Lemon Coffee Cake is a fresh take on a traditional dessert. Crumbly and delicious, the addition of lemon zest and cream cheese make this a cool summer treat.

Lemon coffee cake with whipped middle on a blue and white plate with whole cake and a lemon in background.

Light, Delicious Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee cake is a delicious dessert meant to be eaten any time of day. Whether you are having a brunch, after dinner dessert and coffee or a special treat for unexpected company.

Coffee cakes were invented in Germany and found their way into British tea times. This is one of the reasons coffee cake found its way to America with the early settlers.

I know that normally when you think of coffee cake you think of cinnamon and brown sugar in that delicious crumbly topping. Over the history of coffee cake, the recipe has been adapted to fix most toppings and fillings with whatever is in season.

Because we love Summer here at The Buttered Home, we decided to put a spin on this special treat. We also love lemon! Be sure to check out our CREAMY LEMON ICEBOX PIE too!

We’ve added the hallmark of Southern cakes to the ingredient list by including a cream cheese filling. To really brighten the dish up, we have also added fresh lemon zest and juice. We hope you will find it as delicious as well do.

Lemons take the Cake!

We love anything lemon. We have a variety of Lemon recipes that will steal your hear too. Check out our other Lemon creations like our, LEMON CURD RECIPE, and our LEMON COCONUT COOKIE RECIPE.

How to make Lemon Coffee Cake

This recipe may seem a little daunting just looking at the list below. Trust me. Its worth it. We will show you how to make it and make it easily. Yes, there are three components to the recipe but the first two are done easily and stored in the fridge until you are ready to use them. Easy peasy! So let’s do this!

~Ingredients~

For the Topping

1/2 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cold, cubed butter

For the Filling

8 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg

For the Cake

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar

~Method~

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an 8 x 11 glass cake pan (or casserole dish ).
For the Topping, combine ingredients and press with a fork or cut butter in with a pastry cutter or use finger tips to combine. Mixture will be crumbly and coarse.
Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Filling:

In a bowl, cream sugar and cream cheese together until smooth. Add egg and lemon juice and mix well.
Set aside or in refrigerator until ready to use.

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For the Cake:

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest well.
In a medium size bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs one at at time, mixing well after each egg. Fold in lemon juice and mix well.
Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet, alternating with milk. Mix just until combined.
Pour half of cake mixture into prepared pan. Add filling mixture in and spread as best you can without pressing down into the cake. Pour remaining cake mixture over the top and spread evenly.
Sprinkle crumb topping mixture on top. Bake 30-35 minutes until top is slightly browned and cake is set. If you want the top a little more brown, place under the broiler for a minute or two but keep a close eye on it! Cool and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks

Is this better scratch made than from a cake mix?

Baking cakes from scratch can sometimes scare folks off. Especially ones like this where you have three components to the cake. My best tip? Make what you can ahead of time. The filling and the topping will keep in the fridge overnight as long as they are covered. Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you want a good quality cake, scratch made is the best. Putting forth a tiny bit of effort will lead to great rewards.

How can I keep from making a big cloudy mess mixing in the flour?

Be sure to alternate the addition of the dry ingredients with the addition of milk. Otherwise, you may find that you have a dusty mess in your kitchen. While a messy kitchen is often a sign of love, it can be daunting for some. Therefore, we strongly suggest you do this portion slowly to prevent the sometimes anxiety inducing result of a messy kitchen.

How to properly zest lemons

Zesting lemons. I am sure I have said it before but it bears repeating. Get yourself a good micro plane zester. It really does make all of the difference in the world when zesting citrus. Trust me on this one, you will go from fresh to foul in a mere matter of seconds by getting that pith in with your zest. Find a great microplane zester at the bottom of this post.

lemon cream cheese coffee cake on a blue and white plate with a lemon next to it.

a fork full of lemon coffee cake on brown table and blue plate.

Lemon Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

This Lemon Cream Cheese Coffee Cake has fast become one of our favorite desserts. Combining the freshness of lemon with the density of a beautiful home made cake is nothing short of delightful. Now you can make just any old lemon cake recipe but who wouldn’t rather have a cream filled cake topped with a delicious crumble.

It is a dessert of beautiful proportions. Having three different textures to the cake makes it a sure fire favorite in your house too!

If you make this recipe, be sure and post it to Facebook or Instagram and tag us. We love pictures of food. Also, if you pin this recipe, we would appreciate that when you make it, you use the Made It function in Pinterest too.

And as always, we would love it if you shared this recipe with your family and friends. Over to the side on this post and all of the others are handy dandy share buttons. We would sure be grateful if you shared the love!

Stuff We Used!