Glazed Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake — The BEST blueberry coffee cake you’ll ever make! The blueberries are juicy, abundant, and make this cake taste like one big, soft, moist blueberry muffin!
Easy Blueberry Coffee Cake Recipe
There’s something about a good old-fashioned coffee cake that I love. And this one is easier than going to the store and bringing home an Entenmann’s.
If you’re in need of an easy cake for breakfast, brunch, a shower, gathering, or just want to whip up a cake on Tuesday, just because, this is the one. The batter comes together in 10 minutes, it bakes for 30, and you can therefore be eating blueberry buttermilk coffee cake within the hour if you start now.
It’s sweet, soft, moist and loaded with blueberries. Underneath the blueberries, there’s a swirly pattern of jam, which adds another burst of berry flavor.
The cake is far better than the photos do it justice. And in reading the recipe you’ll think so what, another coffeecake, it happens to have blueberries in it. Big deal.
But I promise you, this one is different. Simple, real ingredients combined in such a way that the best of everything shines. The result is a cake that’s far greater than the sum of it’s individual parts.
It’s by far the best blueberry coffeecake I’ve ever had. And ranks right up there for coffee cakes in general. I can’t think of any that top it.
The berries are abundant, juicy, and make this cake taste like a big blueberry muffin.
I reminded my 6-year-old that blueberries stain and to please be careful while she was eating it. And she said, “Well it’s kind of hard, Mom, because these blueberries keep jumping out at me.”
What’s in the Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake?
To make this blueberry breakfast recipe, you’ll need:
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Egg
- Buttermilk
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Blueberries
- Jam
How to Make Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
I used my stand mixer, or use a large mixing bowl and hand mixer, and combine the dry ingredients and mix them momentarily.
Add the wet ingredients and beat for a couple minutes until smooth. Turn the batter out into a cake pan, dollop on your favorite jam, and swirl it around.
Sprinkle the cup of blueberries and it’ll seem like a ridiculous amount, covering every last inch of batter space, but they settle in while baking. And really, there’s no such a thing as too many blueberries. The more, the berrier.
Can I Use Frozen Blueberries?
Yes! I used frozen blueberries and if using frozen, keep them unthawed. Add them straight from the freezer bag and into the cake, frozen.
Frozen berries run and bleed less than if thawed. You could use fresh, but frankly I’m cheap and bake with frozen and save my fresh for snacking.
Can I Use Different Berries?
Go for it! If you have frozen strawberries, fresh peaches, seasonal plums, past-their-prime grapes, I can envision many kinds of fruit being easily substituted for the blueberries.
Can the Buttermilk Be Omitted?
The buttermilk and butter lend a light buttery taste, with vanilla peeking through.
I almost used oil in the batter because it tends to produce moister cakes, but wanted buttery flavor and went with butter, knowing the buttermilk was my secret agent to keep it soft, tender, and moist.
If you don’t normally keep buttermilk on hand, you can make it in 10 minutes with a tablespoon or two of lemon juice or vinegar to one cup of regular milk.
Tips for Making Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
I turned my oven down to 375F in the last 5 minutes of baking because the edges were getting a little too browned for my liking before the center had fully set; watch your cake in the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking and turn down oven if necessary, or tent with foil.
Feel free to omit the glaze, but I like the little extra touch of a glaze on my coffee cake. The buttery, vanilla tones in the glaze bring them out in the cake, too.
I stored my blueberry buttermilk coffee cake at room temperature. However, you’re welcome to store it in an airtight container in the fridge if you’re not comfortable leaving the glaze out.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Glazed Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the Coffee Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries, if using frozen, keep them unthawed and add them frozen
- about 1/3 cup jam, use your favorite flavor, blueberry is best
- 3 tablespoons sugar, for sprinkling (I used 1 tablespoon turbinado and 2 tablespoons granulated)
For the Glaze
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- about 1 cup+ confectioners’ sugar, sift if it’s particularly lumpy
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Coffee Cake
- Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl and hand mixer), add the flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and mix momentarily to incorporate.
- Add the egg, buttermilk, 1/4 cup butter, vanilla, and beat for 1 minute on medium-low speed. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat for 1 minute on medium speed.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan.
- Using a spoon, dollop the jam over the batter surface in teaspoon-sized mounds, making about 15 mounds (doesn’t have to be precise; some jam blobs will be bigger than others and that’s fine). Using a table knife, lightly marble the jelly into the top surface of the batter, going up and back in a zigzag pattern a couple times.
- Sprinkle blueberries evenly over the batter (it looks like a ton). Sprinkle evenly with 3 tablespoons sugar over the blueberries.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until center is set and not jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs dangling, but no batter. Note – I turned my oven down to 375F in the last 5 minutes of baking because the edges were getting a little too browned for my liking before the center had fully set; watch your cake in the last 5 to 10 minutes of baking and turn down oven if necessary, or tent with foil.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire wrack to cool completely (I invert it onto a cutting board, then slide it off the cutting board and onto the rack with the blueberry side up).
- While the cake cools, make the glaze.
Glaze
- Melt the butter in a small, microwave-safe bowl, about 45 seconds.
- Add about 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla, and whisk to combine. Continue adding sugar and whisking until smooth and desired glaze consistency is reached. If you accidentally make it too thick, adding a tiny splash of milk or cream will thin it out.
- Drizzle glaze over cake in big ribbons, going up and back, over the surface (the photos show the glaze much skimpier because I wanted the blueberries to be visible, but I used all the glaze after the photos were completed).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Easy Coffee Cake Recipes:
Buttery Coffee Crumb Cake — This coffee crumb cake recipe couldn’t be easier to make! It’s made with boxed yellow cake mix, which is used in both the batter and the crumble topping.
