September 10, 2004
Blueberry Coffee Cake
[Coffee cake à la myrtille]
At La Pommeraie, the fruit farm where we picked a large amount of blueberries earlier this week, they gave out little leaflets about the different kinds of fruit they grow, giving out instructions on how to keep them, and a few, wonderfully straightforward recipes -- tarts and compotes, clafoutis and jams. This is how I learned that in fact, you should let blueberries sit for a couple of days somewhere cool for them to develop their full flavor -- who would have thought?
The number one priority with our crop of blueberries was a tarte aux myrtilles, and number two was this coffee cake. This is my favorite cake recipe, with its particularly moist cake base and deliciously crunchy top. The original recipe called for a plain batter with a walnut and cinnamon topping, but I have found it to be very versatile and have made many successful variations, using chocolate chips and candied chestnuts, white chocolate and coconut, apricots, or here, blueberries.
It's a wonderful cake for anytime of the day, breakfast, brunch, dessert or tea. In fact, I am seriously considering going on a blueberry-coffee-cake diet. Only -- how would cheese fit in?
Oh and by the way, does anyone have the recipe to Hobee's famous and fabulous blueberry coffeecake?
Blueberry Coffee Cake
- 200g (1 2/3 cup) flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- a good pinch salt
- 115g (1 stick) butter, diced, at room temperature
- 200g (1 cup) white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 240ml (1 cup) plain yogurt or fromage blanc or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 500g (3 cups) blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw)
- 40g (1/4 cup) brown sugar
Preheat your oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease a 22-cm (9-inch) cake pan, preferably nonstick with a removable bottom.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a food processor, mix together the butter and white sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add the yogurt and vanilla, and mix again. Add the flour mixture, and mix again until just combined.
Pour half of the cake batter in the cake pan. Pour half the blueberries over the surface. Cover with the rest of the batter, top with the remaining blueberries, and sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar.
Bake for an hour, until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack, let stand in the pan for ten minutes, then unclasp the sides of the pan and let cool completely before serving.
 Apricot Blueberry Cobbler |
 Almond Cake with Blueberry Coulis |
 Blueberry Oat Bran Muffins |
Never miss a recipe!
Sign up for the Chocolate & Zucchini newsletter to receive monthly news.
Print me! | 
French version | 
Comments ()
Permalink | Posted by in Cakes & Desserts - Recipe Inside! - [favorites]
Wondering about the profile images that appear for some commenters? Get your own gravatar today!
Looks completely scrumptious! I too have been enjoying country wild food and foraging this summer. Nothing beats the flavours. However what is with that fridge wisdom... letting fruit sit to DEVELOP flavour in a FRIDGE? I thought everything lost its flavour in the fridge. Hmmm.
That cake looks divine! You've got me totally craving Hobee's now! So funny, haven't lived in the Bay Area for 10 years but I still wake up wanting to go to Hobee's for breakfast sometimes!
HOBEE'S COFFEE CAKE
COFFEE-CAKE-2 - Coffee cake from Hobee's Haven restaurant
"Hobee's Haven" here in Silicon Valley (usually just called
``Hobee's'') serves a lot of brunch food, and as far as I
can tell they always include a piece of their coffee cake
with each order. Frankly, I don't care for breakfast, nor
do I approve of places at which the only kind of tea you can
order reeks of orange and cinammon ... but the coffee cake
is pretty good. This is their recipe, printed in an
advertising flyer for the shopping center they inhabit; it's
quite easy.
INGREDIENTS (serves 4)
CAKE
150 g sifted unbleached flour
200 g granulated sugar
10 ml baking powder
2.5 ml baking soda
1 ml salt
2 eggs
25 cl sour cream
2.5 ml vanilla
40 g fresh blueberries, (or other fruit, or nuts such
as walnuts), optional
vegetable oil
TOPPING
60 g granulated sugar
30 g butter
2.5 ml cinammon
PROCEDURE
(1) Preheat oven to 175 deg. C.
