If you’ve never had Moravian Sugar Cake before, you are in for a treat. Pull up a chair and I’ll show you how to make one of the best yeast-raised coffee cakes you’ll ever have!
Although we always enjoy this yeasted coffee cake as a Christmas treat, Moravian sugar cake is also a popular Easter bread.
If you are intimidated by yeast, you may enjoy my classic sour cream coffee cake recipe instead.
Find all my Sweet Yeast Bread recipes in one place.
I’m honored to again be partnering with the Idaho® Potato Commission to bring you this recipe.
Watch my easy Christmas morning breakfast ideas web story here.
I was spoiled by the sugar cake from Dewey’s. This is the 4th recipe I’ve tried since moving to NY. HOLY CATS! Not only lived up to, but absolutely surpassed my expectations, I dare say, better than Dewey’s! Thank you!
Reader Robin
Who Are the Moravians?
Moravian Sugar Cake is the best, so as far as I’m concerned, the Moravians are the best, too.
But, unless you are from central North Carolina (or maybe from the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania area), you have probably never heard of the Moravians or of their magical sugar coffee cake.
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The Moravians (or more correctly, the members of the Moravian Church) originally settled in central North Carolina from what is now The Czech Republic and Slovakia by way of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the mid-ish 1700s.
Old Salem, the site of their original settlement in North Carolina, has been restored and is maintained as a living history museum and National Historic Site. According to our friends at Wikipedia, about 70% of the buildings are original. Which means they’re Old, at least by US standards.
What Is Moravian Sugar Cake?
Moravian sugar cake is a yeast-raised coffee cake that is dimpled like focaccia and then showered with melted butter, cinnamon and sugar before baking up to a beautiful golden brown.
Many recipes that I researched contain potato, although the bakery that made the version I grew up eating does not use potato in their dough.
Honestly, I think that is an anomaly (although it is tasty). Folks from Central and Eastern Europe like their potatoes, and they would certainly have used potatoes–or at least the water from cooking potatoes–in some of their breads.
I love the stuff so much I have 2 recipes for it on the site. This one, and one I call Authentic Moravian Sugar Cake that has a bit more potato, a bit less sugar, and more topping ingredients. Both are delicious.
How to Make Moravian Sugar Cake
Ingredients
This is not a hard recipe to make. Here’s what you’ll need for the dough:
- water: I usually use the water I cook the potato in. Yeast loves potato water because it’s starchy
- yeast: instant or active dry. If using instant, you can add it with the rest of the ingredients. If using active dry, dissolve and proof it in the potato water first
- mashed potato: no butter or salt, just plain mashed potato
- salt: I usually use kosher salt. If using fine salt or table salt, you can decrease the amount to 1 teaspoon
- sugar: adds sweetness and tenderness
- melted butter: enriches and tenderizes the dough
- milk: I use whole milk. You can also use 2%
- eggs: I use large eggs. Adds some additional protein, emulsifiers, and liquid to the dough
- all-purpose flour: no need to use bread flour here, although you could if you want to. You will end up with a chewier final result and may need a touch of additional liquid
And here’s what you need for the topping:
- melted butter: makes for a gooey topping. Use between 1 1/2 and 2 sticks of butter
- granulated sugar:
- brown sugar: you can use all granulated sugar rather than a mix of white and brown sugar. And if you use brown sugar, you can use either dark or light
- cinnamon:
- nutmeg: nutmeg is optional. If you do use it, grate whole nutmeg rather than using ground nutmeg. The whole spice has more flavor
- salt: tempers the sweetness a bit and brings out the butter flavor in the topping
What To Do
Here’s the rundown:
- Make the very soft dough. I really recommend using a stand mixer for this step.
- Allow dough to rise once in the bowl.
- Divide in half and “pour” each half onto a buttered half-sheet pan.
- Spread out in a thin layer, trying to cover the entire pan. You may have to let the dough rest for a few minutes a few times so it will stretch out.
- Dimple all over with your fingertips. It’s okay to poke holes completely through the dough, too.
- Drizzle on melted butter and then sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar.
- Let rise for another 30-45 minutes.
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- Bake!
- Let cool as long as you can stand it.
- Eat!
Time to Break Out the Stretchy Pants!
I have made 4 trays of Moravian sugar cake at one time. Not that I necessarily recommend it. Because then you’ll have a ton of it in your house.
And the only way to get rid of it is to eat it. That’s my reasoning anyway. It is so easy to eat, too. Soft, sweet potato dough with ripples and hills and valleys filled with cinnamon sugar deliciousness.
Care to join me in Stretchy Pants Land? Make some yourself. And then call me when you find yourself eating it like pizza. I’ll be your support group. You’re welcome.
Q & A
If you want to forgo the baking, both Dewey’s and Winkler’s in Winston-Salem/Old Salem ship, although expect them both to be sold out close to the holidays.
It’s fun to make your own, though, so I vote you go for it!.
I learned this tip from a reader, actually. Here’s the “correct” way to reheat Moravian Sugar Cake:
*Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat.
*Add butter and let it melt.
*Put in a piece of leftover sugar cake and fry that bad boy up on both sides until caramelized and crispy.
*Dig in.
If you ever happen to have leftover Moravian Sugar Cake, you must try my Moravian Sugar Cake Baked French Toast. It is incredibly good!
Sure. Freeze individual slices once completely cool. Wrap them in a double layer of plastic wrap and then in foil or place slices in freezer bags, making sure to press out as much air as possible before sealing. They’ll keep well for up to 3 months. Thaw wrapped at room temperature and rewarm (or fry in butter as outlined above) to serve.
More Old Fashioned, North Carolina Recipes
If you like this old-fashioned recipe, you may like my old-fashioned butterscotch cake recipe. And if you’re from North Carolina or are a Cheerwine fine, try my Cheerwine Layer Cake.
I am also a huge fan of lazy peach sonker, a North Carolina Specialty, and this Chocolate Glazed Doughnut Bread Pudding I made with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I think you’ll like these recipes too.
Reader Rave
I can tell you this the best yeast-raised coffee cake in all the land until I’m blue in the face, but it means more when a reader has made and loved the recipe.
I know this is a very old post, but I have to tell you how much I enjoyed your post and the sugar cake I made today! I went on a field trip to Old Salem with my son’s class last week and was scolded (lovingly, of course) by my husband for returning without a sugar cake. I didn’t want to stand in line at the bakery with my unruly group of fourth graders. So I told him I’d find a recipe and make one. I landed here. Absolutely fantastic and delicious. Thank you for a fun story and a delicious recipe. My kids and I are making quick work of one pan. My husband will probably eat half of the other when he gets home from work, leaving half for me for breakfast tomorrow!
Reader Kristen
A Note About Measurements
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Moravian Sugar Cake
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Equipment
Ingredients
For the Dough
- ½ cup warm water (you can use the water from cooking the potatoes, if you want)
- 1 Tablespoon dried yeast
- 1 cup unseasoned mashed potatoes (just potatoes–no milk or butter or anything)
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 ½ ounces melted butter
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 whole eggs
- 32-35 ounces all-purpose flour enough to make a soft, sticky dough
For the Topping
- 6-8 ounces melted butter your call
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- several gratings of fresh nutmeg optional
- heavy pinch of fine salt
Instructions
For the Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, pour in the warm water and yeast. Stir for a minute or so to dissolve the yeast.
- Add the potatoes, salt, sugar, butter, milk eggs and about half of the flour. Mix on low until you have a smooth batter.
- Change to the dough hook, and add most of the remaining flour. Mix on low speed until combined, and then knead on medium speed for 5 minutes. Test the dough by pulling some up with your fingers. It should be very sticky and stretchy and almost-but-not-quite flow-y. If the dough doesn’t have enough body, knead in the rest of the flour. Keep in mind that wetter is better than drier when it comes to yeast dough.
- Once you are happy with your dough, remove the bowl from the mixer and smooth the top of the dough with a pan-sprayed hand or spatula.
- Cover and let rise in a warm-ish place for about 1 1/2-2 hours, until doubled in size.
- Spray 2 jelly roll pans with pan spray (I made one batch with parchment-lined trays and one without. The parchment isn’t necessary for this, so you can skip it if you want.
- Divide the dough in half (I weigh mine) and plop half on each of the prepared sheets. Spray your hands and the top of the dough with pan spray to keep it from sticking, and start stretching/patting/pulling the dough to fit each pan. Alternate between pans to give the dough a chance to relax and make it easier to stretch.
