Chai Spice Coffee Cake is topped with a pecan streusel flavored with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper. Add a pop of warm flavor to your morning coffee cake!
You don’t have to like coffee to love coffee cake.
As a kid I thought I had to be a coffee drinker before I could enjoy such baked goods.
Before I could stomach coffee, chai latte was my preferred morning drink of choice.
Here’s an ode to delicious chai. This chai coffee cake is like an warm, all encompassing hug during the cold autumn and winter months!
Table of Contents
Chai Coffee Cake
Regardless of its name, coffee cake does not necessarily have coffee in it (or needs to be eaten with coffee).
Coffee cakes refer to a simple cake with some sort of streusel topping. It is an informal cake served to guests over for coffee or tea. Coffee cake can also be served for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.
It is a simple, no frills, yet super delicious moist cake.
Chai Spices
Chai is a spiced tea from India. It is typically made with black tea, milk, and a variety of spices.
The combination and ratio of spices varies from region to region. However, the most commonly used spices include:
- Cinnamon
- Cloves
- Ginger
- Nutmeg
- Black Pepper
- Cardamom
Together, the combination of these spices creates such a warm, inviting flavor. You’ll want to add to all sorts of desserts such as this Chai Layer Cake.
During the holiday, you may want to try a Dirty Chai Eggnog!
Spiced Streusel Topping
The chai spiced streusel is made with sugar, pecans, flour, butter, and a mixture of spices.
You may sub in your choice of nuts in place of the pecans. For best flavor, lightly toast nuts before adding to the rest of the ingredients.
The spiced streusel topping is an excellent addition to baked goods such as blueberry walnut streusel cake or almond streusel peach muffins.
Recommended Cake Pans
This chai spiced coffee cake recipe works in a variety of cake pans. The images in this post show the coffee cake baked in a 9-inch tube pan (also called an angel food cake pan).
- I recommend a two-piece tube cake pan. This ensures easier cake unmolding.
- Either 9-inch or 10-inch tube pan works.
Alternatively, you may made the cake in a 10-inch round cake pan with a depth of at least 3-inches. Or a standard bundt cake pan.
Chai Spice Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Streusel:
- 3 Tablespoon light brown sugar,, (40 g) packed
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar, (68 g)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tablespoon all-purpose flour, (24 g)
- 2 Tablespoon unsalted butter,, (28 g) room temp
- 1 cup lightly toasted pecans,, (115 g) chopped
Cake:
- 2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter,, softened
- 3 large eggs, , room temp
- 2 teaspoon vanilla paste, or pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
Instructions
Streusel:
- In a bowl, whisk together brown sugar, sugar, spices and flour. Cut in butter using a fork or pastry blender until mixture is crumbly and like coarse sand in texture. Mix in pecans. Set aside.
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and lightly flour 9-inch (or 10-inch) two piece tube cake pan or angel food cake pan. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cardamon. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed. Scrape bowl as needed.
- Add vanilla and sour cream. Mix on medium speed until incorporated. Add flour mixture in two additions. Mix on low speed until there are no longer any dry steaks of flour.
- Transfer half of batter to prepared bundt pan. Add half of streusel pan and swirl into batter using a knife or fork. Pour in remaining batter to pan and sprinkle remaining streusel on top. Gently press streusel into batter to ensure that it sticks.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes until top of cake is rich golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before unmolding. Let cool at least 20 minutes minutes before serving. Dust with sifted powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
- Coffee cake can also be baked in a 3-inch deep (or deeper) 10-inch round cake pan or a standard bundt cake pan.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!
Hi! Can I bake this in a cupcake/muffin pan? Would you know the baking time for that? Thank you!
Just baked this in an 8 in round cake pan it worked out great. Super moist and tasty, not too sweet and not too much of a strong spice flavor. It’s perfectly subtly spiced and well rounded overall (note: the spices I used aren’t the freshest). The streusel part was also really very good. Thank you!
Thanks for trying out the recipe! Glad you enjoyed it!
I just made this cake in a fluted style bundt pan not thinking about the fact (until it was in the pan) that the streusel topping would end up on the bottom of the cake since it’s inverted when removed from pan! Would you recommend maybe using a glaze on the cake ‘top’ which now doesn’t have the streusel showing??
Dont’t worry about it! I would just dust the top with powdered sugar.
Thank you for posting this. Just what I was looking for! My family and I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for trying out the recipe! I am so glad you and your family liked it!! :)
That looks like a wonderful smelling loaf of cake, I love all the spices added to it! yum!
It smells amazing out the oven!