Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake with Streusel Skeleton Topping

Cinnamon swirl coffee cake ☠️ This is hands down the best coffee cake recipe. We have made this for years, but I have always made a pumpkin spice cake and added little pumpkins to the top. This year we tried the skeleton mold so it’s extra spooky 💀The brown sugar skull streusel graveyard just adds to the creepiness in my opinion. Scroll down for the full recipe.

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake with Streusel Skeleton Topping

** I got my mold at Michael’s but here is a similar one online: Skull Mold

CAKE Ingredients

1 and 1/3 cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp.

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temp.

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup full-fat sour cream, room temp.

2 Tablespoons milk

CINNAMON SWIRL

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

STREUSEL TOPPING

1 ¼ cup All purpose flour

½ cup light brown sugar, packed

⅓ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, partially melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9x5 loaf pan with lightly greased parchment paper and set aside.

2. Make the cinnamon swirl mixture by combining brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Make the streusal topping in a separate medium bowl. Add all streusel ingredients together and drizzle butter over mixture and toss ingredients until just combined, but still clumpy. Place half the filling into your skeleton mold and firmly pack down. Freeze for 5-10 minutes until they come out firm.

4. To make the cake, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. In a large bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, milk, sour cream, and vanilla, and beat until combined.

5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and beat on low speed until just combined. Do not over mix. The batter will be thick.

6. Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the cinnamon swirl mixture evenly over the top. Carefully and slowly spread the remaining batter on top of the cinnamon mixture.

7. Sprinkle a small amount of streusel mixture evenly on top of prepared cake and carefully place your streusel skeletons. If you want to cover the cake in skeletons you can make another batch of the skeletons like I did above or just sprinkle remaining streusel around.

8. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes.

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