Recipe

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These coffee cake muffins have a soft, airy crumb with a cinnamon swirl and the perfect buttery crumble topping in every bite. You can be extra and drizzle the glaze.

Inspired by a coffee shop in Long Beach, these coffee cake crumb muffins bring back sweet memories, without the need for a plane ticket.

cinnamon coffee cake muffins with crumb topping on a tray

Easy Coffee Cake Muffins

During a trip to LA in 2013, my daughter and I stopped at a little coffee shop in Long Beach, where she ordered the most incredible cinnamon coffee cake muffin. The cinnamon flavor, the crumb topping… all of it stuck with us, and I’ve been recreating those muffins at home since.

I enjoyed its fruity counterpart, the blueberry coffee cake muffins, which I’ve also shared here. Both of these are a treat, the perfect sidekick to a cup of coffee, and they’re always a crowdpleaser.

Coffee Cake Muffin Ingredients

This coffee cake muffin recipe consists of: muffin batter, a crumbly cinnamon topping, and a dreamy cinnamon swirl in the center of the muffin. If you want to be extra, make the vanilla glaze and drizzle. You’ll need:

For the muffins:

All-purpose flour: the base for the recipe.
Brown sugar: high in moisture content and great flavor from the molasses. Regular white sugar can be used too.
Baking powder: helps the muffins rise.
Baking soda: works with the baking powder to give these a fluffy, airy texture.
Cinnamon: you’ve got to have it in the batter, too!
Salt: a little to enhance the flavor. Omit if the butter is salted.
Milk: regular or non-dairy milk works here.
Melted butter: adds moisture, flavor, and a light crumble. Swap for a neutral oil or coconut oil for dairy-free.
Eggs: essential to bind the batter ingredients.
Vanilla extract: a must-have for flavor.

dry ingredients bowl with flour, brown sugar, cinnamon on left and mixed batter for muffins on the right bowl

Cinnamon Swirl:

Sugar & Cinnamon: mixed to give these muffins an extra dose of sweetness and cinnamon flavor. An optional step.

Crumb topping:

All-purpose flour: the base for any crumble topping.
White & brown sugar: the perfect combo for sweetness and the right texture.
Cinnamon: more cinnamon goodness.
Butter: melted butter holds the crumble together.

Vanilla Glaze:

Powdered sugar: sweetens the glaze.
Vanilla extract: flavors the glaze.
Milk: or half and half to mix the glaze.

How to Make Coffee Cake Muffins

Making these cinnamon muffins and the crumbly topping is a breeze. First time making these? Watch the short video I made for you in the recipe card.

Preheat the oven, mix the cinnamon-sugar, and mix the crumble topping so these are ready when you are.
Make the cinnamon muffin batter by measuring and mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another, and then combining them.
Bake the muffins in the oven for about 15 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

How to Store Coffee Cake Muffins

Cooled coffee cake muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature (on the counter) for 2 days, in the fridge for up to a week, and frozen for up to 3 months. I recommend warming them up in the microwave for 15 seconds before enjoying them.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake Muffins

Servings: 8 muffins

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 25

These coffee cake muffins have a soft, airy crumb with a cinnamon swirl and the perfect buttery crumble topping in every bite. You can be extra and drizzle the glaze.

4.90 from 331 votes

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Ingredients

Muffins

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup milk
⅓ cup melted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Crumb Topping

⅓ cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Cinnamon Swirl

2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

Vanilla Glaze

¼ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream, if using milk, use 1 tablespoon

Instructions

Prep:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line muffin tin with paper liners.
Make the crumb topping by combining the flour, sugars, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the melted butter and mix with a fork until the mixture is crumbly.
For the cinnamon swirl, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
In a small bowl, combine the glaze ingredients and set aside. The glaze is optional.

Make the batter:

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs. Add the milk, butter, and vanilla and mix until combined. Pour the wet mixture into the dry bowl and mix until you have a thick but smooth batter.
Fill each muffin tin with 2 tablespoons of batter. Add a teaspoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of the batter and with the back of the spoon, swirl the cinnamon into the batter. Top with muffin batter, ¾ of the way to the top.
Top each muffin with 1 ½ tablespoons of crumb topping. Then, divide any topping left among the muffins.

Bake:

Bake them in the preheated oven for 15-17 minutes until the crumbly tops are golden and when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow muffins to cool down to room temperature in the pan prior to transferring them to a wire rack to glaze. Once cooled, drizzle some of the (optional) glaze over the muffins.