With juicy blueberries and soft floral notes, a Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee cake is lovely for breakfast or brunch. The toasted walnut streusel on top gives the cake a little crunch!
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Blueberries and cake! A soft and lightly sweet treat that's one of our favorite breakfast treats. It's also very nice as an afternoon snack with a strong cup of coffee!
Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Lavender and Walnut Streusel pairs the velvety flavor of blueberries with a floral touch of lavender—the two are really lovely together.
Why you'll love this recipe
Sour cream blueberry coffee cake is a recipe that's perfect as a make-ahead breakfast dish. Make it for your next family gathering, weekend breakfast, or to bring out when friends drop by!
Blueberry coffee cake batter comes together fairly quickly: mix it, bake it up, and it's done. You can make it the night before to be ready for serving the next day.
The crumb topping includes chopped, toasted walnuts that give the cake extra flavor and some crunch, too.
I love to use fresh blueberries in this cake, especially when they're in season and available from local growers. If good, fresh berries are not to be found, you can use frozen blueberries instead!
More fruity cake!
Cherry Chocolate Coffee Cake
With chocolate in every bite, it's delicious for breakfast or dessert.
New England loves, loves, loves blueberries
Summertime in New England means blueberry picking, one of my favorite things to do! Just like Sal and his mom in the classic children's book Blueberries For Sal. (Except no black bears, thank goodness!) U-pick farms across all six New England states have rows and rows of brimming blueberry shrubs to pick from July through August.
When heading out to pick (or pick up) your blueberries bring home as much as you can—that way you'll have them on hand for so many luscious recipes like this one! And you won't lose them to the hungry birds. Blueberries freeze very well and last for months.
Wild blueberries—those tiny, flavor-packed beauties also known as low-bush blueberries can also be used in this recipe. And they just happen to be the state fruit of Maine.
🔪 How to make Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Lavender and Walnut Streusel
Ingredients:
- Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens this blueberry coffee cake recipe.
- Lavender buds: Look for culinary lavender buds and make sure they're fresh. If you have lavender that's been in your pantry for awhile, it may need to be replaced.
- Flour: Use regular, all-purpose flour for this cake. My go-to flour brand is King Arthur Baking.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These leaveners help the cake rise and give it a light texture. Sour cream in the batter helps activate the baking soda.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter—this fat creates a tender crumb in the cake. It's also used to make the streusel topping.
- Eggs: Use large eggs and let them come to room temperature before adding them to the batter. Here's how to quickly warm eggs to room temperature.
- Sour cream: Use a full-fat version. Sour cream does several jobs in this recipe: it makes a tender cake, activates the baking soda, and lends a little tangy flavor.
- Blueberries: This is a great recipe for fresh-picked summer blueberries! You can also make the cake with frozen blueberries.
- Vanilla extract: Choose a good quality vanilla, like Nielsen-Massey brand.
- Brown sugar: Light brown sugar is part of the streusel topping. The molasses flavor pairs beautifully with the walnuts and the cake.
- Salt: A pinch of salt in both the cake and topping helps amplify the other flavors for a tastier cake.
- Walnuts: To bring out a deeper flavor, chopped walnuts are toasted before the go into the streusel.
Make the lavender sugar
Grind the lavender buds together with the granulated sugar in a food processor or mini chopper.
Make the batter
Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Cream the lavender sugar with butter, then add eggs and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients and the sour cream, and then add in the blueberries. Spread the batter in a long baking dish.
Make the streusel
Toast walnuts in a small skillet. Stir them together with brown sugar, flour, and melted butter. Top the cake batter with streusel topping and bake.
Cool, then slice
Let the blueberry streusel coffee cake cool for an hour or so, slice it into squares, and serve.
Tips
- Look for lavender in the bulk spice section of your grocery or health food store. If it's not available locally find it online, but be sure you're getting culinary lavender. (Not a variety meant for soap and candles!)