Pumpkin Coffee Cake — A FAST and EASY no-mixer pumpkin coffee cake with rich pumpkin flavor!! Super soft, tender, and topped with the BEST crumble topping that you’ll fall in love with! Great for brunches and holiday entertaining!!
Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake — An EASY, no-mixer cake studded with juicy blueberries and topped with big buttery streusel nuggets that are just SO GOOD!! Not overly sweet and PERFECT with a cup of coffee for breakfast, brunch, or a snack!!
Cinnamon Coffee Cake — Between the cinnamon-sugar crust AND the cinnamon-sugar swirled through the center, this EASY coffee cake is IRRESISTIBLE!! Soft, fluffy, light, and of course it’s perfect with coffee!!
Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake — A very fast and straightforward cinnamon coffee cake to make and isn’t fussy at all. It’s moist, dense, and way easier to make than actual cinnamon rolls!
Strawberry Coffee Cake — Sweet, juicy strawberries are found in every bite, and the cream cheese glaze is the perfect tangy complement to the creamy, sweet cake.
Made this cake today, quick, easy and delicious with some whipped cream.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Hi, Averie! My husband and I love your recipes! We searched for years and spent a lot of time adjusting our cookie recipes to perfection. After all that work and being close, we gave your oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and many of your others a try and have used them time and time again with no alterations.
I’m making this recipe over the weekend and wondered what your thoughts would be on adding a crumb topping? Also, how essential is the buttermilk?
Thanks for trying the cookie recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
For the coffee cake the buttermilk is key and you could add a crumb topping but honestly with the jam, there’s already enough going on and I think the crumb would take away from the jam (and vice versa) so I’d just make as is and look over my https://www.averiecooks.com/category/dessert/cake recipes for things with a crumb topping if you want to go that route on another day. Enjoy!
LOVE LOVE this. Already reviewed. Averie, how do you soften leftover glaze?
Zap it in the micro for a couple seconds! Glad you love love this cake!
Thanks!
I was disappointed, the toothpick came out clean after 25 minutes, when I turned it out the bottom was completely uncooked, I was expecting guests so put what I could salvage in aluminum foil and in the oven at 350 degrees until done. Served it with ice cream and it was OK but would never make it again, too many fluids for 1 cup of flour. First time I’ve had a failure using a recipe online.
I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you. Many others have had very good luck with the recipe. Maybe your jam was moister, your blueberries juicier, your climate more humid, your oven cooler – who knows – I would simply bake for a longer duration next time. I’ve never found the need for more than 1c of flour. That would render the cake too tough and dense for my liking.
I LOVE coffee cake, but the PNW doesn’t seem to have the same “coffee cake” culture that I grew up in in the Midwest and therefore good coffee cakes can be hard to come by in stores.
So, I’ve been making my own coffee cakes these past few years! Alas, most come out too dry or too flavorless or “too something”. I discovered your recipe (and your site) and I gave your recipe a try this past weekend.
SO!! GOOD!! I ate half of it within 30 minutes of it coming out of the oven, haha.
I followed your recipe to the T, and I even made the glaze (and boy am I glad I did, the crusty glazed top is the best part of the cake!). I don’t know what to make next, everything on your site looks so delicious!!
YUMMMMM!!!
Well I grew up in MN and am very familiar with the kind of coffee cake you probably like – cakes like this one! I’ve lived in San Diego for 10 years but I will never tire of good old fashioned coffee cakes. Most are way too dry, flavorless, boring, and basically just not worth the calories for something so lackluster!
LMK what you try next!
This is the first recipe I’ve made of yours, but it won’t be my last. This cake was DELICIOUS! I really had to use some self control not to eat the whole thing! Thanks for a great recipe.
Thanks for trying the recipe & glad you’re loving! Glad to hear you’ll make others, too!
I just made this- made two, actually, and the recipe doubles well. I read others’ comments about jam falling and sticking to the bottom of the pan- so I cut rounds of parchment for the pans the way you do for traditional cakes. I ran a knife around the edges and they slipped out perfectly! That way I didn’t have to worry about the size of my jam dollops (too much jam should always be a good thing). Great recipe, super moist and tasty, i’ll be using this one again. Thanks!
too much jam should always be a good thing = I love the way you think!
And glad your parchment lining worked well for you and that this recipe is a keeper for you!
This tasted great! I changed it up a little bit i added 2 cups of blueberries and added 2 tbs of fresh squeezed lemon juice to the icing. I guess my drops of jam where too big because the sank to the bottom and just made it harder to get out of the pan and wet. I will omit it next time. I can’t wait to make it again! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe.
Yes you have to keep the jam small or it will sink. Marble, pea-sized amounts, not big blogs or the laws of gravity just take over. Glad you loved it though!
This cake does look amazing Averie! can’t wait to see you this weekend :)
You have no idea. Cannot WAIT to see you too! :)
xoxo
This blueberry buttermilk cake looks incredible! I can’t get enough blueberry and blueberry recipes this time of year! I’m including this recipe in a roundup of Weight Watchers friendly recipes I bookmarked this week which will go live Sunday. Thanks!!
Oh sounds like a fun roundup – I love blueberries, so much, too!
These are THE BEST MUFFINS I have ever made or eaten. They just happen to be super healthy & vegan too https://www.averiecooks.com/the-best-vegan-blueberry-muffins/