Whatever You’ve Got Blueberry Coffee Cake

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This moist and tender Blueberry Coffee Cake is perfect with a hot cup of coffee or tea in the mornings. It’s a flexible recipe too! In fact, this easy coffee cake can be made with buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream!

There are some recipes that you just make over-and-over. This coffee cake is one of them. In fact I’ve made it so many times that I have several variations of this recipe, each one inspired by what I happened to have in the kitchen at the time. That’s where the name of this recipe comes from: “Whatever You’ve Got Coffee Cake.” My original recipe used buttermilk, but if you don’t have that you can use sour cream or yogurt.

This is my kind of recipe. Unfussy, simple, and adaptable to what you have on hand. I don’t know about you, but when I get a hankering for coffee cake I want to get baking, not run to the grocery store!

What Makes Blueberry Coffee Cake So Good?

So there are a lot of coffee cake recipes out there. Why try this one?

• It’s EASY – This is the recipe I taught my son to bake with. When he was 6. It’s an easy coffee cake recipe that pretty much anyone can make.
• It’s Adaptable – As I’ve mentioned, there are many ways to make this coffee cake. I am including my go-to substitutions and variations below.
• It’s Quick – Not in the baking, but in the making! Back in the day when visiting other people’s houses was a thing, this is the cake I would pop in the oven when a friend texted they were coming over. It takes 10 minutes to put together.

What You’ll Need

So what’s in this coffee cake recipe? Here are the ingredients (see the recipe card below for amounts). I’ve also included notes about various substitutions I’ve tried and tested.

• All-purpose flour – I have also used a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour. I wouldn’t sub more than 1/3 of the flour with whole wheat.
• Baking powder
• Kosher salt – I always use kosher salt in my recipes. It’s too easy to over salt something with table salt.
• Buttermilk – My original recipe used buttermilk. If you don’t have that on hand you can also make your own buttermilk substitute. Other options include whole-milk yogurt, vanilla yogurt (omit the extract below), or sour cream. You could technically use soy milk as well, but I find this works best with a squeeze of lemon juice, which essentially makes it vegan buttermilk.
• Sugar
• Eggs – I am always on the lookout for recipes that use up eggs! Fellow chicken keepers, you feel me.
• Extra-virgin olive oil – Or regular olive oil, or vegetable oil, or walnut oil. You can also use melted butter or melted margarine.
• Pure vanilla extract
• Clementine zest – Or orange zest, or lemon zest.
• Blueberries – Fresh or frozen, or a mix of both. During peak berry picking season fresh is the way I go. Then in winter, I pull out all the berries we picked and froze. Frozen raspberries and blackberries also work well with this cake.

Can I Use Different Kinds of Berries?

Yes! I have made this cake with raspberries, blackberries, and black raspberries. Fresh strawberries will work too if they are sliced and blotted to remove extra moisture.

How to Make Blueberry Coffee Cake

Alright, let’s make this coffee cake. Are you ready? Here we go! It’s super easy.

• Prep your tools. Preheat your oven to 350F. Coat a springform pan with PAM or olive oil spray. I like to use a springform pan because it’s so easy to get the cake out after it has cooled.
• Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

• Prep the blueberries. If using blueberries, place them in a small bowl and toss with 1 teaspoon of the flour mixture. Set aside.

Why do we do this? Lightly tossing the blueberries with some of the flour mixture helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake. It’s not 100% foolproof and some will still sink. But if you sprinkle them evenly across the batter before baking far less will sink if they’ve been coated in flour mix first.

• Mix the wet ingredients. In another medium bowl combine the buttermilk, sugar, eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract and zest. Mix well.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until you can’t see any clumps of dry flour.
• Bake. Pour batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle blueberries on top. Bake for 45-55min, until the cake is golden brown and the sides begin to pull away from the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling.

And that’s pretty much it! No complicated steps or fussy ingredients. Once you’ve made this cake often enough you won’t even need to refer to the recipe.

Tips for Perfect Blueberry Coffee Cake

• Toss the blueberries with flour. It’s tempting to skip this step, but as I mentioned above this helps prevent all the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cake. (I mean, it’s not a big deal if they do but if you want berries throughout your cake tossing them with flour helps.)
• Keeping your cake moist. The oil in this cake helps keep it moist, so I don’t recommend subbing it with applesauce or other common alternatives.
• Can I add nuts? I don’t personally love nuts in my coffee cake, but you could add up to 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pistachios if you like.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does coffee cake have coffee in it?

Some recipes might, but this one does not.

Why is it called coffee cake?

The reason this kind of cake is called a “coffee cake” is because it is usually served with coffee, not because it has to have coffee in it.

Serving Suggestions

There are so many ways to enjoy this coffee cake. Honestly, most of the time we just cut out a slice and eat it by hand. No fork required. (Yes I know there are forks in the pictures but that was just me being fancy.)

So if you want to get fancy, here are some of our favorite ways to eat this coffee cake:

• Topped with a dollop of whipped cream. I love this whipped cream recipe with maple and vanilla.
• Dusted with confectioners sugar.
• Confectioners sugar AND topped with whipped cream. Why not? Be crazy.

On the side, this coffee cake goes so well with a Gingerbread Latte. I usually enjoy a slice with my regular morning cup of coffee. 🙂

How to Store Coffee Cake

• Counter: I usually store this coffee cake on a glass plate covered in saran wrap. It will keep on the counter for 2-3 days like this.
• Fridge: If you want to extend its shelf life slightly, you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-6 days. Be sure it is well covered or the cake will dry out.

Can I Freeze It?

Yes! I usually freeze individual slices of this cake. To do this, let the cake cool to room temperature, then slice it and wrap each slice in saran wrap. Place the wrapped slices in an air-tight, freezer-safe container. They will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Thaw overnight in the fridge or on the counter for an hour or so when you want to enjoy a slice. You can also zap a slice for about 30-45 seconds in the microwave without the saran wrap.

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More Breakfast Ideas

• Easy Popovers Recipe
• Fluffy Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
• Apple Coffee Cake