bake the coffee cake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool, and then dust with powdered sugar. Remove from the dish using parchment paper to a cutting board, and cut into 16 squares.
Notes
Adapted from Two In The Kitchen
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Serving
- Calories: 256
- Sugar: 17g
- Sodium: 136mg
- Fat: 14g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8.3g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 29g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 42mg
Angie says
I made this today. Amazingly delicious! Light lemon flavor and not overly sweet. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Julie says
Angie, I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know!
Susan says
I had a couple of girlfriends over one morning and I decided to make this. Wow. It was so delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
Julie says
I love sharing good food with friends. Sounds like a lovely morning! So glad you liked it.
Brandy Kozisek says
This is an amazing coffee cake. Thank you for the recipe. I omitted the topping and added chopped mixed nuts (pistachios, cashews, peanuts, and hazelnuts) along with coconut flake. Instead of the salt I switched for sea salt. Heavenly.
Julie says
That sounds fabulous Brandy. Love that you made it your own!
Kathryn Ashby says
This lemon coffee cake was divine! After reading some comments I decided to double the lemon juice and rind, added another whole egg to the cake batter, and baked in a glass (paper lined) 8″ square pan for 48 minutes. My greek yogurt was 2%, and I used cream cheese because I didn’t have greek cream cheese. Let the cake cool about 10 minutes in the pan, then lifted it out onto a plate still in the paper. Cooled another 5-10 minutes and then dusted with powdered sugar and served while still slightly warm. This was absolutely delicious and my husband and I ate 1/3rd of this thing in one sitting (could have easily eaten the whole thing). I am really glad I doubled the lemon because the cake was still a VERY subtle lemon flavor and I might have liked even a little more lemon flavor. I could see serving this as a dessert at a dinner party (serve while still slightly warm). It is not nearly as satisfying if eaten at room temperature or refrigerated (maybe even a little on the dry side that way). Ate some warmed up for breakfast the next morning with eggs and bacon. While that was very good, I felt that this cake is really at its best if eaten alone with no competition to muddy up the subtle lemony flavor. Thank you so much for a beautiful and delicious recipe!
Julie says
So glad you and your husband liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Renee @ Two in the Kitchen says
So I was surfing “Foodgawker” looking at recipes and came across your coffee cake and thought: “Oh wow, this looks like something similar to what I have made, but it’s made with Greek Yogurt instead of cream cheese” So I clicked over to check out your recipe and found out that it is adapted from mine!! 🙂 Too funny!!
I LOVE how you lightened it up and your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!! Thanks for referencing my site!! 🙂
Julie says
That is funny Renee! I love this coffee cake! Thanks for the great recipe.
Petra says
Wow! Love this cake. So light and delicate we didn’t even wait until it was fully cooled before trying. It amazes me though how based on your picture and other comments that the same recipe can turn out so differently. In my 8″ x 8″ tin my base was at least twice as thick as yours but it was still very light and delicious. Might try 9″x 9″ tin next time and increase cream cheese mixture to 1.5x . Thankyou so much for sharing your recipe.
Julie says
Petra, it is interesting that this recipe has been a little different for everyone. I’ve made it multiple times myself, and hope the instructions are written clearly :0) It really is a favorite of mine! And I’m so glad you enjoyed it too. Thank you for stopping by to say hi!
jackie says
So I made the “distracted mom” version of this … for the cake, I dumped all the cake ingredients in a bowl and mixed. I had too much on my mind and didn’t read the direction of sifting the flour and then beating oil/sugar/eggs. I didn’t have the heart to start over, so I baked it with the cream cheese and crumb topping, as per the recipe. Although the cake was a little more dense than I usually like for a coffee cake, it still got thumbs up from everyone that ate it. A few people even said they like the denser cake and asked for the recipe, which I then had to amend with my new instructions of dump/mix/bake.
Julie says
Jackie, I’m so glad it all worked out! I have definitely made the “distracted mom” version of recipes before. Glad you kept going. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
annie says
It was very undercooked when following the instructions on baking time and temp. I put it back in the oven for an extra 20 and still came out moist (and very tasty!) definitely not dry, as others commented. I would say the vegetable oil flavor was very strong as I could still taste it after baking, wondering if olive oil would have worked better?
Overall a great moist coffee cake, once ingredients/cooking time is adjusted.
Julie says
Thank you for letting me know Annie!
Shannon Huss says
This looks delIcious! Any idea if this would freeze ok? Thanks!
Julie says
I have never tried to freeze it but I don’t see why you couldn’t.