(2) In a large mixing bowl, sift flour with baking
power, baking soda, salt, and 200 g of sugar.
(3) In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sour
cream, and vanilla.
(4) Add egg mixture to flour mixture and beat until
smooth.
(5) Oil a 22-cm square baking pan (you can also use an
20-cm square pan, or anything of similar surface
area, if you increase the baking time by about 5
minutes).
(6) Spread the batter in the pan. If you are using
fruit or nuts, scatter them over the batter and
stir a little bit so that they stay in the top
layer.
(7) In a small bowl, mix 60 g sugar with the butter
and cinammon with a sturdy fork, until they are
blended and resemble cornmeal (i.e., you should
have a mixture of fine crumbs, not a smooth mix-
ture).
(8) Sprinkle topping over batter.
(9) Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a clean toothpick
inserted in the center of the cake comes out dry.
(10) Cool slightly; serve warm or at room temperature.
Don't ruin it by serving it with salted butter.
NOTES
All ingredients and bowls should be a room temperature
before you start; this is particularly true for the butter.
RATING
Difficulty: easy. Time: 10-15 minutes preparation, 20-30
minutes baking. Precision: measure the ingredients.
Hmm...Hobees coffecake...I also love their omlettes. If I remember right, the Cardinal was my favorite...
Hello Clotilde, I am a huge fan of your site and when I find myself craving something special, I print off a few of your recipies and spend my weekends in the kitchen baking. I am going to be in Paris on Vacation at the end of September and was wondering if you can recommend any great farmers markets, bakeries or restaurants I MUST visit. I would love to get an insiders guide to all things edible in Paris.
Thanks again for the great site and the great recipies.
-E
This little gem, I'll be making. Oh yes. Blueberries are the best.
Your blog is EXCELENT.
The designs, de colours, the pictures, the content in itself. Congratulations.
Clotilde,
How on earth do you have time to write and post such gorgeous stuff nearly everyday?? You travel, cook, research, write, photograph and then post it all to this incredible website. You are a dynamo!
Well, now I have a dilemma: which of these blueberry cakes to bake first? Clotilde, this is another one going into my file of recipes to try (many of which already have "from C&Z" in their filenames). Yum.
Clotilde, this cake looks amazingly good!!
I really enjoy your cooking blog! I love to cook and just like you turned 25 this year!
This is my first time posting here, but I frequently visit your blog, your recipes look soooo good!
I simply love cakes, not only eating but even more baking them. I loved the picture of your coffee cake!
The blueberry season is over here in the US, but apple season have just started. I love apple everything, specially cooked in cakes and pies. Do you think this might work with apples?
My e-mail: anacardia@nc.rr.com
Thanks for such nice website and wonderful pictures!!
Clotilde, the recipe looks great! How much baking soda is needed? The recipe doesn't say. Thanks!!
There must be blueberry-pheromones in the air - or maybe it's just blueberry season? - I made a Blueberry Tea Cake the other night! Your Coffee Cake version looks delightfully fruity - and fruit of the very best kind, hand-picked and everything. You are indeed a lucky girl!
All - I'm delighted the recipe appeals to you! And thanks a lot for the kind comments about the blog...
Robert - Many thanks for digging out this recipe, I'll give it a try!
Jennifer - Sorry, miscalculated cut-and-paste. I made it with no baking soda this time so I removed it from the ingredients list, but not from the recipe steps. Ooops. The original recipe had you use 1/2 tsp of baking soda...
This feels like it may be sacrilege to ask, but a friend sent me to this website (because I have recently moved to Michigan, one of the blueberry capitals of the world) and this is my first time here. Here's my question: Any advice on converting the recipe into the non-metric "English" system? Thanks.
Erich - You may want to look at the Paris City Guide category archive (see "Archives by Category" on the left) for some of my favorite addresses...
Ana Cardia - I'm sure this would work perfectly with apples. Let me know how it turns out if you try it!
