Blueberry Coffee Cake

With sour cream, a thick layer of blueberries, and sweet crumb topping, this blueberry coffee cake is tender, light, and very berry-forward. We use a reverse creaming method for a delicate crumb that's still sturdy enough to hold up to the blueberry and streusel layers.

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How This Recipe Works

As I mentioned above, this cake is made with a reverse creaming method. That means that the butter is mixed into the dry ingredients before adding the other wet ingredients (sour cream and eggs) and it makes for a cake that's sturdy but light. The crumb is a little tighter than something like a Victoria sponge but very moist and with an excellent texture.

Orange zest, brown sugar, and sour cream work beautifully with the blueberries. It's a delicious buttery cake, not too sweet despite the crumb topping, and chock full of berries. You can use fresh or frozen berries for this recipe but see our notes on that first.

This cake differs from Kelly's blueberry buckle recipe not only in the ingredients used - the buckle is made with milk, wild blueberries, and just one egg - but also the method. It has a similar flavour profile but is a very different cake. I developed and tested this recipe.

Ingredients You'll Need and Why

Sour cream is the secret weapon here, making the cake wonderfully soft and moist without feeling heavy or greasy. Yogurt can be used instead (see below for substitution options). These are our notes from recipe testing and you can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Flour: use plain all-purpose flour for the best results. Up to half of the flour can be replaced with whole wheat flour but note that the cake will be noticeably denser if you do so. We haven't tested with a gluten-free alternative.
• Brown sugar: use light or dark brown sugar.
• Sugar: plain white granulated sugar. We have tested with cane sugar and it works, but gives the cake a slightly pitted texture and the streusel topping a much crunchier texture.
• Sour cream: for the best flavour and texture, use full-fat sour cream. A good substitute is full-fat Greek yogurt. If you need a dairy-free option we recommend Greek-style soy yogurt. The cake is best when made with room temperature sour cream but don't worry if you forgot to take it out ahead of time - just note that the batter will probably curdle slightly.
• Butter: you need both cold and room temperature butter for this recipe. If you don't have salted butter be sure to add an extra pinch of salt to both the topping and the cake batter. If you want to use a non-dairy alternative, we recommend vegan butter that comes in stick or block form and not the type that comes in a tub. The cake texture will be different when using anything other than real butter.
• Oranges or lemons: you'll use the zest in the cake batter and some juice with the blueberries. Substitute 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in the cake batter if preferred.
• Blueberries: use large blueberries, and only wild blueberries if you can pick them fresh. If using frozen blueberries, don't thaw them first. Mix with the flour and add to the cake while still frozen. Substitute saskatoons if you have them.
• Eggs: large eggs at room temperature. Large eggs are 57 grams in North America. To quickly bring cold eggs up to room temperature, submerge them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.

How to Make Blueberry Coffee Cake

We know this method might look a little different than what you're probably used to, but it makes a great cake and is really very easy. The trick is to remember to divide the sour cream before starting. That's why we mix the sour cream and egg mixture first and set it aside, to avoid using the full amount in the cake batter too soon by mistake.

Step 1: mix the flour, sugars, vanilla, and butter together to make the crumb topping and set aside. Use clean hands to mix this rather than trying to do it with a spoon or spatula.

Step 2: in a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, a half cup of the sour cream, vanilla, and orange or lemon zest. Set this aside. While we would usually add zest to the butter and sugar mixture when creaming them, sour cream and eggs contain enough fat to effectively carry the flavour through the cake.

Related: Lemon Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Step 3: in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to combine. We find a hand mixer perfectly adequate for this cake but you can use the paddle attachment on your stand mixer if you prefer.

Step 4: add the butter and the other half cup of sour cream to the flour mixture. Mix on medium speed with a hand mixer or standing mixer until combined and sandy looking.

Step 5: add the sour cream mixture and mix again on low until just combined. If you're worried about over-mixing, switch to a spatula once it's mostly mixed and finish by hand. Over-mixing will lead to a tough cake.

Step 6: transfer the batter to a lined 9-inch cake pan. Mix the berries with the lemon juice and flour, then top the batter in an even layer with blueberries. A little flour helps prevent the blueberries from sinking into the batter as the cake bakes.

Step 7: top with the streusel. It won't cover all of the berries, but you don't want too thick of a layer of the crumb topping. You'll see a few berries peeking through.

Step 8: bake until lightly golden, about 40 minutes. The cake will pass a toothpick test once baked.

Expert Tips for the Best Coffee Cake

• Stick to large blueberries: when we tested with fresh and frozen wild blueberries, results were a bit mixed. If you can get fresh wild blueberries, they'll be fine in this recipe. Frozen wild blueberries contained too much water, made the cake too dense, and increased the baking time by 15 minutes.
• Don't change the method: a reverse creaming method refers to the butter being mixed into the flour mixture before adding any milk, eggs, or other wet ingredients (sour cream here). This coats the dry ingredients more evenly in fat, so you get a more consistently fine crumb, exactly the goal for coffee cake.
• Cool in the baking dish: if you try to remove the cake while still warm, it has a tendency to split right down the middle. Wait for it to cool, then carefully turn it out of the pan and flip right-side up.
• Don't skip lining: the streusel topping has a tendency to burn around the edges if the baking dish isn't lined, especially when using metal dishes. It's also much easier to remove when lined.

More Blueberry Recipes

• Blueberry Clafoutis
• Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
• Vegan Blueberry Pie
• Sourdough Blueberry Scones