An American coffee cake is a cake, usually vanilla, with a cinnamon layer in the middle and a cinnamon streusel topping. Sometimes, it has a vanilla glaze on top. Other times, it has a layer of fruit in the middle. Either way, it always has cake with a streusel topping. A British coffee cake has two layers of sponge cake flavored with coffee and filled with coffee-flavored buttercream and walnuts. It is also called a coffee and walnut cake.