Jam Coffee Cake

Jump to Recipe

A couple months ago my husband took a different job. He used to get up at like 4AM and leave for work right away after getting dressed. With his new job, he doesn’t have to be there nearly as early which gives him a little time to mull around in the morning. This makes it so that I get a nice cup of coffee when I get up, which has been fantastic. However, it also means he actually eats breakfast. He’s not as simple as me so he desires more than just oatmeal every single day for the rest of his life. It’s actually a little bit of a blessing because it’s allowed me to branch out with more recipes! This jam coffee cake has officially become one of our favorites and something he can enjoy all week long.

Jam

To be fair, I use jelly in this recipe. If you aren’t sure of the difference I explain it in my post for the jam cake. The true reason I tried this was because I needed to use up some old strawberry jelly that I had laying around. It was the first thing in my whole life that I ever canned myself. I was so darn proud of it even if it didn’t turn out like I wanted it to. I made it back in 2018 and I just finally used my very last jar! Probably slightly risky but they were still sealed well and there was no discoloration in the jar so we went with it. I tend to fall into the “rebel” side of the home canners so take that with a grain of salt.  

The original recipe only calls for 8 oz of jelly. If you preserve your own jelly this is half of a pint jar. I’ve put the entire jar in before and it tastes just as good. My jelly was also really runny which accidentally caused me to use more of it. Once I started pouring the whole thing just came right out! I guess what I’m saying is you can use anywhere from 8-16oz of jelly, jam, or preserves and this jam coffee cake is going to be great!

You can also use whatever flavor your heart desires. We usually use strawberry because it’s most of what we have on hand, but you can get as creative as you possibly want with the flavor you use. You could even mix them too! We like to mix blueberry and strawberry for more of the mixed berry flavor. This would also be a great recipe to use up all of the leftover jelly in the bottoms of the jars to clean up the refrigerator. 

Jam Coffee Cake Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup butter (melted)
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup greek yogurt
• ½ cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 8 oz jam

Crumb Topping Ingredients

• 2 cup oatmeal
• ½ cup butter (melted)
• ½  cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ cup flour

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix all of the cake ingredients together in a bowl. I mixed mine by hand and it worked perfectly. 
• Spread half of the cake mixture into a greased 9×13 pan. It’s a little bit difficult to spread and it should be a thinner layer. 

• Spread the jam on top of the cake layer. 

• Drop the second half of the cake batter by the spoonful on top of the jam. This should mostly cover the jam but you can spread it a little to help cover the jam. It’s okay if the jam shows through.

• Mix together the crumb topping ingredients. It will be a dry mixture. 
• Sprinkle the crumb topping over the top of the cake layer. 

• Bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Tips & Tricks

As mentioned, use as much or as little jelly, jam, or preserves that you want and you can use any flavor that you want as well.

You could also use a different crumb topping if you wanted. I prefer the oatmeal because it adds a little bit of crispiness to the cake. However, both types of crumb topping are wonderful and taste amazing. I assure you, you won’t be disappointed with either of them.

If you don’t want to use milk you can also use 1 full cup of greek yogurt instead. I suppose you could also use 1 cup of milk instead of greek yogurt as well, but I haven’t tried that yet. I think it will make the batter more runny and you’ll probably end up with a thinner cake. Even though it will taste the same I prefer a nice fluffy cake. 

We store it right in the pan on our counter and it lasts about a week without getting stale or gross. 

Jam Coffee Cake: A Summary

This is one of those recipes that you can whip up in one bowl and that is probably another reason that it is my favorite. I get the cake out of the mixing bowl and just throw the crumb topping ingredients in the same bowl. It’s super quick and easy to whip up on a Sunday morning. It also pairs really well with a hot cup of coffee.  What is your favorite quick weekday breakfast? I add quick because he has time but not enough time to make himself breakfast. We’re looking for eat and go items, folks!