- Once the dough is shaped, spray it again with a little pan spray and cover with a lint-free towel or plastic wrap and let rise until puffy, about an hour.
For the Topping
- Set your oven racks for the bottom third and top thirds of your oven. Preheat oven to 400F (204C).
- Whisk the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg (if using), and salt together very well.
- Once the dough is puffy, dimple the dough all over with your fingers. You don’t have to be gentle–it’s okay if you break holes all the way through the dough, even. Just dimple it all over very, very well.
- Liberally brush 3-4 ounces of melted butter over each cake. The butter should pool in the little dimples.
- Sprinkle half the sugar mixture evenly over each cake. Be generous–you pretty much don’t want to see any dough showing through the sugar.
- Place the cakes on the racks and bake for 7 minutes.
- Switch the cakes on the racks and bake for 7 more minutes.*
- Remove to racks to cool for a few minutes.
- With a large spatula and maybe some help, slide the cakes out onto cooling racks so the bottoms don’t get soggy. Slice however you think appropriate.
- Serve warm.
- Store at room temperature. If you’re not going to eat all of this the same day, wrap the cakes well and freeze them.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
To Reheat
The traditional way to reheat this cake is to melt some butter in a cast iron skillet and then "fry" slices until crisp on the outsides and heated through. This is more easily done if your slices are thinner (made in a larger pan). If you prefer not to add extra butter, simply heat slices in the microwave for a few seconds, in your toaster oven, or in the oven. For oven heating, wrap in foil and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes until heated through.][] ‘Nutrition
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And that does it. I do hope you make the sugar cake so I won’t be Alone in Shame.
Enjoy, and have a lovely day.
Thank you once again to the Idaho® Potato Commission for partnering with me on this post. I do love working with my friends at IPC.
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I didn’t grow up in either area where from where this scrumptious delight hails. But rest assured, I will be using this recipe and sharing it with the history you so kindly provided. In fact, a lovely woman who works with me will have 23 people at her home for Christmas and I think she’ll need BOTH pans of this. My gift to her. Do you think I can bake them, double wrap them, freeze them and give them to her frozen to use on whichever day she pleases?
What a nice treat for her–and what a houseful she will have! Yes–wrap them well and they should be fine in the freezer for up to 4 weeks or so. So kind of you!
I’m so glad to have this recipe! I have the really old book called Where the Star Still Shines about the beautiful Moravian Christmas Eve traditions in Salem, NC. There are still copies available online if you’re interested. Now I have a recipe!
I saw this on FB through Cafe Sucre Farina!
Wonderful! Chris is just lovely, isn’t she?! Enjoy the Moravian Sugar Cake–it is the best! =) I will also look up that cookbook. It sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation!
Bless you, Jenni. The cake is glorious. I live in London (UK) and haven’t had any Moravian Sugar Cake since my well-traveled boyfriend brought me some from NC in my teens – so I guess about 15 years ago – and every Christmas I miss it. A couple friends sent me recipes this year, but when I went to make it – the horror! They called for shortening and powdered milk, neither of which I had in my cupboard. So I found your wonderful site and spent five (I’m slow) very fun hours making cake for pre-Thanksgiving dinner with my brother’s family.
Who then canceled (or postponed), leaving me with an awful lot of cake to eat.
I decided to bypass the stretchy pants and go straight for the kaftan-type beach coverup. 😀
I’ll try the cake again for Christmas. Thank you thank you thank you for such a wonderful recipe! (And so simple even I couldn’t screw it up. *grins*)
Fantastic! I am so thrilled you love the MSC, and I totally support your bold move straight to Kaftan Territory! Enjoy the copious amounts of yum, and Happy Thanksgiving and Christmas to you!
Thank you so much for stopping in and for leaving a comment. Made my day!
Wonderful recipe, great photos, and I really enjoyed what you wrote to go along with it all. In fact, I shared the entire page with my mother, who is from Germany, and who absolutely loves when we all get together and go over to Old Salem (since we also live in North Carolina), to visit the shops and purchase the incredible baked goods. Now we can try making something like them in our own homes. Thank you. I have bookmarked your site, and “liked” it on Facebook, and will definitely be back. 🙂
Hi, Michelle! I’m so happy you have found and like the site! It’s nice to meet another North Carolinian, too. 🙂 Do make sure you say howdy on the facebook page. I am proud of that community–it’s very interactive and a wonderful extension of the blog. Tell your Mom I say hi, and enjoy the Moravian Sugar Cake!
