Easy Gluten-Free Coffee Cake

Name: Easy Gluten-Free Coffee Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 38 min
Total time: 53 min
Yield: 1 square
Ingredients: 2 cups (280 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix; 3/4 cup granulated sugar; 1/2 cup butter, softened; 2 large eggs; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 3/4 cup sour cream or whole-milk plain yogurt; 1/2 cup Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix, for the streusel; 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, for the streusel; 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, for the streusel; 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed, for the streusel

on Oct 12 2026

Table of Contents

Most coffee cake recipes start with flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and a list of things to measure before you have done anything at all.

This one starts with a mix. Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix already has the leavening and salt in the bag, so the batter is five ingredients and one bowl. A cinnamon streusel goes on top. It bakes in a 9x9 pan in about 35 minutes.

No bundt pan, no springform, no glaze, no marbling. It is the version you make on a Saturday morning because someone is coming over at eleven.

So good, no one will guess it is gluten-free, the way Pamela's has done it since 1988.

Can You Make Coffee Cake with Pancake Mix?

Yes, and it is one of the better uses for a bag of it.

A coffee cake needs leavening, salt, fat, and flour in balance. A complete pancake and baking mix has three of those already measured and balanced against each other, which is most of what makes a cake recipe long.

It is not a shortcut in the sense of being worse. The crumb is tender and slightly tangy, because Pamela's mix contains cultured buttermilk and almond meal, and both do work that a plain flour would need help to do.

The mix this is built on Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix A complete baking mix with the leavening and salt included. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, quick breads, biscuits, and cakes. GFCO-certified.

Do not add baking powder. The mix already has it, and more would make the cake rise fast and fall in the middle.

The Cinnamon Streusel

The topping is four ingredients and it is the part people remember.

Use cold butter, cubed, and cut it into the dry ingredients with a fork or your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces left. Those larger pieces are what give you clumps rather than sand.

Chill it while you make the batter. Cold streusel holds its shape in the oven; warm streusel melts into the surface of the cake and disappears.

Scatter it loosely across the top and do not press it down. A pressed topping bakes into a layer of cake rather than staying crumbly.

Measuring the Mix

This matters more in gluten-free baking than it does with wheat.

We use 140 g per cup. Scooping a measuring cup through the bag compacts the mix and can add 20 g or more per cup, and that difference shows up as a dense, dry crumb or a cake that dips in the middle.

If you do not have a scale, spoon the mix into the cup and level it with a knife rather than scooping.

If your cake dips in the center, add a quarter cup more mix next time. That is almost always a measuring difference rather than a problem with the recipe.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 38 minutes

Total Time 53 minutes

Yield 9

Serving Size 1 square

Ingredients

2 cups (280 g) Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream or whole-milk plain yogurt
1/2 cup Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix, for the streusel
1/2 cup packed brown sugar, for the streusel
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, for the streusel
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed, for the streusel

Shop Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix, 24 oz.

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 pan or line it with parchment.
Make the streusel first. Combine the half cup of mix, the brown sugar, and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the cold cubed butter with a fork or your fingers until it looks like coarse crumbs with some pea-sized pieces. Chill while you make the batter.
Make the batter. Beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together until light, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
On low speed, add the Pancake & Baking Mix and the sour cream alternately, beginning and ending with the mix, until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spread the batter evenly into the pan. It will be thick.
Scatter the chilled streusel loosely over the top. Do not press it down.
Bake 32 to 38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the streusel is golden. Start checking at 32.
Cool at least 20 minutes in the pan before cutting. It firms as it cools.

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Gluten-Free Pancake & Baking Mix, 24 oz.

One mix, a whole recipe box

Pancakes are just the beginning. This is the mix behind our most-loved waffles, banana bread, blueberry muffins, drop biscuits, crepes, and coffee cake. If you keep one gluten-free mix in the pantry, this is the one that earns its shelf space.

Also your waffle mix

The waffle recipe is printed right on the bag: separate the eggs, whip the whites, and fold them into the batter for waffles that bake up crisp outside and tender inside. Want extra crunch? Leave them in the iron a little longer.

Why it works

Cultured buttermilk gives a tender crumb, almond meal adds richness, and whole grains bring flavor most gluten-free mixes leave behind. It all started in Pamela's own Northern California kitchen in 1988, and it's still the #1 gluten-free pancake mix.

Brown Rice Flour, White Rice Flour, Cultured Buttermilk, Almond Meal, Tapioca Starch, Sweet Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Baking Powder (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Potato Starch, Sodium Bicarbonate), Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum.

Contains Milk and Almonds.

Pamela's Products are manufactured in a Gluten-Free Certified Facility and peanut-free facility. Our products are produced on equipment that processes Tree Nuts, Coconut, Eggs, and Soy.

Recipe Tips & Notes

Storing and Freezing

Room temperature: 3 days in an airtight container. The sour cream keeps the crumb moist.

Refrigerator: up to 5 days, though it firms and the streusel softens.

Freezer: up to 3 months. Cut into squares and wrap individually, which makes it easy to pull one at a time.

Reheat a square at 300 degrees F for 8 minutes to bring the streusel back, or 15 seconds in the microwave if you do not mind it soft.

Ways to Change It Up

Add fruit. A cup of fresh blueberries or chopped apple folded into the batter, or scattered across the bottom of the pan before the batter goes in.

Add nuts to the streusel. A half cup of chopped pecans or walnuts, which also makes it crunchier.

A simple vanilla glaze over the cooled cake, made from a cup of powdered sugar and two to three tablespoons of water.

Double the streusel. Some people want a 50-50 cake-to-topping ratio and they are not wrong.

Muffins instead. Divide between 12 lined cups with streusel on top and bake 20 to 24 minutes.

For the richer, marbled, glazed version, our gluten-free sour cream coffee cake is baked in a bundt pan with a cinnamon nut filling through the middle.

What This Contains

This recipe contains milk and tree nuts.

Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix contains almond meal and cultured buttermilk, so it cannot be made nut-free or dairy-free. The butter, eggs, and sour cream in this recipe add more dairy and egg.

The mix is also made on equipment that processes soy.

Everything from Pamela's is certified by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization and made in a certified gluten-free, peanut-free facility.

Recipe FAQs

Yes. A complete pancake and baking mix already has the leavening and salt balanced in it, which is most of what makes a cake ingredient list long. Combine it with butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream, add a streusel, and bake at 350 degrees F for about 35 minutes.

No. Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix is a complete mix with the leavening already in it. Adding more would make the cake rise too fast and fall in the middle.

Almost always too little mix, which usually comes from measuring by volume. We use 140 g per cup. If you do not have a scale, spoon the mix into the cup and level it rather than scooping, and add a quarter cup more next time.

Use cold butter and chill the streusel while you make the batter. Cold streusel holds its shape in the oven and warm streusel melts into the surface. Scatter it loosely and do not press it down.

A 9x9 for this recipe, which gives you nine generous squares. An 8x8 works and bakes a few minutes longer since the cake is deeper. A 9x13 needs one and a half times the recipe and bakes a little faster.