Would you like some coffee with your coffee? This buzz-worthy coffee cake features a crunchy espresso crumb and a flavorful espresso glaze drizzled on top.

I’ll take any excuse to eat cake for breakfast, and this espresso crumb coffee cake is a sure thing: with a moist sour-cream cake base and delightfully crunchy topping, plus a sweet espresso glaze to finish it off.

Nearly half of the comments on my Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake are from readers confused and wondering, “Where’s the coffee?!” Like they are convinced I mistyped my own recipe (hey, it happens) and simply forgot the coffee in the ingredient list.

But no, I’ve explained over and over, the recipe is correct, there is no actual coffee in the coffee cake.

If you live outside the US, you may be wondering, “What the heck?!”

In the US, coffee cake refers to a muffin-like breakfast cake meant to be served with coffee.

But as I’ve discovered, in the UK and other countries, coffee cake is a cake with coffee flavoring, which I guess makes sense and explains the confusion with my recipes. Although over there you also have tea cakes which are, you guessed it, made to be served with tea and do not contain any tea themselves, so who’s being confusing now, eh?

Anyway. After the 1,257th “Where’s the coffee?!” comment I received, I figured why not make a coffee coffee cake, a breakfast cake flavored with coffee, to appease everyone? (I also need to edit my other coffee cake recipes at some point to clarify that they are American-style coffee cakes and no, I didn’t actually forget to include coffee in the ingredient list).

Perhaps next I’ll make a matcha coffee cake or an espresso tea cake, just to mess with everyone a bit more (but honestly those ideas sound quite delicious so I might just actually do it).

(more…)