What could be better than a slice of my blueberry coffee cake? This tender, moist coffee cake is loaded with fresh, juicy blueberries, topped with a crunchy, buttery streusel topping, and finished with a sweet-tart lemon glaze.
Coffee cakes are underrated and so easy to make. This is a great recipe for a weekend breakfast or weekday dessert and classy enough for any special occasion you might be celebrating.
Made with simple ingredients, this blueberry crumb cake will satisfy your family’s sweet tooth.
If you love blueberries, you might also like my blueberry muffins or this blueberry cobbler.
Ingredients to make Blueberry Coffee Cake
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Blueberry Coffee Cake. In Chef Speak, this is called the “Mise en Place,” which translates to “Everything in its Place.”
Not only does setting up your ingredients ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
Made with Simple Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Whole milk
- Lemon zest
- Blueberries
- Powdered sugar
- Fresh lemon juice
How to make Crumb Topping
- Add the flour, granulated sugar, and melted butter to a medium bowl.
- Mix the ingredients together until it resembles clumps of wet sand. Set aside until needed.
How to make Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to a medium bowl.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together until well blended.
- Add the butter and granulated sugar to a large bowl of a stand mixer (or use an electric hand mixer).
- Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
- Add the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and milk to the butter mixture. *The milk and eggs should be at room temperature
- Mix the ingredients together using a stand mixer on low speed until well blended. *The mixture may look a little curdled, but that’s okay. It will come together when the flour is added.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.
- Mix the ingredients together, just enough to combine.
- Add the blueberries to the batter.
- Gently fold the blueberries into the batter using a rubber spatula.
- Spread batter evenly into the prepared springform pan.
- Evenly distribute the streusel topping on top of the batter.
- Place the springform pan on the center rack of a 350º preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick or a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, make the lemon glaze.
- Add the lemon juice and confectioner’s sugar (10x sugar) to a small bowl.
- Whisk the ingredients together until well blended. Set aside until needed.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Drizzle the lemon icing on the top of the cake.
- Run a knife around the edge and remove the ring.
*Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.
I love blueberries and just about any baked dessert you can think of using blueberries, and this blueberry coffee cake even exceeded my expectations. I know you’re going to love how easy this coffee cake is to make and how delicious it is.
After one bite, I know you’ll agree my Blueberry Coffee Cake Recipe makes the best lemon blueberry coffee cake you’ve ever had!
Recipe FAQ’s
Coffee cake, or kaffekuchen in Geman, is usually asingle-layer cake that, instead of frosting, has a streusel topping that is made from flour, butter, and sugar. In many instances, it also contains cinnamon. The streusel can also be added to the middle of the cake.
To keep a coffee cake moist and tender, be careful not to overmix the batter. This also includes creaming the butter too long.
The other reasons the cake might be dry is overbaking or using cold ingredients to make the batter. The eggs and milk should be at room temperature. The butter shouldn’t be too soft but shouldn’t be ice cold either.
A coffee cake can be kept unrefrigerated for up to 3 days in an airtight container. However, the cake will stay fresher and can last up to a week if kept in the refrigerator. The cake can also be kept frozen for up to 3 months, well sealed in two layers of plastic wrap.
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Blueberry Coffee Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Blueberry Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened 1 stick
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Blueberry Cake
- Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
Crumb Topping
- In a small bowl, with a fork mix together sugar and flour. Add butter and mix until mixture is sandy and clumps together.*
Blueberry Cake
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Mix in lemon zest. Add flour mixture and mix just until combine. Stir in blueberries.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
- Bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. About 210 degrees with an instant read thermometer.
- Cool 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and remove ring. Drizzle icing on cake. Cool completely before serving. (Unless you’re like us and would rather eat it hot even though the cake doesn’t cut as well.)
Icing
- Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a thin glaze
Gina
My favorite way to use extra blueberries. This cake didn’t last two whole days. All my neighbors love it.
Gina
An easy, luscious dessert.
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake.
Teri Nicely
Easy and fantastic! Family loved it!
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed my coffee cake!
Carly
this is rated the best I ever made. So delicious. Easy to make. My husband rated it as the best I have ever made. Its definitely a keeper. Looking forward to making this cake again.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my coffee cake, its one of my favorites.
paula caruso
Delicious! Directions are clear and it came together easily. Not too lemony and full of blueberrie! I have a few blueberry coffee cake recipes but will definitely make this one again 🙂
Ro
Can it be made the night before & is it best to refrigerate in airtight container?
Chef Dennis Littley
Yes you can. Refrigerate it overnight and let it sit at room temperature for an hour before serving.
Helen Woodward
I made this exactly as the recipe said and it was amazingly good.
It turned out I be higher than l’d expected, so it looked quite spectacular. The crumble top was delicious, Served it with some whipped cream.
Will definitely make it again. Thank you for this recipe.
Teresa Borden
My first thought, upon trying a still-warm slice of this lovely coffee cake was, ‘Wow, this recipe is a keeper!’ Tall, moist, tender cake with luscious pockets of blueberries and an amazingly crunchy streusel on top (that stayed crunchy even after leftovers were cooled and refrigerated until morning.)
I followed the instructions exactly and the only variations from the recipe ingredients were to add 1/4 tsp of lemon oil to the cake because I didn’t have the full amount of lemon zest and, as an experiment, I added a generous tablespoon of Nielsen Massey lemon paste to the icing drizzled on at the end.
This is an amazing recipe and one I will make again.
Tawny
I made this today to use up my fresh blueberries. It was a hit with the family. My glaze included a bit of citric acid to be sure there was enough zing. This one is going in the book of repeat!