Blueberry Coffee Cake with Lemon Glaze

Cake for breakfast, you say? I’m never not on board. We are big brunch fans in this family, and I typically host on Sundays. I love to bake something early Sunday morning and have it ready for when people come over. We will always have something hot and savory as well, but at my table, we eat the sweets first. And last. Don’t judge.

This is a tender and delicious cake that is so good when eaten warm. Don’t be surprised when there aren’t any leftovers. If blueberries aren’t your fave, or you have something else on hand, feel free to sub cranberries, chopped up strawberries, cherries. Fresh is best here, but if you use anything frozen, thaw beforehand.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup, (1 stick), unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup fine almond flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup whole milk, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp fresh lemon juice (optional)

Blueberry filling:

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 light brown sugar

Zest of one lemon

Lemon glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 TBS heavy cream or whole milk (add more as needed)

1-2 tsp lemon juice

This cake makes an 8x8 square or 8” round.

Grease your baking dish and line with parchment. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare blueberry filling:

Put the 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small bowl. Zest the lemon over the sugar and then use your fingers to mix them together well. This really brings out the lemon flavor into the sugar.

In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the blade, pulse the blueberries with the brown sugar, just until roughly chopped. Don’t over process, some chunks are good. Set aside.

Chop the stick of butter into small chunks and add it to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Add both sugars to the bowl. Whisk on medium high until light colored and fully combined. About 3 minutes.

While the butter is mixing, in a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Scrape down the mixing bowl and add the eggs one at a time with the mixer on low. Stop to scape the bowl as needed. Make sure to beat in each egg for about one minute before adding the next. After the last egg, beat on high for one minute.

Pour the milk into a large measuring cup and add the vanilla, almond extract and lemon juice.

Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and beat on low for 30 seconds. While the mixer is running on low speed, slowly stream in milk. Beat on low just until combined. Don’t overmix. Scrape down the whisk and the bottom of the bowl. Turn the mixer on low for 30 seconds longer just to make sure batter is fully combined.

Spread a third of the batter into the bottom of the baking dish. Then spoon half of the blueberry mixture over top. Gently spread another third of batter over the blueberry mixture. Use an offset spatula to get an even layer. Then top with remaining blueberries. Pour the rest of the batter on top, covering the berries as much as possible, but doesn’t need to be perfect. Place in the oven to bake. 35-45 minutes, until golden brown. Check the center with a cake tester, moist crumbs are fine, uncooked goo is not. Once it’s baked, remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan.

While the cake is cooling, mix up the glaze.

Place the cake on a serving plate, and once it’s no longer hot to the touch, pour the glaze over the top. If it’s too hot, the glaze will melt off. Eat soon because...warm blueberries. Cue the drool.