National Coffee Cake Day Date in the current year: April 7, 2024

In most of the world, the term “coffee cake” refers to a coffee-flavored sponge cake, typically made with coffee buttercream. In the United States, however, it denotes a sweet cake intended to be eaten with coffee, similar to how a teacake is intended to be served with tea.

American coffee cake is believed to have originated in Central Europe. When coffee was introduced in Europe in the early 17th century, people in Northern and Central Europe quickly noticed that sweet cakes complemented the beverage really well.

The countries of the region were already known for their sweet yeast-leavened cakes and breads, such as the Austrian gugelhupf, the earliest recipe of which dates back to the late 16th century. European immigrants brought their recipes and the tradition of pairing coffee with sweet cakes to America, where the contemporary coffee cake began to evolve.

Although the recipes brought by European immigrants varied, they all contained a number of basic ingredients such as flour, yeast, sugar, butter, cinnamon and other sweet spices, and dried fruit. Over time, the recipes have been modified to contain soured cream, yogurt or cream cheese, which result in a denser texture, which is more cake-like than bread-like.

Contemporary American coffee cakes are usually flavored with either cinnamon or fruit. They may be leavened with either yeast or baking soda (baking powder). Yeast-leavened coffee cakes have a more bread-like texture, whereas baking soda-leavened coffee cakes have a more cake-like texture. Coffee cakes leavened with baking soda sometimes contain sour cream, which activates baking soda and gives the cake a slightly tart flavor.

Coffee cakes are typically single-layer cakes that may be shaped like a loaf to make them easier to slice or baked in a bundt pan. A bundt pan is a round baking pan with a tube in the middle used to bake ring-shaped cakes that have a hole in the middle. By the way, the gugelhupf is traditionally baked in a bundt pan.

American style coffee cake usually has no topping, although it may have a simple glaze or streusel topping. Streusel is a crumbly topping that originated in German cuisine; it consists of flour, butter, and sugar.

A popular variety of American coffee cake is applesauce cake. Its primary ingredients are flour, sugar, applesauce and various spices. Due to containing applesauce, it tends to be moister than other coffee cake varieties. Applesauce cake may be topped with sugar and cinnamon or with streusel.

To celebrate National Coffee Cake Day, bake a coffee cake or buy one at your local bakery and treat yourself to a slice or two. Don’t forget to snap a picture of your dessert and share it on social media using the hashtag #NationalCoffeeCakeDay to spread the word!