Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake  is a riff on cranberry breakfast cake, which is a take on rhubarb breakfast cake…which is a variation of peaches and cream breakfast cake… you get the idea. This blueberry coffee cake recipe has good bones.
This blueberry lemon cake screams welcome to spring!
Where do I start with this fabulous recipe? It’s a big fat moist buttermilk coffee cake / snack cake loaded with juicy blueberries and made with my special lemon sugar that gives it the most lovely citrus perfume. You can’t not love it 🙂
This cake bakes up nice and tall (nobody wants flat coffee cake) with a fluffy crumb.
The secret is to have your ingredients at room temperature (you can learn my hacks for doing this in a jiffy in my My Best Baking Tips for Layer Cakes post.)  Once you know these little tricks all your baking will be better.
What is lemon sugar?
I make lemon sugar by processing granulated sugar with lemon zest (peeled in strips from the lemon.) Â The result is a pale yellow sugar that is incredibly aromatic and wonderfully citrussy! You can get all the details in my How to Make Lemon Sugar post.
- No worries if you don’t have a food processor, you can just finely grate the lemon zest and mix it into the sugar.
I’ve fallen in love with the bold impact I get from Sparkling Sugar
It’s a coarse decorative sugar with big glittery crystals. I sprinkle it on before and after baking for a really pretty finish and a nice crunch. A few companies make it, so go with what you can find.
This cake is amazing warm from the oven, but you can reheat it, one piece at a time, in a microwave for leftovers. You won’t be sorry you tried this one, promise 🙂
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Blueberry Lemon Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup (224 grams) granulated sugar
- zest of 1 lemon, peeled in sprips. You want only the yellow part, not the bitter white pith.
- 1/2 cup  (1 stick or 113 g) butter at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cultured buttermilk
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- sparkling sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease and line a 9x9 inch square pan with parchment paper.
- First make the lemon sugar. Put the sugar and lemon zest into a food processor and process until the zest is completely incorporated in to the sugar and it's pale yellow and fragrant. If you don't have a processor, just finely grate the zest and mix it into the sugar.
- Cream the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy, I like to go for a full 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary. I do this in a stand mixer.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat each one well, and scrape down that bowl! Blend in the vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
- Take about a tablespoon of the flour mixture and toss with the blueberries. Then add the rest to the mixer and blend until almost incorporated. Then blend in the buttermilk, just until everything is mixed, but don't over do it. Gently fold in the blueberries.
- Spoon the dough (it will be thick) into the prepared pan and spread out evenly. Sprinkle some sparkling sugar over the surface if you're using. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it. I like to loosely cover the cake toward the end of baking to keep it from browning too much.
- I sprinkle more sparkling sugar on the cake after it comes out of the oven, and then let it cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Notes
- frozen berries can be used in place of fresh. Â Don't thaw them first, use straight from frozen. Â
- other fruit like chopped apples, or even dried cherries or cranberries can be used.
- if you don't have buttermilk you can use milk or yogurt. Â You can also make your own buttermilk substitute by adding a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to a cup of milk and letting it sit for 15 minutes before using.
- if you don't have a lemon, use vanilla extract, or the seeds of a vanilla bean.
I’ve made this several times and it has always been SO delicious! Blueberries and lemon is such a great combo, and it’s moist and wonderful for several days!
Thanks Lindy!
Would this work at muffins instead of cake?
Yes, that should work fine.
I added a crumb topping to this but the middle ended up being undercooked. Is that because of the crumb topping? The edges tasted good but I’m glad I added zest of another lemon to get more of a lemony flavor.
I didn’t see the instructions for sparking sugar? I threw on a tablespoon on top before baking. Did I miss the instructions and amount?
I sprinkle some on before and a little after, Christine, I clarified that in the recipe, thanks.
Can cake flour be used in lieu of all purpose flour?
Yes, I often use it.
Any suggestions of a substitute for the cornstarch? I usually use arrowroot, but I don’t know if it would work using given the quantity. Can’t use corn as it makes family members sick.
Thank you!
Just substitute the same amount of flour, Naomi, it’s not a problem.
This was so tasty! Growing up my family had a tradition of making coffee cake every Sunday and I’m bringing it back during this quarantine. The only variations were to use half and half with lemon juice instead of buttermilk and turbinado sugar sprinkled on top. Lemony, fruity, light and flavorful without being too sweet — in a word: perfect.
I love that tradition, it’s perfect for right now.
Hello, thank you for you excellent Recipes, I have a question about this recipe. Can I use frozen blue berries instead??
Yes, you can 🙂 Just use them from frozen, don’t defrost first.
Hi Sue
I follow several food blogs and I was a pastry chef for a few years, (witness my cookbook collection) I find myself coming back to your site for great ideas, Your recipes are accurate, well written and always delicious.
Have you considered adding a feature that would allow us to save our favorite recipes to our own recipe file on your site, much like Food 52 or NYTimes ?
Is there a cookbook coming up, I certainly hope so!
Cheers
Linda
I’ve been trying to work on that Linda, it’s such a great feature to have.
Hi Linda,
There’s an app I use called Copy Me That. It’s on my laptop & phone. I absolutely love it! Whenever you see a recipe you want to keep, like this wonderful one, you just click the Copy Me That app on your device & you can save it to it. If you have it on both your phone & device, whatever you copy will save to both. You can keep recipes in alphabetical order, & create folders for whatever you want like baking, meats, pasta, breads etc. What I really like is that since it’s in my phone, when I’m at the market & want to look up ingredients needed for a recipe, it’s right there!
Fabulous recipes here at The View From Great Island that I have saved on that app!
Sue, any idea what adjustments I should make if using sprouted spelt flour, or whole wheat flour? My stores of all-purpose flour are almost gone and that’s one of the items I can’t find anywhere currently.
Thanks!
Great question. If you want to use whole wheat flour I would use 1/4 cup less, and I would add a couple of teaspoons more liquid (buttermilk, or milk, etc.) The texture will be a little heavier due to the whole grain, but it will work.
Okey dokey, Tks.
have never had a processor but for fresh zest have a hand grater with 12 sizes grating holes. I use the peel on one of the smallest for perfect zest!
I would do same but I get my knuckles every time 😉