Deana - No sacrilege at all, the different measure systems are a real headache. If you look in the "Features" section up on the left-hand corner, you'll find a link to a "Conversions" section I've put together. Hope that helps!
Hi Clotilde,
I'm a frequent visitor to your lovely site and often refer you to friends (see Deana above). I've had great success with baking some of your recipes, and have a question about this one. I've actually made the blueberry coffeecake--it's in the oven now. But I'm wondering about the amount of yogurt--you have 2 cups listed in the ingredients, but you refer to "the yogurts" in your instructions and in a prior baking recipe (gateau au yaourt) you mentioned using the little individual yogurt pots, which in Europe are 4oz each, so your "2 cups" might actually be only 8 oz. or 1 cup non-metric. I used one cup and it was quite wet a batter (or seemed to be. We shall see when it comes out in 20 minutes...). Thank you for your help, and for the site!
Karen - Ouch ouch ouch! The 2 cups vs. 1 cup mistake was corrected just a few hours after posting (it dawned on me all of a sudden as I was doing something entirely unrelated, that one pot of yogurt was a half-cup, not a full cup, so that 2 yogurts were one cup, not two), you must have caught the recipe during that time, so glad you were enough of an experienced baker to make that correction yourself from the look of the batter. Hope you enjoyed the coffeecake, let me know how it turned out!
Lovely, it turned out just lovely. I used organic frozen blueberries (sigh, no fresh ones at my local grocery store) and it took 2 hours to bake through but when it was done it was so worth it. I also added toasted, chopped walnuts on top. I like that it isn't too sweet, which adds to its potential for versatility, I think. It was very nice paired with a cup of English Breakfast tea. Thank you!
Hi Clotilde. I love your blog. I'm thinking of making this blueberry cake. On your recipe you don't have baking soda but you mentioned also that original recipe calls for 1/2 tsp baking soda. Which is better, w/ or w/o baking soda? Thanks. cant wait to taste the cake....
Hi Clotilde,
I hope you don't mind me linking you on my virgin attempt at food blogging @ babyhippobakes.diary-x.com
In fact, the first entry was a variation of your Blueberry Coffee Cake! =)
Hope you think well of it! Cheers.
I made this blueberry cake this weekend. It was absolutely delicious!! I can't wait to try it with fresh raspberrries, or blackberries, or cranberries, or apples with cinnamon, or . . .
I made this blueberry coffee cake the other day, and it turned out fantastic! Unfortunatly I had to part with it since I made it for my husband to bring with him on a trip, but I was clever enough to make a "sample" as a cupcake. It tasted heavenly! Thanks for sharing this recipe :-)
I too made your blueberry coffee cake, and my housemates now think I am a culinary god. If any other Americans happen to read this far down in the comments, use 1 stick butter, approx. 1 2/3c. each flour and sugar, and judge the brown sugar quantity by eye. The final consistency was perfect. Thanks!
Hi.clotilde... I have a small food procesor can I use hand held mixer instead... will it make the different... thank you for your blog,,,, it's wonderful...
Suvarie - No problem at all, you can use a handheld mixer, or even mix the batter by hand...
All - So happy this recipe worked well for your too, it's one of my staples!
I just want to add my voice to the choir... I made this cake, too, with frozen blueberries, and because it took so long to bake my friend and I were desperate when I finally took it out from the oven and I must confess we ate it warm. And it was beautiful. The blueberries were hot and the top was crispy and the cake was soft and vanilla-y (and it would have been wonderful with vanilla ice-cream). Thanks Clotilde for sharing the goodness!
Hi Clotilde,
You all must have a magic wand to make the cake taste good. I tried it yesterday & it was a disaster. Sorry to spoil the party here.
I measured the ingredients carefully. We use metric here so that's not a problem. But, the cake was so heavy. This is the 1st time I have made a cake that's that heavy!!
