Blueberry Coffee Cake

This moist and flavorful Blueberry Coffee Cake with a hint of lemon is topped with a sweet streusel and simple lemon glaze.

Love coffee cake? — Try this Pumpkin Coffee Cake or Apple Coffee Cake next!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

This Blueberry Coffee Cake is rich, moist, and sweet with blueberries rippled throughout a crunchy streusel topping, and a zippy lemon glaze drizzled over that! It’s one of my boys’ favorite treats, especially if I let it pass for breakfast!

Does coffee cake have coffee in it?

Legend has it that Europeans came up with the idea of eating sweet cakes while having their coffee, so coffee cake accompanies coffee, but coffee doesn’t actually go into the batter.  Today, coffee cakes are known as simple, one-flavor cakes, often with a streusel and/or simple glaze topping. 

Ingredients

This coffee cake needs to be thick and dense to keep the streusel on top. Avoid substitutions like using milk instead of heavy cream or swapping the maple syrup, as they might change the cake’s texture.

Dry Ingredients

• Flour. I have not tested this cake with anything other than white, all-purpose flour.
• Baking agents. Before spending time, energy, and money on baking, make sure the baking soda and baking powder you’ll be using are fresh. Here’s how to determine that. I also add in some salt to balance and intensify the flavors in this cake.
• Cinnamon. This spice adds a nice subtle flavor, but feel free to increase it for a stronger cinnamon flavor or leave it out entirely!
• Blueberries. I recommend fresh because frozen berries bleed a lot and make the cake overly moist.

Wet Ingredients

• Unsalted butter. We want to control the salt in the cake so using unsalted butter facilitates that. If you don’t have butter, vegetable or canola oil also work well in this cake.
• Brown sugar. Light or dark brown sugar both work in this cake. For a more intense sweetness and flavor, I prefer dark brown sugar.
• Maple syrup. Not to be confused with pancake syrup! Pure maple syrup adds a very subtle flavor that complements the lemon and blueberries beautifully. I would not recommend using honey instead of syrup.
• Heavy whipping cream. The cream adds a richness to the cake, plus we use some in the glaze!
• Baking extracts. Vanilla and almond extracts add a nice flavor to Blueberry Coffee Cake. Neither extract is entirely necessary, so don’t worry if you don’t have any to add.
• Greek yogurt. My favorite yogurt to use in this cake is Honey Vanilla Greek yogurt. Whatever yogurt you choose to use, make sure it has a nice flavor for the best coffee cake. Don’t use a plain or low-fat yogurt. Full-fat sour cream will work in place of the Greek yogurt.
• Lemon. Bottled lemon juice won’t quite cut it here, because we also need the zest of the lemon. When zesting the lemon, avoid the white pith of the lemon — this is very bitter. Using a microplane (like this one), zest only the very outside yellow part of the lemon.

Streusel Tips

• Let the melted butter cool. The streusel calls for melted butter, but it’s important to use the butter when it has returned to room temperature. Hot melted butter will melt the sugar and cause a greasy streusel. 
• Add more flour if needed. If the streusel seems too wet and isn’t a crumbly consistency, you may need to add an additional 1-2 tablespoons flour.  
• Don’t press the down the streusel. Once the streusel is sprinkled on top of the blueberry coffee cake, resist the urge to press it into the batter.

More Blueberry Desserts

• Lemon Blueberry Sweet Rolls with a lemon glaze
• Mini Blueberry Cheesecakes with graham cracker crusts
• Blueberry Crisp with lots of streusel!
• Blueberry Pancakes with buttermilk
• Healthy Blueberry Muffins with Greek yogurt

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5 from 2 votes

Blueberry Coffee Cake

By Chelsea Lords

This delightful Blueberry Coffee Cake is moist and bursting with flavor, featuring a hint of lemon and a sweet streusel topping, all drizzled with a simple lemon glaze.

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 pieces

Equipment

• Baking pan 8 x 8-inch

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

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Coffee Cake

• ▢ 1-1/2 cups flour
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 cup fresh blueberries not frozen
• ▢ 1/3 cup unsalted butter melted, room temperature
• ▢ 1/3 cup light brown sugar or dark, packed
• ▢ 3 tablespoons maple syrup 
• ▢ 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon almond extract optional
• ▢ 3/4 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
• ▢ 1 lemon

Streusel

• ▢ 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, room temperature
• ▢ 11 tablespoons flour
• ▢ 1/3 cup light brown sugar or dark, packed
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt

Glaze

• ▢ 1 cup powdered sugar
• ▢ 1-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• ▢ 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract optional
• ▢ 1/16 teaspoon salt optional

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 350℉. Lightly grease an 8 x 8-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Or for easy cleanup, you can line with parchment and then grease.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add in the blueberries and toss to coat. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, add the melted and cooled butter, packed brown sugar, maple syrup, and heavy cream. Add in the vanilla extract, almond extract, and Greek yogurt. Zest the outer rind of a lemon (avoid the white pith) to get 1 teaspoon zest. Juice the lemon to get 2 tablespoons juice; add juice and zest to wet ingredients. Whisk until smooth.
• Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, do not over mix the batter. The batter is very thick. Spread and then smooth the batter evenly in the prepared pan with a spatula.
• To make the streusel, melt the butter in the microwave and then let stand at room temperature until cooled. Don't add hot butter to the streusel, it will make it greasy. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cooled melted butter and mix until the streusel is evenly combined and forms small clumps. If clumps aren't forming or the streusel is too wet, add more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the cake batter. Do not press the streusel into the cake.
• Bake for 37–45 minutes or until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My oven takes 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before adding the glaze.
• Whisk all of the icing ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle over entire cooled coffee cake or over individual slices.

Recipe Notes

Storage: Covered coffee cake will last about 1–2 days at room temperature but will stay good for about 1 week in the fridge in an airtight container. Warm leftover pieces in the microwave and glaze. After the first day, the streusel topping does soften, and the cake becomes more moist.

Nutrition

Calories: 310kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 80mg | Potassium: 81mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 273IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 33mg | Iron: 2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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