April’s Amazing Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

Looking for an amazing Christmas morning coffee cake? I am sharing this delightful and delicious family recipe that is my family’s favorite Christmas morning treat of all time. Plus the one ingredient that makes it the best!

If you have been following along on this blog for any time then you that this holiday season is looking a lot different for our family.

For 33 years I have spent Christmas morning with my husband and children and now our Christmas will look different for our family forever.

My husband passed away 6 months ago which means that our Christmas is forever changed and our holiday family traditions have become even more special.

Last year was our last Christmas with him and we didn’t know it. And now, all the simple traditions that our family holds so dear to our hearts will have extra special meaning for my family.

Some things are just Christmas to us.

Including this coffee cake for Christmas morning, which I have made every year for decades.

Actually, I have never made it any other time of the year. Only for Christmas morning. Which helps to keep it really special.

So, I am about to share the recipe for the cake my family can’t wait to eat on Christmas morning.

And I have never shared it before!!

If you want a really moist and delicious cake for Christmas morning, or any morning, this is it.

And, the secret ingredient to making it extra moist? Vanilla pudding mix.

Ingredients for your coffee cake

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 small box of instant vanilla  pudding mix
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (or any oil of your choice)

Ingredients needed for the streusel topping

• 6-8 tbsp. melted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3 tsp. cinnamon

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting:

• 8 oz. cream cheese block (make sure it is softened on the counter for a bit)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 stick melted butter
• vanilla and almond flavoring
• gallon baggie or piping bag

How to make April’s Amazing Christmas Morning Coffee Cake

Grease a 9×13 pan or two 8″ pans and set aside

Add the dry cake mix + salt to a bowl and mix together

Add the eggs, water and oil and mix everything together with a mixer on medium

Mix together all ingredients for the streusel topping and divide into two

Add half of your cake mix to the greased pan.

Now you will layer in half of your streusel topping across the entire pan

Pour the remaining batter over the streusel

Add the remaining streusel over the top of that.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

While that is baking, whip up the cream cheese frosting. You can simply hand mix this with a spatula. Just go a little slow so the powdered sugar doesn’t fly everywhere!

Add your cream cheese frosting to your piping bag with a decorative tip

If you don’t have a piping bag you can use a gallon size baggie. When ready to add the frosting just snip off the corner of it and use it like a piping bag!

 

**TIP** You can make these ahead of time and freeze them, then pull out and thaw them out before serving**

Even though I have grown children now, some traditions just will never change. including our Christmas morning breakfast. Or maybe I should call it break-feast!

I serve a whole spread that takes up my 12′ kitchen island for Christmas morning breakfast, but it is definitely the star of the show.

Last year was the first year that our oldest children were not here for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast because they are starting traditions in their own homes with their own little families. It is hard, of course, but I want to honor that!

Just because they aren’t here, it doesn’t mean that the Christmas morning coffee cake tradition has to be left behind.

So, after our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, I made them each an 8″ Christmas morning coffee cake and sent them home with a cake and a piping bag of the delicious cream cheese frosting. That way they could just pipe it on in the morning so it was as fresh as possible and they could still have ataste of home when they serve up breakfast for their own families.

The tradition lives on!

I was so excited to share this with you! It is a recipe I hold dear to my heart because it is one tradition that has held on for all of these years.

I hope you try it and love it as much as we do. I would love to hear about it in the comments!!

If you are looking for more inspiring holiday content, start with creating a gift-wrapping station to prep for the holidays! 

And remember, you can do it yourself, but let’s do it together!!

Happy Holidays!