The Ridiculously Good Coffee Cake I Make Over and Over (No Other Recipe Tops It)

No other meal compares to weekend breakfast. I love preparing it for my family, whether I’m scrambling eggs until the curds are tender, spreading bacon onto a hot griddle to sizzle and crisp, or holding coffee in one hand while swirling crêpe batter with the other. But my favorite thing to make is a pan of Edd Kimber’s Coffee Coffee Cake.

Unlike most coffee cakes, which gain their flavor from cinnamon-scented crumbs, Kimber’s coffee cake leans into its name with an espresso swirl that slices right through the center. The slightly sweet cake has a sturdy texture and pleasant tang from sour cream, and a scattering of sweet brown-butter streusel over top forms a craggy crumb crown in the hot oven. It’s truly the perfect coffee cake (and my entire family agrees).

If you’re looking to minimize day-of work, there are plenty of ways to get ahead on prep. You can brown the butter and make the streusel, then refrigerate the crumbles until you’re ready to bake. You can also measure the dry ingredients in a bowl and place it on the counter overnight, and combine the sugars in the bowl of the stand mixer so they’re ready to mix in the morning. I’ll often add the butter to the bowl and leave it out overnight, but if you’d rather wait until morning, use one of these techniques to quickly soften it. In the morning, because all of the ingredients are measured, you can put this cake together while your coffee brews.

At Kitchn, our editors develop and debut brand-new recipes on the site every single week. But at home, we also have our own tried-and-true dishes that we make over and over again — because quite simply? We love them. Kitchn Love Letters is a series that shares our favorite, over-and-over recipes.