This blackberry studded, tender coffee cake is topped with a crunchy cinnamon-sugar crumb topping and a drizzle of icing. Is there a better way to start your day than with a slice of delicious cake to pair with your coffee?
We love a good coffee cake in this house. Especially one with a crunchy streusel topping! Add a little drizzle of icing and a pop of fresh blackberry flavor and we are in coffee cake heaven.
This delicious blackberry cake recipe is based on my Classic Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe except the cinnamon sugar layer has been replaced with fresh blackberries for a fruity burst of flavor. Not only do those burst blackberries look beautiful when slicing into this breakfast cake, but the fruity berry flavor is such a delicious surprise to bite into.
This blackberry coffee cake recipe is one we come to over and over again. It’s perfect for serving at special breakfast or brunch gatherings, including Mother’s Day celebrations and bridal showers. It’s also one we like to make to go with our afternoon coffees. Once you taste it, you too will find any excuse to make it again!
Ingredients in this Blackberry Coffee Cake recipe
- Flour: all purpose flour.
- Baking powder
- Salt: just a little salt is added to enhance the flavor.
- Butter: softened unsalted butter is used in both the cake and the crumb topping.
- Sugar: granulated white sugar, brown sugar, and icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar or powdered sugar) are all used in the different layers and icing.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Milk: Buttermilk is used in the cake but you can also use regular milk if you do not have buttermilk on hand or make your own buttermilk by adding lemon juice or white vinegar to milk. For this recipe, you will need to add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to the milk. Regular milk is also used in the icing layer.
- Sour cream: makes an extra moist and delicious cake. You can substitute yogurt if you do not have sour cream on hand.
- Blackberries: sliced in half so that they can be sprinkled throughout the cake.
- Cinnamon
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to Make Blackberry Coffee Cake
1. Mix the dry ingredients. To make the cake, mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Mix the wet ingredients.In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment affixed, blend the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream and blend until combined. [Note: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer/electric mixer.]
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredients together. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and using a spatula, fold in half of the blackberries. Pour the batter into a cake pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with the remaining blackberries.
4. Make the crumb topping. In the bowl of your stand mixer, blend all of the ingredients for the crumb topping. Using your hands, sprinkle the topping on top of the cake batter breaking it up into pea sized clumps.
5. Bake. Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the sides of the spring-form pan. Set onto a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Add icing. In a small bowl, stir icing sugar and milk together to create the icing. Add more milk if needed to get the desired consistency. Drizzle over the cake.
Tips and Variations for Making the Best Blackberry Coffee Cake
Tip #1: Gently fold in the blackberries. Since blackberries are a bit big, I like to slice them in half in this recipe. That way you don’t get a huge piece of berry when you slice into your cake. Since they are sliced in half, there are a few things you can do to prevent staining your whole batter with the juicy blackberries.
- Option 1: Gently fold the blackberries into your batter but do not over-mix. I try to fold them in using a spatula until they are just combined so that the blackberries do not bleed into the batter and change the color.
- Option 2: Leave the batter as is and then pour half the batter into your cake pan, sprinkle it with half the berries, then pour the rest of the batter and sprinkle it with the last half of the berries. Like you’re building a cake lasagna.
Tip #2: Don’t over mix your matter. This is true for all baked goods. Once the flour is incorporated into the batter, stop mixing. Over mixing will yield a denser cake.
Tip #3: If you’re a fan, add lemon and turn it into a lemon blackberry cake! Ok, this is more of a variation then a tip. But if you love lemon and berries together (I do!), add some lemon zest and replace a couple of tablespoons of milk with fresh lemon juice in the cake batter for a little lemony zing. You can also use lemon juice for the icing for a little extra lemon flavor.
Tip#4: Use different berries. You can easily switch up the berries in this cake to make it a blueberry coffee cake or strawberry coffee cake, for example.
Storing the cake
Once the cake is cooled completely, it can be covered with plastic wrap or set in an airtight container (like a cake dome) at room temperature. It will keep for a few days if covered well to prevent it from drying out.
Can you freeze coffee cake?
Yes, you can easily freeze coffee cake to preserve it longer. Simply cover the cooled cake or individual slices with several layers of plastic food wrap and then place it in a large freezer bag.
I hope you enjoy this delicious cake studded with fresh berries! It’s the perfect cake to pair with coffee for breakfast or afternoon tea. It is one of our favorites and one we make frequently.
Happy Baking!
-Cathy
You may also like these other cake recipes:
Classic Cinnamon Coffee Cake Recipe
Cranberry Orange Streusel Cake
Carrot Bundt Cake Recipe
Triple Berry Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Blackberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)
- 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
- 1 1/4 cups blackberries sliced in half
For the Crumb Topping
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- pinch of salt
Icing Drizzle
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a spring-form cake pan with parchment paper.
- To make the cake, mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment affixed, blend the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream and blend until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and using a spatula, fold in half of the blackberries. Pour the batter into the cake pan. Sprinkle with the remaining blackberries.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer, blend all of the ingredients for the crumb topping. Using your hands, sprinkle the topping on top of the cake batter breaking it up into pea sized clumps.
- Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the sides of the spring-form pan. Set onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- In a small bowl, stir icing sugar and milk together to create the icing. Add more milk if needed to get the desired consistency. Drizzle over the cake.
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