Christina says
I made this last night. I am gluten free so I used Betty Crocker gfree flour. I also doubled the recipe and put in a 9×13 pan. It took about 50 min to cook. I used more lemon juice and peel. The cake turned out beautiful. The taste was great! My mother in law loves lemon desserts and this did not disappoint. I love it when I can adapt a recipe to gfree and it turns out. Thank you for sharing.
Julie says
That’s so great! Thanks for letting me know!
Crystal says
Can I freeze these after baking? I am wanting to make this tonight but I know I will have leftovers. How long will they keep in an airtight container, and can I freeze any leftovers?
Julie says
Crystal, I haven’t had the chance to try freezing it, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Should be fine for a few days in an airtight container.
Katya @ Little Broken says
Hey Julie – I pinned this recipe a while back and finally made it last night and Oh my gawd! They turned out so so good, esp that little cheesecake layer in between. Yum! I doubled the recipe as I took in to the office and baked it in a 9X13 pan and it was right on the spot!
Julie says
I’m so glad it turned out! Thanks for letting me know.
Shayna says
I just made this for a meeting tomorrow, added some slivered almonds to the cake and it amazing! Do you recommend storing this in the fridge? Sorry if I missed that in the comments!
Julie says
Hi Shayna, glad it turned out! I don’t think I kept mine in the fridge, but probably wouldn’t hurt to cover tightly and keep cold. Great idea with the slivered almonds!
Glenna says
I, too, am a fan of the Greek yogurt cream cheese, and have even used it to make a cheesecake which was delicious! I think I will use the lemon yogurt to give it some additional lemon taste. Can’t wait to try it!
Julie says
Great idea Glenna. Hope you enjoy!
Shelley Kikalo says
Just made for the first time and will be making again. I actually didn’t have vegetable oil and substituted with coconut oil. It was delicious!
Julie says
Good to know that coconut oil is a good substitution! So glad you enjoyed it!
Miya says
Thank you so much for the recipe! For someone who kinda sucks at baking, this might have been a bit too advanced for my skill level, but the instructions were easy to follow. I’m waiting for the cake to finish baking right now and am so excited taste it!
Julie says
I really hope you love it Miya! Thanks for your sweet comment!
Charlotte says
Hi….
Made these today…..
My husband and I loved them.
The only thing was the streusel topping.
It never became completely baked or browned???
The rest of the coffee cake was scrumptious, but I had to scrape off the topping.
Should I add more butter, possibly?
Wonderful recipe. Will use again.
Julie says
I’m not sure why this happened for you Charlotte… Did the topping sort of sink into the cream cheese layer? Maybe your cream cheese had a little more moisture in it. Glad you still liked them though!
Marika says
I had this same problem. I thought it looked a little dry for a streusel topping, so I added another tablespoon of butter. Is 2 tablespoons correct? Mine was very floury.
Julie says
I will have to make this soon to retest the recipe. It has been a while since I posted this so I don’t remember! Thanks for letting me know.
Elizabeth says
I made this recipe over the weekend, and thought it was great! Thanks for sharing it.
Julie says
I’m so glad it worked out for you Elizabeth as some have commented that they have had trouble with this recipe. Thanks so much for letting me know!
sonya says
Just made this, Julie 🙂
I did decide at the last sec to double it (so it ended up with 8oz of greek yogurt & 8oz of sour cream). But it turned out delicious. I don’t think it would be hard for anyone who thinks it’s too cake-y to spread ONE recipe into a 9X13 & then maybe double the cream cheese topping only. Seems like that might give folks what they are looking for.
I don’t have a food blog but I think it must be hard to have your recipe at home turn out delish & then get criticism that you don’t even totally understand!
Anyway, thanks for sharing the recipe & happy thoughts towards your kitchen today!
Julie says
Sonya, thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed the coffee cake.
Cristina says
Made this cake about a dozen times in the past 2 months. Everyone is crazy about it. I love this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Julie says
You’re welcome Christina, thanks for letting me know!
Mary says
Thanks for the delicious recipe, Julie. I had fresh limes and used them in place of lemons. We love the slightly bitter tartness of the lime and lime zest. I will try this recipe again but next time I will make the crumb topping per recipe. For the lime version I used my go-to crumb of flour, brown sugar and softened butter mixed together then chilled. This crumb is finer in texture than the one in your recipe and I would have preferred yours, I think. Or I should have pressed my crumb mixture together to form bigger crumbs.
Julie says
You are very welcome Mary! Glad you enjoyed it. I’ll have to try lime next time!