- If you have lavender already, smell it and make sure it's fresh - the scent should be very strong. If yours has faded, toss it and buy some new.
FAQs
Grinding the lavender with the sugar allows the spice to be dispersed finely in the berry coffee cake without the chewy lumps that you would get if the lavender buds went in whole.
Many people assume that coffee cakes are made with coffee actually in the batter. (An understandable conclusion!) However, that's almost never the case. These cakes got their name simply because they're so delicious to enjoy alongside a hot cup of coffee or tea.
Sour cream is a favorite ingredient in coffee cakes for a couple of reasons. First, it helps create a beautifully moist texture. Second, sour cream helps activate the baking soda in the batter to help the cake rise and bake up with a light texture.
If you don't have sour cream, or just don't care for it, substitute an equal amount of Greek yogurt—either plain or vanilla flavored.
It's not too late! After the sour cream coffee cake is out of the oven, spread the streusel mixture on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toast the streusel in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until it's browned and crunchy. Sprinkle the toasted streusel over the baked coffee cake.
Yes, this coffee cake freezes very well. Bake it in a foil pan and let it cool completely. Cover the surface of the coffee cake in plastic wrap, and then wrap the whole pan in aluminum foil. Store the cake in the freezer for up to three months. To thaw it, move it to the fridge and let it thaw overnight. You can serve it chilled, at room temperature, or warmed up in the oven.
The Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe is below. Here are a few other treats for breakfast, brunch, or snack:
💬 How do you like this recipe? Leave a comment below.
📖 Recipe
Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Lavender and Toasted Walnut Streusel
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Ingredients
Streusel:
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- Pinch of salt
- ¼ cup butter, unsalted
Cake batter:
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoon culinary lavender buds
- 2½ cups cake flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, unsalted and softened
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 cups blueberries
Instructions
Make the streusel:
- Toast the chopped walnuts in a small skillet over medium heat - just for a few minutes, stirring constantly until they are fragrant.
- Mix the toasted walnuts together with the ⅔ cup all-purpose flour, brown sugar and pinch of salt in a small bowl. Melt the ¼ cup of butter in a small dish in the microwave, and then stir it into the dry mixture until everything is moistened and combined.
- Hold this streusel aside.
Make the batter:
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with nonstick spray, and then flour the pan as well.
- Place the granulated sugar and lavender buds in a mini chopper or food processor. Grind them together until the lavender is thoroughly pulverized and finely dispersed in the sugar.
- Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
- Put the lavender sugar and 1 cup of butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat them together on high for about 3 minutes until the mixture is fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating after each one. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Mix in the dry ingredients, alternating with the sour cream, and scraping the sides a few times until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the blueberries. Spread this batter in the prepared baking dish.
- Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the cake batter.
Bake the cake:
- Bake the coffee cake for about 60 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the pan to a cooling rack and allow it to cool for at least an hour.
- Slice the coffee cake into 15 pieces and serve. Leftover cake can be kept tightly covered at room temperature for up to three days.
- Makes about 15 servings.
Notes
- Look for lavender in the bulk spice section of your grocery or health food store. If it's not available locally find it online, but be sure you're getting culinary lavender. (Not a variety meant for soap and candles!)
- If you have lavender already, smell it and make sure it's fresh—the scent should be very strong. If yours has faded, toss it and buy some new.
- Grinding the lavender with the sugar allows the spice to be dispersed finely in the cake without the chewy lumps that you would get if the lavender buds went in whole.
Nutrition
Christina O'Brien says
I made this coffee cake today for a ladies brunch it stole the show! Absolutely divine. The blueberries tartness coupled with the floral hint of lavender was just delicious. Will make again!
Nancy Mock says
Christina, I am thrilled that you and your friends enjoyed this cake! I love the way lavender enhances the flavor of fruit in sweets like this one. Thank you so much for sharing your feedback with me! Have a wonderful day. 😁