This Lemon Coffee Cake recipe will give you a thin pastry drizzled with sweet glaze and topped with toasted almonds. This is the best Lemon Coffee Cake recipe!
What’s the Best Lemon Coffee Cake Recipe?
It’s all a matter of opinion, of course! If you’re looking for the typical coffee cake recipe that is more like cake with some kind of streusel, then this is probably not your thing. Instead, this coffee cake is more like a pastry. The sweet lemon dough for this recipe is split into two and formed into two rectangles. It’s baked until golden, and then the toppings are added.
The sugary glaze is flavored with both lemon and almond. Sliced, toasted almonds are sprinkled on top, adhered to the pastry by the glaze.
This is the best lemon coffee cake recipe to serve for a holiday brunch, special occasion or as a weekend breakfast treat. My suggestion: check out my posts on How to Make Iced Coffee and How to Make Cold Brew Coffee, make one of those, and enjoy this coffee cake to the extreme with a delicious iced coffee in hand!!
If you’re looking for more coffee cake recipes, you might enjoy my Banana Coffee Cake recipe or Two Berry Coffee Cake. This Cherry Cheesecake Coffee Cake also looks amazing. And this Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake would be a delicious treat too.
Thanks to Serene from the HouseOfYumm blog for these beautiful photos. Serene is one of the photographers for RecipeGirl.com, and she captured the deliciousness of this pastry perfectly!
Lemon Dream Coffee Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 cup water
- 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
- 1 teaspoon granulated white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup sliced & toasted almonds
ICING
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon butter (melted)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (measure, then sift)
Instructions
TO PREPARE THE CAKE:
- Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spray a rimmed baking pan (jelly roll pan) with nonstick spray or line with parchment.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Add the flour all at once. Beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat and let cool for 2 minutes.
- Transfer the dough to a food processor. Add the eggs one at a time, processing until eggs are fully incorporated. Mix in the lemon zest.
- Divide the dough in half and form each half into a 3x15-inch rectangle on the prepared baking sheet (space them at least 3 inches apart). Bake 30 minutes, until puffed and golden.
PREPARE THE ICING:
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter, vanilla, lemon juice and almond extract over medium-low heat. Whisk in 1 cup of the sugar; add remaining sugar as needed until icing reaches drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle icing decoratively over cakes. Sprinkle with almonds and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yummmmy but how do I store these?fridge?
Covered container at room temp is fine, but you can certainly put the container in the fridge too!
Few days ago I saw another lemon coffee cake recipe. This is kinda same as that one but I consider this one may be the best ad it adds more two ingredients than the that previous one! I am more satisfied with this one! And Lemon really makes these kinda cake more nutritious!
Hi! I tried this today but the middle did not cook. I made 1 instead of 2, do you think that might be why? I did spread it out and it puffed up well. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Lynda
I believe it was probably too thick since it is meant to be two thin pastries.
This looks soooo good!
These look absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to make them this weekend!