High Altitude Blueberry Buckle Coffee Cake

An abundance of fresh, plump, juicy blueberries is one of the simple pleasures of summer. I love to eat them plain or with yogurt, scattered over oatmeal or pancakes, and baked into pies with flaky, all-butter pastry crust. Big, bakery-style blueberry muffins with crunchy tops are high on my list of favorites for weekend breakfasts. Also a favorite are coffee cakes. And this high altitude blueberry buckle coffee cake is just what I was craving this summer. Tender cake that’s soft and moist, with blueberries bursting in every bite. And buttery cinnamon streusel. Everything is better with streusel.

Looking for more blueberry recipes? You’ll love these brown butter blueberry crumb bars, vanilla bean cheesecake with blueberry compote, and blueberry crumb pie.

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Is it a Buckle or a Coffee Cake?

A buckle consists of fruit and cake baked together, with a streusel crumb topping. As the cake bakes, the fruit throughout causes the cake to “buckle”, hence the name. It’s really very similar to a coffee cake.

A coffee cake is not a cake that has coffee as one of the ingredients, and it may or may not contain fruit. It’s a cake that’s typically served for breakfast, intended to be eaten with coffee. You will also usually find streusel topping on coffee cakes. So if you want to call this blueberry buckle a blueberry coffee cake, I wouldn’t argue with you.

Ingredients

Streusel Topping

• Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the crumb topping. You could use light brown sugar, too.
• Flour. All-purpose flour gives the topping structure.
• Cinnamon. Some spice complements the flavor of the blueberries.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Butter. Binds the crumbs together and makes it crisp and crumbly.

Cake Batter

• Flour. Plain all-purpose flour gives the cake structure and strength.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cake so it rises as it bakes.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Nutmeg. Flavor.
• Milk + Sour Cream. Whole milk and sour cream adds moisture, richness and acidity for a tender cake crumb.
• Vanilla + Almond Extracts. Flavor.
• Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture.
• Butter. Adds moisture and gives the cake a buttery flavor.
• Egg. Adds structure and binds the batter together.
• Blueberries. Fresh blueberries are best for baking, so they don’t turn the batter green like frozen blueberries tend to do.

Instructions

Streusel

• Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a 9×9 baking pan with non-stick spray.
• In a bowl, combine all the streusel ingredients, using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until coarse and crumbly. Set aside.

Cake

• In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In another bowl, combine the milk, sour cream and extracts. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, melted butter and egg, whisking vigorously for about 1 minute. Using a spatula, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour. The batter will be very thick, and it’s better to have a few streaks of flour left than to over-mix. Fold in the blueberries.
• Spread the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle with the streusel topping.
• Bake on the center oven rack for about 45 minutes, until a cake tester in the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack for about 30 minutes, then serve warm.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a high altitude recipe?

Yes, I test and bake all my recipes at Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. High altitude bakers need to make a few adjustments to ensure that our cakes and baked goods turn out perfectly. Some of these adjustments include: increasing the flour, decreasing the sugar, increasing the liquid, and decreasing the leavening. If you bake a cake written for and tested at sea level without making any adjustments, your cake will likely sink, and have a dense, gummy texture. Not good!

And although this contains a little more flour, and it’s a very thick batter, don’t concern yourself that it will be a dry cake! Butter, milk and sour cream (not to mention all those blueberries) keeps it moist, tender and delicious. I also added a little nutmeg and almond extract to my cake batter, just for more flavor, but those ingredients are optional.

Should I use fresh or frozen blueberries?

While fresh blueberries are abundant and inexpensive in the summer, I prefer to only use fresh blueberries in baked goods, as much as possible. I always have a couple of big bags of frozen blueberries on hand, though, and I love thawing them out to eat for breakfast with a big spoonful of Greek yogurt. Frozen berries are also great for pies and cobblers.

With baked goods, though, using frozen blueberries presents a few challenges. If you add them to your batter completely frozen, it will make the batter far too cold and can really mess up how well the batter bakes. So, those blueberries need to be thawed out a little. But when frozen blueberries thaw, all those ice crystals on the berries turn to juice, which in turn, colors your batter as they’re mixed in, usually to an unappealing grayish-green shade.

The solution to this is to rinse and pat dry your frozen berries. Rinsing under lukewarm water until the water runs clear will remove those ice crystals and thaw the berries. Then, you should pat them dry, and toss them with a little flour before gently folding them into your batter to avoid any discoloration.

Can I make this coffee cake the night before?

I’m a big fan of saving time in the morning, especially since I have hungry little boys waiting for breakfast. Since this cake takes 45 minutes to bake, I like to prep as much as I can the night before. This usually means I’m measuring all my ingredients ahead of time, maybe even going so far as to have my separate bowls of dry and liquid ingredients all ready to go, depending on the recipe, that I can just mix together in the morning.

But 45 minutes is still a long time to wait, so to avoid getting up early, I simply baked my cake the night before, and covered it loosely. The next morning, when everyone was hungry, our coffee cake was ready, and I had gotten to sleep in. It was just as soft, tender and moist, with crisp, crumbly streusel topping, as if I’d baked it that morning. And for that warm, fresh-from-the-oven texture, I like to individually warm slices for 15-20 seconds in the microwave.

Can this recipe be doubled?

Yes, you can double the recipe and bake it in a 9×13 pan. Bake for a little longer and test the center for doneness.

How long does this cake stay fresh?

Store leftover coffee cake in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or refrigerate for up to 5 days.

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