The cake tasted too much of butter, eggs & yogurt. I suspect that there needs to be an adujstment in the ingredients u have provided above. Somehow, the ratio of flour to butter, eggs & yogurt is not right Clotilde.
I wish I have better things to say but the truth is I was so high spirited when I read thru the comments but gained nothing in terms of results.
Lynn - I'm sorry you didn't get the results you expected with this cake. I have made it many times using exactly these measurements, so the recipe is right as written. But not everyone likes every cake, and from what you wrote it is very possible that this is just not your kind of cake: it is meant to be very moist, not fluffy, and perhaps you find that sort of cake heavy. In any case I'm sorry it was a disappointment to you -- hopefully the next recipe you try will make up for it!
Hello Clotilde - I will try this cake this weekend and am excited as I LOVE heavy moist cakes! I have a question. I will make this cake in a smaller cake pan (about 6.25" instead of 9"), would you recommend cutting the recipe in half? Also, I think I may top it with shaved coconut...
many thanks for such a wonderful website!
-Virginia
Fantastic recipe. Used frozen (but defrosted) blueberries rather than fresh. Tasted wonderful.
Wanted to join the chorus and sing the praise of this cake. This may be the best C&Z recipe I've tried yet. The cake was heavy and moist, with the perfect balance of flavors. I followed the reader who added toasted walnuts on top, and the nuts caramelized nicely w/ the brown sugar. The only change I'd make is this. My food processor doesn't mix such thick batter very well, so it was hard to mix the flour evenly. I'd recommend mixing everything w/ a hand-held electric mixer, then folding in the flour w/ a wooden spoon. And if you don't have a springform pan, it won't matter because the top isn't so crumbly or the cake so fluffy as to be fragile, and it can be removed fairly easily.
-berkeley girl
I made this cake this morning, using frozen wild berries instead of fresh blueberrries (wild berries are quite hard to find here, especially fresh, so I had to compromise...) but something went wrong...
It took 2 hours to cook, and this meant that the brown sugar on top of the cake got VERY dark, giving it an ugly tanned look. Moreover, after the first hour in the oven (before I opened it to insert the knife) the center sank, and now the borders are higher than the center...
I've just tasted it, and it's good but kind of heavy...
I can't believe it, my cakes arealways very high and light... :-(
I finally made this cake... I must confess that I didn't have complete faith that it would bake in one hour so I let it cook for about 1 hour & 20 minutes. The cake was wonderful even if I had to slice the bottom off a bit (that 20 mins burned the bottom a bit). It is a heavy moist cake - something about it reminds me of bread pudding... but the flavor! And you are right, it is better the next day. I brought what remained into work and everyone loved it. Definitely making this one again and this time baking for just that hour. Thanks!
I made this cake several times for my family & friends and I always got rave reviews. I had to bake the cake for 15 minutes longer than it asked for in the recipe.
THIS IS A KEEPER.
thank you (from california) for not making me hunt down the conversions! i have a great blackberry upside cake that is similar in ingredients (quick!) but uses buttermilk. i look forward to trying this!
I made this cake this morning, using local blueberries. I scaled the recipe down to 2/3 of it's original size, since I only had 2 cups of berries. Even using non-fat yogurt, this turned out to be a rich, moist cake.
Thank you for sharing the recipe. It's a keeper!
Hi! This is my first time to post. I love to cook but seldom bake cakes. Your cake caught my eye. I already bought the ingredients and will try to bake one tomorrow for my hubby and son. Blueberries are a luxury here in our country. It's a good thing there are some available in the market right now but they are imported from the US so it means it is a little expensive. Keeping my fingers crossed. I hope they will love it.
I made it yesterday with apples and a pinch of cinnamon (we Americans cannot help leaving apples without cinnamon- but I did my best not to go overboard). It was fantastic- a hit with everyone!
I would love to try it with blueberries, but they were out at the market, so I'll try again next week.
