High altitude coffee cake donuts that are baked not fried, with a texture similar to a classic old-fashioned sour cream cake doughnut. These tender and buttery cinnamon crumb cake donuts are topped with brown sugar cinnamon crumble topping, spiced with a little espresso powder and cardamom, and drizzled with sweet vanilla icing.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for baked chocolate espresso donuts, baked glazed maple donuts, cardamom morning buns, and homemade beignets.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Baked, not Fried. There’s no fussing with a pot of boiling oil for today’s coffee cake donuts recipe. Just a simple batter that you can mix up by hand, and you’ll have the most delicious, freshly baked donuts with crumb topping in no time. But even though these donuts are baked, you won’t believe how much the texture resembles that of a fried old fashioned cake doughnut, thanks to the crumbly topping and the vanilla icing drizzle.
So Much Flavor. With butter, sour cream, brown sugar, cardamom, cinnamon and espresso powder, these donuts are full of flavor and smell incredible, too.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
The crumb topping is a simple streusel mixture made of all purpose flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, with unsalted butter to hold it all together.
Doughnuts
For the cake donut, I slightly modified my whole wheat donut recipe, adding some espresso powder and a little more cinnamon this time. This recipe uses half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour which makes the donuts truly delicious. You can use just white flour, though, if you prefer. I’ve made this donut recipe a dozen times, and it’s one of my family’s favorites, with its buttery flavor and soft, tender texture.
Vanilla Icing
For the vanilla icing, you’ll just make a quick drizzle with powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. The icing will add a little more sweetness, of course. But it also helps to hold all those crumbs in place, as well as creates sort of a “crust” on top of the donuts, making them more donut like than cake like.
Instructions
Getting Ready
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Spray your doughnut pan/s thoroughly with non-stick baking spray. A standard baked doughnut pan has molds measuring about 3 – 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and this recipe makes 12 standard sized donuts.
Crumb Topping
- In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.
- Add the melted butter, and stir until moist and crumbly. Set aside until needed.
Doughnuts
- In a bowl, whisk together both flours with the sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, espresso powder and cardamom, until everything is evenly distributed.
- Separately, whisk together the egg, sour cream and milk. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the melted butter and vanilla extract. Use a spatula to stir everything together into a thick batter.
- Fill a 16-inch disposable piping bag with the batter, and snip off the tip. Pipe the batter into the greased donut pans, filling the molds half full.
- Break up any large chunks in the crumble topping, and sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter. Lightly press the crumbs into the batter so they are adhered to the donuts as they bake.
- Bake the donuts for about 14-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then place a cooling rack over the donuts, carefully invert them onto the cooling rack, remove the pan, then gently turn them right side up again.
- Tip: Do not try to lift the donuts out of the pan or you’ll break them apart. Turning them over onto a cooling rack is the best way to remove them from the pan. You shouldn’t lose too much of the crumb topping doing this, if you pressed it into the batter. You can also scoop up any crumbs that fall off and sprinkle them back on top of the donuts.
Icing
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, until you have a smooth, thin, drizzly icing.
- Drizzle the icing over the warm donuts. The icing will set in about 10 minutes. I also sprinkled the top of the donuts with a small pinch of cinnamon-sugar as a finishing touch.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover donuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
These donuts are great warm or at room temperature. You can reheat individual donuts in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds at 50% power.
Yes, you can.
I’ve made most of my baked cake donuts in various sizes, and mini donuts usually only take 8-10 minutes to bake. However, with the shorter bake time, the crumb topping might not get as crisp.
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High Altitude Baked Coffee Cake Crumble Donuts
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Standard Doughnut Pans (for 12 standard-sized donuts)
- 16-inch Disposable Piping Bag
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Doughnuts
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour), fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp instant espresso powder
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup full fat sour cream
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Vanilla Icing
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ – 2 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
Getting Ready
- Preheat the oven to 375 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Spray your doughnut pan/s thoroughly with non-stick baking spray. A standard baked doughnut pan has molds measuring about 3 – 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and this recipe makes 12 standard sized donuts.
Crumb Topping
- In a bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.
- Add the melted butter, and stir until moist and crumbly. Set aside until needed.
Doughnuts
- In a bowl, whisk together both flours with the sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, espresso powder and cardamom, until everything is evenly distributed.
- Separately, whisk together the egg, sour cream and milk. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the melted butter and vanilla extract. Use a spatula to stir everything together into a thick batter.
- Fill a 16-inch disposable piping bag with the batter, and snip off the tip. Pipe the batter into the greased donut pans, filling the molds half full.
- Break up any large chunks in the crumble topping, and sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter. Lightly press the crumbs into the batter so they are adhered to the donuts as they bake.
- Bake the donuts for about 14-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then place a cooling rack over the donuts, carefully invert them onto the cooling rack, remove the pan, then gently turn them right side up again.Tip: Do not try to lift the donuts out of the pan or you'll break them apart. Turning them over onto a cooling rack is the best way to remove them from the pan. You shouldn't lose too much of the crumb topping doing this, if you pressed it into the batter. You can also scoop up any crumbs that fall off and sprinkle them back on top of the donuts.
Icing
- In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla and milk, until you have a smooth, thin, drizzly icing.
- Drizzle the icing over the warm donuts. The icing will set in about 10 minutes. I also sprinkled the top of the donuts with a small pinch of cinnamon-sugar as a finishing touch.
These are excellent. I shouldn’t have made doughnuts before coffee so almost forgot the butter in the main batter. They were still excellent texture and flavor even adding Blythe butter to the mixed dough. I made 12 full size and 11 minis which were particularly pleasing. I skipped the frosting so cannot comment on what it adds but can report that there was no sadness around here as these were promptly inhaled. Thanks for a delish recipe!