I have some leftover cooked potatoes and am looking for a Moravian sugar cake recipe. Yours looks the best! Do you think I can halve the recipe? I ask because I do not have enough cooling rack space to accommodate two jelly roll pan sized cakes. Thanks!
Absolutely you can halve the recipe! Enjoy it:)
I have been craving Moravian sugar cake for years!! I had some in Winston-Salem and there was a Moravian church in our neighborhood in Orlando that had a bake sale every year. I have never tried making it myself because I knew I’d eat the whole damn thing. 🙂 NO way to buy any here, so I’m going to try your recipe!
Just make sure you have neighbors and friends lined up to take most of it away. Otherwise, you’ll be joining me in Stretchy Pants Land! lol
After years & years of marriage, Mr. Noodle STILL can’t wrap his mind around this very same “eat it to save myself” logic that I apply to every single food gift that crosses our threshold! Men… [sigh] 8-P
We lived in NC for several years but I MSC eluded me, though I had my fair share of the thin crispy goodness known as Moravian Sugar Cookies. Those Moravians sure know their baked goods! I’d love to give this recipe a try, but I do worry it’s a bit like inviting a vampire into my home….
You are wise to be cautious about inviting this bread into your home, TN! If you do choose to make it, make SURE you have folks to share it with. Like right there, standing in the doorway to take it away as soon as it comes out of the oven. Otherwise, you too will be lost! 😆 8D
Oh my goodness, this cake is tempting me….I want some of it right now. This must be good. I’ll bookmark it and try it soon. Thanks for the history & the recipe, Jenni!
I make this every year for New Year’s Day. I feel better seeing that yours is rectangular also — I use the recipe from a friend’s cookbook (he’s a food historian) and HIS is round, so I always felt bad that I just let it rise and take up the entire cookie sheet. People just love it — it’s my “go to” recipe for when I need a treat to feed a crowd. (I live in Southeastern PA, so maybe that’s why MSC are round here)
Hi, Dorene! All hail the rectangular MSC! 🙂 So glad you stopped in. Enjoy yours and your new year. I had great plans to take all the frozen MSC to Charlotte for the holiday and then promptly left it all in my freezer. So, it’s still here. Nooooo! Guess I have some eating to do! 8D 😆
So I have been here almost 2 years, and yet I still have not tried a Moravian cake. I guess I need to get on this, and find some:-) Your dough looked so heavenly:-) Thanks for sharing, I learned something new about the beautiful state I live in! Hugs, Terra
It is simple and straightforward and sooooo good. You will love it, Terra! 🙂
I am in the process of getting out my maternity pants in order to maybe make a double batch for Christmas breakfast (I decided dessert would make me wait too long). I’m so excited that my water may just break all over again – LOL!
PS – Sam is darn handsome!
Bwah!! Maybe I should invest in some maternity pants! Enjoy the decadence, and Merry Christmas!! 🙂
Oh me, oh my – butter, sugar & potatoes all in one – I feel like I need to break out the stretchy pants just reading about the Moravian Sugar Cake 😀 Not only that, but you’ve snuck some potato pancakes in there as well – there’s nothing else for it, I’m going to have to pack up and move so I can be your neighbour!
It’s a deal–would be Quite Lovely to be your neighbor! 🙂 And I totally thought of you, of course, while I was making this. I hope you give it a try and bring the joy of MSC to the masses on your Fair Isle!
Fabulous post – I am so glad that somebody else shares my logic with scoffing calorific snacks to get them out of harm’s way! I’ll bookmark this to give it a go once summer forgets it’s here.
Oh, and Sam really wants some! So cute.
I’m glad I’m not alone in that, either, Injera! 😆 You’ll love this–it’s perfect in cooler weather w/a cup of coffee or tea. Or just eaten like pizza. Whatever.
And if you lived closer, you could absolutely have Sam. He’s a great boy! 🙂
Oh I was wondering what all the fuss was about and now I know. What a great read and a great recipe!
Thanks, Greg! It’s some seriously good stuff; glad you stopped by to see what all the fuss was about! 🙂
It was a delightful breakfast treat!
Mwah! 🙂 Be glad I let you have any at all! 😉