Blueberry Coffee Cake with Crumble Topping

Tender buttermilk cake, juicy blueberries, and crumble topping makes for the best coffee cake recipe.

When it comes to coffee cake, you can pretty much always count us in. Any excuse to have cake for breakfast is a great one in our book. And when it comes to coffee cakes, there is nothing quite like blueberry coffee cake. Tender buttermilk cake studded with juicy blueberries and topped with brown sugar crumble makes for the perfect coffee cake.

Components of the perfect blueberry coffee cake:

• Soft, golden coffee cake: We have a couple of secrets to ensure the coffee cake is perfectly tender and moist. First and foremost, like with most of our cakes, we use buttermilk. Often in coffee cakes you will see sour cream or milk, but we prefer buttermilk. The buttermilk is more acidic than milk, so when it is added to baked goods it helps break down the gluten in baked goods resulting in a more tender coffee cake. We also alternate the wet and the dry ingredients which helps to ensure the batter is well combined without over mixing. This results in the most tender cake possible.
• Crumbs: We will add brown sugar crumble to just about anything because we have yet to find something we think brown sugar crumble does not make incredibly delicious. From our blueberry muffins to our banana crumb muffins we think that crumble topping is always a good idea and this blueberry buttermilk coffee cake is no exception.

• Juicy Blueberries: Although we love a classic or cinnamon coffee cake, there is something about biting into a coffee cake studded with blueberries. Just like in a blueberry muffin or other blueberry baked goods, when the blueberries are baked, they become juicy and sweet. They often burst once they are baked creating juicy, blueberry sweetness throughout the coffee cake. To get the best flavor, we prefer using fresh blueberries. 

Tips for the perfect blueberry coffee cake:

• Buttermilk: The buttermilk is more acidic than milk, when it is added to baked goods it helps break down the gluten in baked goods. This process of the buttermilk helping break down the gluten in baked goods creates a more tender (and delicious) cake. These muffins are no exception to this process. The buttermilk makes a tender muffin that has more of a fluffy cake like texture. 
• Fresh blueberries: We find that using fresh blueberries provides the best flavor and blueberry juiciness factor to the coffee cake. Frozen berries often lose their structure when frozen because the exposure to the cold causes them to lose their structure and become soft when thawed. This creates a berry that is a little softer and less juicy when baked. Using fresh blueberries will also help ensure the blueberries do not dye the coffee cake batter blue. 

• Brown sugar crumble:  We have talked about our love of brown sugar crumble many times before and this coffee cake is no exception. We absolutely love the brown sugar crumble topping on top of the cake. It adds texture and flavor to the coffee cake. The crumbs are a little crunchy and packed with brown sugar flavor that pairs perfectly with the buttermilk cake and juicy blueberries.
• Almond extract: We are big almond extract fans. We think that this flavor adds bakery style flavor to baked goods. It is our secret ingredient in so many baked goods, like our blueberry crumb muffins. It is sweet, slightly nutty and one of our favorite flavors on the planet. If you are not an almond extract fan, this can be left out. 
• 9×9 inch glass pan: We like to use a 9×9 inch glass pan for two main reasons: 1. We like a tall coffee cake so instead of using a 9×13 inch pan, we prefer the 9×9 inch so the coffee cake is in a little smaller pan and the pieces are a little bit higher. 2. Glass pans allow the cake to bake more evenly. Unlike brownies or other baked goods where we prefer crispy edges and metal pans, we prefer to bake the coffee cakes in a glass pan so the edges cook more consistently with the rest of the cake resulting in a golden color with less crispiness than if it were baked in a metal pan.

Blueberry Coffee Cake FAQs:

Blueberry Coffee Cake Recipe

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Blueberry Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Crumble

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick salted butter room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 cups fresh blueberries

Crumble

• 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour 180 grams
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 100 grams
• 1/4 cup white sugar 50 grams
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 grams
• 1 stick butter 113 grams
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

Brown sugar crumb:

• Add the flour, brown sugar, sugar, and salt to a medium bowl. Stir to combine
• Pour in the melted butter and almond extract. Mix together until large crumbs form. Set aside
  

Coffee Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Stir with a fork to combine and set aside
• In the base of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together the room temperature butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy
  
• Add in the eggs and extracts and cream for 2 more minutes on medium-high speed until light and fluffy
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternate adding the buttermilk and flour mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. To do this, our preferred method is as follows: ⅓ of the dry ingredients, ½ of the buttermilk, ⅓ of the dry ingredients, ½ of the buttermilk, ⅓ of the dry ingredients (pulse after each addition). Note: do not over mix at this stage and just barely mix at each step to evenly combine the ingredients
  
• Once the dry and wet ingredients are added and the batter is just combined, fold in the blueberries
  
• Place the batter in a 9×9 inch glass pan lined with parchment paper and sprayed with cooking spray. Spread the batter into an even layer
  
• Top the batter with the brown sugar crumble and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean