I did a bad thing. I’m trying to be all good and healthy, but I accidentally made this Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake this morning. Oops. Sorry (not sorry).
This big, fluffy coffee cake is studded with sweet blueberries and topped with a crunchy cinnamon streusel topping. It comes together surprisingly quick, so it would make a nice treat for a slow weekend morning. It’s the little things in life that make it good. :)
Can I Substitute the Buttermilk?
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a substitute by adding 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to each cup of milk. That substitute will function like buttermilk, but if you want true buttermilk flavor, I suggest using actual buttermilk. But don’t worry, you don’t have to waste a whole bottle of buttermilk just to make this recipe.
How to Use Leftover Buttermilk
You can freeze buttermilk! Pour the buttermilk into an ice cube tray, freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer bag for long term storage. This way you can thaw a few cubes out at a time to use in various recipes without wasting a whole bottle each time! This trick is an absolute lifesaver for anyone who loves the authentic flavor of buttermilk (hi, ME) and doesn’t want to resort to the milk and lemon juice trick.
Can I Freeze Coffee Cake?
Yes! Baked goods are one of those things that freeze surprisingly well. Let the coffee cake cool completely, then wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap and place all the wrapped pieces in a gallon size freezer bag. When you’re ready to eat your decadent Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake, just take however many pieces out you want and let them thaw on the countertop, or microwave for a few seconds until warmed through.
…And that’s exactly what I need to go do right now before I do eat the whole cake. 😜
Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Servings 8Ingredients
STREUSEL TOPPING
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour ($0.04)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp softened butter ($0.18)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon ($0.05)
COFFEE CAKE
- 2 cups all-purpose flour ($0.33)
- 1 Tbsp baking powder ($0.24)
- 3/4 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- 1/4 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1/2 cup white sugar ($0.16)
- 2 large eggs ($0.55)
- 1 cup buttermilk ($0.60)
- 1/4 cup melted butter ($0.36)
- 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen or fresh) ($0.60)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In a small bowl, combine the ingredients for the streusel topping (flour, brown sugar, softened butter, and cinnamon) until they create a uniform, crumbly topping. Set the topping aside.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for the coffee cake batter. In a separate bowl, whisk together the white sugar, eggs, buttermilk, and melted butter until smooth. Pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, and stir just until a thick, fluffy batter forms (do not over stir).
- Coat an 8×8 inch baking dish (or similar size) with nonstick spray. Spread the batter into the dish. Sprinkle the blueberries over top, then push them down into the batter with your fingers. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top.
- Bake the coffee cake in the fully preheated 350ºF oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Slice into eight pieces, then serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare the cinnamon streusel topping first, so it’s ready to go when needed. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp softened butter, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. (the amounts for the streusel in the photos are double, but I ended up having way more than needed and only used 1/2 of the batch on the coffee cake. I froze the rest).
Stir the streusel topping ingredients until they form a crumbly mixture. Set the topping aside.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 Tbsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt. Make sure they’re very well mixed.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 large eggs, and 1/4 cup melted butter (4 Tbsp). Whisk until smooth.
Now pour those wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients.
Stir just until you have a thick and fluffy batter. Do not over stir the batter. It may still look a little lumpy, just make sure all the dry flour is mixed in.
Coat the inside of an 8×8 inch baking dish, or similar sized dish, with non-stick spray. Spread the batter evenly inside the dish. Sprinkle 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries over the batter, then push them down in with your fingers.
Sprinkle that cinnamon streusel topping over the batter. It doesn’t need to cover the batter in a solid layer.
Bake the Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown…
Like this! Perfect. Now you can slice it into eight pieces and serve with your favorite coffee or tea.
. If you DO decide to freeze the extra pieces of your Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake, make sure they are COMPLETELY cool before wrapping them in plastic. Enjoy!
Zoe says, “I can haz coffee cake? Trade you some cuddles…”
Oh, and I also doubled the amount of blueberries too, which I recommend. Used frozen, straight from the freezer.
Delicious recipe and a fast coffee cake to make on a Sunday morning. Per other comments I did change the baking powder from 1 TBsp to 1 tsp–that must be a typo as my coffee cake was well risen and browned with lower amount. I also doubled the crumb topping and subbed half of the flour with finely chopped pecans. And added vanilla to the wet ingredients.
Next time I will modify the recipe to use less bowls: melt butter in large bowl in microwave, add rest of wet ingredients plus sugar. Sift dry ingredients over wet and gently stir. Fold in blueberries (because all of my blueberries ended up on top and interfered–although still delicious–with the crumb topping).
The batter swallowed up the streusel and it looks a huge mess. Wish I could share a picture
I followed the recipe to the letter except used 1 cup of blueberries. It’s in an 8″ round fluted cake pan. Baking at 350. 60 minutes so far and knife still comes out raw batter. New oven, temp is correct. 😬😢
as written, this comes out a bit bland and under blueberried. its a great base recipe though, and ive made it a ton of times with easy tweaks. so while its not my idea of a five star you-need-to-make-this-recipe, its still one i reach for because it comes together quickly and can be adapted well. heres how i adjust it: add vanilla with the wet mix (measure with my heart, probably a tsp or two), double the blueberries to a cup (half added in the dry mix before combining with wet mix, half on top like the original recipe, and double the streusel. usually i just do the double streusel on top, but right now im testing it as a layer in the middle by adding half the batter, half the streusel, other half of the batter, reserved blueberries, and finally last half of strusel. i think itll turn out nicely! its also in a loaf pan because somehow all my usual suspects for baking are full of stuff in the fridge, so we will see if that was a bad choice or not hah!
This is an excellent cake. I baked it in a 9-inch round cake mold, the quantity and the timing were perfect. I am in Europe, so I baked it at 165 Celsius, fan program, for ~45 minutes.
Like other people, I added vanilla and 1 cup instead of 1/2 cup of blueberries and was very satisfied with the result. The cake is not too sweet, which I really appreciate, and comes together really quickly. We will certainly be having this again.
While this looked visually appealing, the flavor was bland and needed more moisture. If I make this again, I will add some vanilla to the batter, along with doubling the melted butter.
To die for!! I totally loved this recipe and devoured most of this by myself this week! I used gluten flour and added 1 tsp of xanthum gum. I opted for the lemon juice instead of buttermilk (that’s just what I had at home), and used fresh blueberries. Fantastic!! Definitely will be making this one again.
budgetbytes I am loving it
love your blueberries method
This looks amazing. If I needed this to be gluten free, could I just substitute bobs red mill gf 1 to 1 baking flour – and if so would I need to adjust the amounts?
Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with that type of flour so I can’t offer a recommendation.
I’d never made coffee cake before– followed this recipe exactly as the instructions say and it came out AMAZING. The only adjustment I make now when I make it again is I add more blueberries :)
i made this with oat milk & lemon juice instead of buttermilk and it turned out beautifully!
***question: if i wanted to make this in a 9×13 pan instead of 8×8, should i multiply the recipe by 1.5 or 2? how much should i extend the baking time?
Hmm, both of those questions are tough to guestimate, I’d need to test them first before feeling comfortable offering a suggestion.
Double the recipe for a 9×13. Use a skewer to test for doness
it was wonderful. everyone loved it, husband & friends True to my cooking style I cut the sugar in half for the cake & used brown sugar.
All was good. Happy 4th of July
Great idea for the summer. I bet this would taste great with a Granny Smith apples 🍏 as well. It tastes amazing.