Bisquick Coffee Cake Recipe

This Bisquick coffee cake is a soft vanilla snack cake made from 2 cups Bisquick, ⅔ cup milk, 2 tablespoons sugar, one egg and a teaspoon of vanilla, under a cinnamon crumb topping of brown sugar, more Bisquick and cold butter. It bakes in an 8×8 inch pan at 375°F for 22 to 25 minutes and gives you 9 squares, about 35 minutes start to finish.

Two habits make the difference here. Stir the batter only until the dry mix disappears, and keep the butter for the crumbs cold, so the top bakes up sandy and crisp while the cake underneath stays tender.

Bisquick Coffee Cake Pan, Temperature and Timing

• Pan: 8×8 inch, greased with butter or nonstick spray
• Oven: 375°F (190°C), 22 to 25 minutes
• Yield: 9 squares
• Cake batter: 2 cups Bisquick, ⅔ cup milk, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Crumb topping: ½ cup brown sugar, ⅓ cup Bisquick, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 tablespoons cold butter
• Optional glaze: ½ cup powdered sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, ½ teaspoon vanilla

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Box Recipe, This Version and a Scratch Coffee Cake

If you came looking for the original Bisquick coffee cake recipe from the box, this one is built the same way: baking mix, milk, a little sugar and one egg for the cake, then more mix with brown sugar, cinnamon and cold butter for the streusel. I add vanilla to the batter and give it an optional vanilla glaze.

Bisquick already holds the flour, leavening, salt and fat, so there is nothing to cream and nothing to sift. The trade is texture. A scratch coffee cake recipe with butter and sour cream is richer and denser, while this one is lighter and more even, closer to a soft biscuit than a pound cake. If you want the deeper, buttery kind, my cinnamon coffee cake is the one to bake.

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A Lumpy Batter Makes a Tender Cake

Measure the Bisquick by spooning it into the cup and leveling it with a knife. Scooping straight from the box packs the mix down, and a few extra tablespoons is enough to make the cake dry and bready.

Stir the mix, milk, sugar, egg and vanilla with a spoon or whisk, about 15 strokes, just until no dry patches show. The batter should be thick and a little lumpy. Every extra stir after that builds gluten and tightens the crumb. Spread it into the greased pan, pushing it right into the corners.

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Making the Cinnamon Crumb Topping With Cold Butter

Mix the brown sugar, ⅓ cup Bisquick and cinnamon in a small bowl, then cut in the cold butter with a fork or pastry cutter. Stop when you have pea size clumps mixed with sandy bits. Soft butter smears into a paste that melts into the cake and leaves a wet, sugary top instead of crumbs.

I like to make the topping first and leave the bowl in the fridge while the oven heats. Then scatter it loosely over the batter, all the way to the edges, without pressing it down. Heavy clumps sink into this soft batter, light ones stay on top.

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When to Take the Coffee Cake Out of the Oven

Start checking at 22 minutes. The top should be lightly golden, the edges pulling slightly from the pan, and a toothpick in the center should come out clean. Take it out at the first clean toothpick. Each minute past that dries the crumb, and that is the main reason a Bisquick coffee cake turns out dry.

Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before cutting. The crumb settles and the topping stays on the squares instead of sliding off the first piece.

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The Optional Vanilla Glaze

Stir ½ cup powdered sugar with 1 tablespoon milk and ½ teaspoon vanilla, then add milk a few drops at a time until it falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon. Drizzle it over the cake while it is only slightly warm. On a hot cake the glaze melts straight into the crumbs; on a slightly warm one it sets in white lines you can still see.

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Doubling for a 9×13 Pan or Adding Fruit

For a 9×13 inch pan, double every ingredient, including the topping. A doubled batch is a little deeper in a 9×13 than one batch in an 8×8, so start checking at about 25 minutes and bake until the toothpick comes out clean.

For a fruit version, scatter up to 1 cup of blueberries or small diced apple over the batter before the crumbs go on. Toss diced apple with a pinch of cinnamon first. More fruit than that weighs the soft batter down and leaves a wet middle, and the cake may need a few extra minutes. For a full apple cake, my apple coffee cake is built around the fruit.

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Dry Cake, Sunken Crumbs and Other Fixes

• Dry or bready: packed Bisquick or a few minutes too long in the oven. Spoon and level the mix and pull the cake at the first clean toothpick.
• Dense and tough: overmixed batter. Stop stirring while it is still lumpy.
• Topping sank or melted: warm butter or big clumps pressed into the batter. Chill the crumbs and scatter them lightly.
• Dark edges, wet center: the oven runs hot or the pan is dark metal. Check with an oven thermometer, or lower the heat by 25°F for a dark pan.

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Keeping Bisquick Coffee Cake Squares Soft

Keep the cake covered at room temperature for up to 2 days. After that, refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to 5 days. The crumbs soften in the fridge, and 10 to 15 seconds in the microwave brings a square back to soft and warm. You can also wrap single squares well and freeze them for up to 2 months.

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Other Coffee Cakes Worth a Weekend

For a gluten free coffee cake, bake my gluten free coffee cake instead of swapping mixes here. A blueberry sour cream coffee cake is the richer cousin of this one, and in autumn the pumpkin coffee cake is worth a slot. For grab-and-go breakfasts, the coffee cake muffins with streusel topping and coffee cake cookies pack the same cinnamon crumb into smaller pieces.

Serve a square warm with coffee, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream after dinner. If you bake it in a 9×13 or add fruit, tell me in the comments how long yours took, so other bakers can use it too.