Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake

With a golden, buttery crumb cake—made extra rich and tender with sour cream—topped with a swirl of bright fruit jam and a crisp, shortbread cookie-like crumb for crunchy contrast, this is a cake that’s as suitable for breakfast as it is for dessert (or even afternoon tea). Sometimes simple cakes hit just as hard as […]
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Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake

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** February 22, 2026
—
by Lindsay Landis

With a golden, buttery crumb cake—made extra rich and tender with sour cream—topped with a swirl of bright fruit jam and a crisp, shortbread cookie-like crumb for crunchy contrast, this is a cake that’s as suitable for breakfast as it is for dessert (or even afternoon tea).

Sometimes simple cakes hit just as hard as any multi-tiered masterpiece. As is the case with this deceivingly simple crumb cake, with three layers of textural perfection: tender and buttery cake, sweet and sticky jam, and crunchy crumb topping. And did I mention it’s ready in under an hour from start to finish?

[Squares of Sour Cream Crumb Cake with Jam Swirl and crumb topping on a marble serving plate with a jar of raspberry jam.]

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I always seem to have a few jars of homemade jam open and floating in the fridge at any given time. Such is the plight of the jam maker (as I’m sure anyone who makes homemade jam in any quantity likely has the same problem).

It’s why I have an entire category of recipes dedicated to Jams in Action: recipes that use jam as a component in one way or another.

[Plate with a square of Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake, showing the layer of cake, jam, and crumbs, with the rest of the cut cake squares in the background.]

The recipe itself is quite similar to my grandma’s sour cream coffee cake (this version with apples being the first version I ever posted), with slightly tweaked proportions and an added shortbread-like crumb topping, plus a layer of fruit jam in between. I like to think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure cake, where the type of jam you use will make it taste completely different every time!

I’ve personally made it with plain raspberry jam, old-fashioned strawberry jam, as well as a blend of raspberry and guava jam from random leftover jars that I mixed together (this one was my favorite, the guava is so punchy I just love it). While I don’t have a recipe for raspberry guava jam, I do have a strawberry guava jam that I think would be absolutely lovely here!

While I’m not calling it coffee cake this time, it really is quite wonderful as a breakfast cake, especially when you take into account the fruity jam. But it’s also perfectly sweet and satisfying for an afternoon tea and even fancy enough to count as dessert (maybe dusted with powdered sugar and served with a scoop of ice cream, perhaps?)

[Overhead view of Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake cut into squares, one set on its side to show the layers of cake, jam, and crumb.]

[Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake cut into squares on a marble serving plate, with napkin, knife, and jar of jam on the side.]

[Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake cut into squares, one resting on its side to show the layers of sour cream cake, fruit jam, and crumb on top.]

Most recipes billed as sour cream crumb cakes are heavily spiced with cinnamon in the crumb; so much cinnamon, in fact, that the crumb takes on a noticeably brunette hue in contrast to the golden blonde of the cake.

I opted not to include cinnamon in this recipe, as I really wanted a fruit forward flavor and felt the cinnamon would overpower the jam. That said, feel free to add a bit of cinnamon to the crumb mixture if you’re looking for something more traditional (cinnamon does pair well with fruits like fig, apple, pear and plum, so maybe choose your jam accordingly).

[Making the crumb topping by combining sugar, flour, and salt in a metal mixing bowl.]

Make the crumb topping by first combining flour, sugar, brown sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

[Pouring melted butter into a mixing bowl with dry ingredients.]

Pour melted butter into bowl with dry ingredients.

[The crumb mixture after it comes together will be crumbly but should stick together when pressed between fingers.]

Mix until the crumb mixture comes together in to a crumbly dough; it should stick together when pressed between your fingers.

[Adding an egg to a stand mixing bowl with creamed butter and sugar.]

To make the cake batter, in a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add in egg.

[Adding baking soda to sour cream.]

Add baking soda to sour cream; wait until right before you need it, and don’t do this too far ahead of time.

[The foamy texture of the sour cream after adding baking soda.]

After about 30 seconds the sour cream will turn noticably foamy.

[Adding half of dry ingredients to the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.]

Add half of dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.

[Adding half of sour cream mixture to the mixing bowl.]

Add half of foamy sour cream mixture along with milk and extracts, mixing until just incorporated. Repeat with the second half of dry ingredients and remaining sour cream.

[Pouring cake batter into a square cake pan lined with parchment paper.]

Dump finished cake batter into a square baking pan lined with parchment paper.

[Spreading cake batter into a square baking pan using an offset spatula.]

Spread batter evenly into the cake pan using an offset spatula.

[Dropping dollops of fruit jam on top of cake batter.]

Drop dollops of fruit jam of your choice on top of cake batter.

[Spreading jam into an even layer on top of cake batter with an offset spatula.]

Spread jam into a somewhat even layer using an offset spatula.

[Sprinkling crumb mixture on top of cake batter and jam layers before baking it.]

Finally, sprinkle generously with the crumb mixture you made first, covering the top of the cake all the way to the edges.

[Split screen showing jam crumb cake before and after baking.]

Bake for 35 to 38 minutes or until crumb topping is slightly golden brown and jam is bubbly; a toothpick inserted near the center should come out mostly clean.

The secret technique that makes this cake so fabulous is straight from my grandma’s recipe box: mixing the baking soda directly into the sour cream. You’ll notice after doing this that the sour cream gets noticeably foamy—this added air makes for an even softer, lighter cake.

That said, the recipe will still work if you accidentally mix the baking powder AND baking soda in with the flour like most other baked goods (trust me, I’ve done this plenty of times myself). Fret not, your cake will turn out just fine! You probably won’t even notice a difference unless you’re tasting them side by side (I have compared them side by side and I can discern a subtle difference in texture, but it’s certainly not a make-or-break difference).

[Square of Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake on a marble dessert plate with fork, napkin and the rest of the cut cake in the background.]

Flavor Variations:

While you can easily mix up the flavor profiles of this recipe by simply changing out the jams and the extracts, here are a few ideas to make it your own:

Blueberry lemon: Rub 1 teaspoon of lemon zest in with the sugars for both the crumb and cake mixtures; replace almond extract with lemon extract, and use blueberry jam or blackberry jam. Could also experiment with orange or lime zest too!

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