I hope its not a "sacrilege", but I always try to use "whole" flour. I thought whole wheat would be too much, so I used whole spelt flour, and cassonnade (dark raw? sugar), so the batter was darker, but it married well with the apples, no one seemed to notice it was missing refined flour and sugar!
Thanks for the fabulous recipe, Clothilde!
The cake is moist and the sweetness is just right. Thanks for sharing.
I finally got around to making your blueberry coffee cake and it is DIVINE! I love it. Thank you for a great recipe.
What a beautiful cake! Je viens de le cuire en y ajoutant du chocolat noir, de la cannelle et des canneberges .... mmmm, good!
Enchanté Clotilde.
My daughter introduced me to your blog. She's a big fan...and now so am I. It's wonderful.
I made your blueberry coffee cake for 15 other guys on a golf outing last week. It was terrific, and I was received as a genius. It was light and fluffy and very tasty.
My only difficulty was that the berries didn't seem to distribute well, some falling to the bottom and the rest on top. I seem to recall reading once that dusting the berries with flour might make them stay put.
I only had a tablespoon of sour cream to work with so I used buttermilk for the rest. Turned out great.
My daughter will be here for Thanksgiving and we plan to make your Chocolate Surprise cake. Can't wait.
....
I just made this for Easter. When I took it out of the oven it fell in the center! Any suggestions?
The knife came out clean.. I baked it for an hour and a quarter, however it just does not look fully baked!
I live in the Caribbean and often have to adjust recipies because of the humidity! I would love any suggestions!
Thanks!
Katie
WOW! Merci Clotilde...What an amazing cake. I just made it and my whole house smells divine! My husband loves anything blueberry and this is perfect for a summer sunday afternoon!
Just made the blueberry coffee cake last night exactly as you made it. It was beyond good. I used vanilla flavored Greek yogurt and I love that the cake didn't require sour cream. The fresh blueberries are delicious here and the crunchy brown sugar topping just sets it off. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
This is my favorite cake and I've been making it all summer.
I always use the suggested size cake pan but I would like to try it with a small (9") loaf pan.
Should I cut down cooking time?
Many thanks!
Virginia - Yes, if you bake this in a larger pan, you will likely need to shorten the baking time. But oven temperatures vary, so it's important to test the doneness with a knife.
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. My sister says you're officially a genius ;)
I made this blueberry coffee cake for the first time last week. While I must say it was delicious...the baking time was way off for me. It took every bit of 2 hours to bake this at the suggested baking temperature. There isn't an issue with my oven because I had just made banana loaf at the recommended temp and it came out perfect. Can the author of this recipe perhaps have a look see and offer any suggestions? Or has anyone else encountered the same thing. Thanks--GREAT COFFEE CAKE!!!
I'm really not sure what to tell you as I bake this regularly at that temp and duration, and have not had a problem with underbaking... But I'm glad it turned out well eventually!
Having been a lurker for many years, I'd just like to say that I made this cake for a charity bake-off today at work. I won! Everyone totally loved the cake, the CEO went back for 3 extra peices and told me I could make a living from selling this cake if my job at the company didn't work out :)
I used vanilla yogurt instead of plain and had to bake it for 1.5hrs instead of 1hr but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Thanks so much for posting this one!
Very happy to hear it, Sofi, thanks for writing!
Today is my birthday and I wanted to make this as my birthday cake-It is delicious and not long after it was out of the oven I was eating it with my fingers! The cake itself is sweet but not overly so and it's like an explosion of blueberries inside!
My cake took longer than an hour but it's because I used frozen blueberries and I didn't evenly distribute them so the center took longer to cook....
Happy to hear it, Dannie, thank you!
Halfway through making this cake, I realized that I don't have yogurt nor sour cream. So I searched in my pantry and found apple sauce! I used a cup of apple sauce and the cake still turned out moist :-) I baked mine in an 8" springform pan and baked at 350F for 1 hour 10min. Thanks for the recipe :-)
Good to know, thanks for sharing!