Strawberry Lemon Coffee Cake

This strawberry lemon coffee cake is made with wholesome, real ingredients but tastes so indulgent! Every bite has bright lemon, fresh and juicy strawberries, and of course - the most delicious buttery crumb topping. Serve up this cake for brunch or on any weekend!

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Cakes typically aren't my go-to , but there's something I deeply appreciate and enjoy about a dense, moist coffee cake with a buttery crumb topping. And this coffee cake recipe is exactly that, infused with bright spring flavors of lemon and strawberry, all made with real, wholesome ingredients.

The crumb topping is thick, the cake crumb is so tender from Greek yogurt

So let's make this thing, shall we?

How to Make Strawberry Lemon Coffee Cake

Okay, so this is a two-part deal: you've got your crumb topping, and you've got your coffee cake.

Make the Crumb Topping

Or streusel, or whatever you want to call it knowing that it's a beautiful combination of flour, butter (room temp, unsalted), brown sugar, and salt that turns into the gloriously pebbly, browned top of your coffee cake. All you need to do here is combine the ingredients and scrunch them together using your hands, until you get a texture like wet sand. Make sure to place the crumble mixture in the fridge while you prep everything else (you want the butter to be chillier than room temp before you put it in the oven).

Make the Cake

Just your usual cake-baking situation! You'll need a stand mixer or handheld mixer to cream butter and brown sugar, then eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and some Greek yogurt. As for the dry ingredients -- whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt -- toss those into a separate bowl and mix them together. Make sure you use a big enough bowl, because the next step is to pour the wet into the dry and stir until just combined. Then you fold in some chop fresh strawberries (tossed in cornstarch beforehand to absorb moisture), and you've got yourself some strawberry lemon cake better.

Assemble and Bake

Pour the cake batter into the prepared springform pan, spread it out a bit (don't worry about it being perfectly even!). Then, use a spoon or measuring cup to distribute the crumb topping across the cake batter layer. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes (you can test it with a toothpick at 45 minutes if you'd like), and let it cool for 15 minutes before serving. With coffee 😉

BUT, before you leave and become a coffee cake making professional too, I have a few tips for you to keep in mind.

Strawberry Lemon Coffee Cake Tips

1. Parchment paper. There's nothing worse than a cake that breaks apart from being stuck to the pan, after all your hard work! To prevent this tragedy of a baking experience, use your springform pan to trace a circle onto some parchment paper. Cut the circle out, and place it in the springform pan after spraying with some nonstick spray (yes, both!), and before pouring the batter into the pan. Yay! Cake insurance.
2. Bust out the cornstarch. Okay, so you might not always be making coffee cake with little hidden gems of fresh fruit in it, but in the case of this strawberry lemon coffee cake, you're going to need some cornstarch. Before you add the strawberries to the cake batter, be sure to toss them in cornstarch (two tablespoons should do it). Otherwise, when baked, the juice from the strawberries will leak into the cake and you'll be left with soggy cake on the inside (I speak from experience!).
3. Full fat Greek yogurt. Coffee cake often includes sour cream as a dairy element. To make it a little more wholesome and nutrient-dense, I swapped in some Greek yogurt with delicious results. But here's my recommendation: don't sell yourself short by getting the fat free kind. Let it be whole milk Greek yogurt for the best possible flavor! Bonus: full fat dairy is less processed.
4. All brown sugar. Traditionally, the cake part of a coffee cake is made with regular white sugar. This strawberry lemon coffee cake recipe omits white sugar altogether, because brown sugar adds a lot more moisture and unbeatable flavor. (Side note: I love this kind of brown sugar!)

Aaaand for those of you that just can't follow structure or do what you're told (me too!), below are some ways you can play around without pulling something inedible out of your oven.

Adjustments and Substitutions

1. Swap ⅓ cup of whole wheat pastry flour for another flour, such as spelt, oat, or buckwheat flour. If you don't have whole wheat pastry flour on hand, use whole wheat or white whole wheat flour as your base flour.
2. If you want to reduce the amount of flour overall, you can make a top solely out of nuts and brown sugar. Combine ⅔ cup brown sugar + 1 cup chopped pecans (or another nut of choice -- walnuts or slivered almonds would work well). These will melt together in the oven and create a sort of candied nut topping.
3. Swap ⅓ cup of the brown sugar in the cake for maple syrup or honey.
4. Add some pecans, slivered almonds, or oats to the topping for added flavor and texture.
5. Instead of lemon juice and vanilla extract, add two teaspoons of lemon extract.

Okay friends, you're ready. Go make this -- I'll bring the coffee.

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