Blueberry Coffee Cake

Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is comfort food for breakfast, brunch or dessert. From the Inn that won the GMA best breakfast award, start your morning off feeling special!  Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is comfort food for breakfast or brunch.  From the Inn that won the GMA best breakfast award, start your morning off feeling special! 

A few years back it was the buzz around town. One of our local restaurants, the White Gull Inn, was a finalist in the Good Morning America (GMA) Best Breakfast contest. 

Their breakfasts are amazing and the Inn is totally cute, so none of the regular patrons were surprised when they took first place–for their Cherry Stuffed French toast!

Today, I am baking another favorite from their menuโ€“Blueberry Coffee Cake.

White Gull Inn

White Gull Inn

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Tasty. When you pry your eyes open in the morning, it’s hard to beat a Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake for flavor and satisfaction. Warm and fruity, with a brown sugar cinnamon sweetness, it even pushed the award winning stuffed French Toast to my back burner.

A Healthier Coffee Cake.  I give options for using a healthier flour and Greek Yogurt to improve the health value of this. And as some who’s eaten the original version for bleep years, you pretty much can’t taste the difference.  How often does that happen!

Small Batch Option. I give directions for a four piece blueberry coffee cake that is perfect for a family of four, a small get together, or a couple who wants leftovers.  No one’s gaining weight on leftovers (unless they want to)! Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is comfort food for breakfast or brunch.  From the Inn that won the GMA best breakfast award, start your morning off feeling special! 

What You’ll Need

Ingredients

Topping

  • Brown Sugar add sweetness and moisture and a bit of molasses flavor
  • Cinnamon is a classic coffee cake flavoring
  • Chopped walnuts add crunch and flavor but you can substitute chopped pecans or almonds

Coffeecake

  • Sour Cream.  Sour cream enriches the flavor and adds moistness.  You can use plain whole milk Greek Yogurt instead if you prefer.
  • Baking soda & Baking powder help with rise and lightness.
  • Flour.  This was originally made with all purpose flour.  I now use white whole wheat flour.
  • Butter add moistness
  • Sugar adds sweetness
  • Eggs add to the rise and hold things together
  • Vanilla enhances the flavor
  • Blueberries provide the signature blueberry flavor.  Either fresh or frozen will work, don’t thaw first if frozen

making the coffee cake

Special Equipment

A stand mixer is nice but I made this for years with a hand mixer.  The full version is made in a 9 x 13 pan which most people have. If you want to make the small batch version, a 6 x 6 pan is best.

Step by Step Directions

Note that the process photos show the small batch version being made.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Make topping by mixing brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts together and set aside. Mix streusel topping ingredients

Mix together sour cream and baking soda. Mix sour cream and baking soda

In separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder.

Mix flour and baking powder.

In large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Cream until fluffy.  Cream butter & sugar, add egg.

Add sour cream and flour mixtures alternating. Mix thoroughly but don’t overmix.Mix remaining ingredients.

Grease baking pan (I used non-stick spray). Spread in a scant half of the cake mixture. Be careful not to use too much or it will be difficult to spread the top layer.  Spread just under half in pan

Sprinkle blueberries over this, then top with 1/3 of the topping.

Top with blueberries and 1/3 of streusel.

Carefully spread the remaining batter on top, then sprinkle with the rest of the topping.  ready for oven

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Check periodically and cover with foil if browning too quickly (I needed to do this). Serve warm or cool.  Cover with foil if needed

Variations

If blueberries arenโ€™t a favorite, itโ€™s a pretty easy substitution to swap in your favorite fruit.  And you can also dress this coffee cake up.  My cherry coffee cake, based on this recipe, is done in a round spring form pan which makes an impressive presentation.

Small Batch Option

Of course not everyone has a big family or an upcoming brunch.  For four servings, you can make this using my small batch version instead.  I used 1/3 of the recipe (more or less) to fit a 6 x 6 pan.  The changes are listed in parentheses on the recipe.  I special ordered this pan and it worked great for cutting into four 3 x 3 inch pieces!

In a pinch you should be able to use the small version of the recipe in an 8 x 4 loaf pan.  I don’t recommend a 9 x 5 pan because it would be quite difficult to stretch the batter to cover the two larger layers.  Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is comfort food for breakfast or brunch.  From the Inn that won the GMA best breakfast award, start your morning off feeling special! 

Healthier Options

This started out as a blueberry sour cream coffee cake–and you can keep it that way if you’d like.  But this time, when I went to the refrigerator for sour cream, there was none.  Yes, leave your husband alone to cook for himself for a few days and 14 baked potatoes later, you come back and the sour cream is gone. 

So this last time, I used plain whole milk Greek yogurt instead and was excited that I couldn’t taste a difference. (I haven’t tried this using lower fat yogurt varieties.) Of course, besides adding a smidge of calcium and decreasing the fat, I love the fact that I always have yogurt around!

The other (optional) change was the flour.  Unlike the original, I used white whole wheat flour which got some interesting responses.  My oldest said, it was amazing, but just a tad less perfect since it was the slightest bit “soggy”.  My brother said it was even better because it was moister!   Go figure!

Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is comfort food for breakfast or brunch.  From the Inn that won the GMA best breakfast award, start your morning off feeling special! 

And in case you’re still hungry, here are some more delicious coffee cake ideas

White Gull Inn Blueberry Coffee Cake

Tasty, fruity and sweet, this Blueberry Coffee Cake is like comfort food for breakfast or brunch.ย  From the GMA best breakfast award winner!
Author: Inger
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 20 mins
Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Servings 12 (4 for small batch version)
Calories 653 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • Ingredients for a 6 x 6 pan are in parentheses

Topping

  • 1 1/2 cups brown sugar (1/2 cup)
  • 2 Tablespoons cinnamon (1 Tablespoon)
  • 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (1/4 cup)

Coffeecake

  • 2 cups sour cream or plain whole milk Greek Yogurt (2/3 cup)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda (1 teaspoon)
  • 4 cups all purpose flour or white whole wheat flour (1 1/3 cup)
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder (1 teaspoon)
  • 1 cup butter softened (6 Tablespoons)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar (1/2 cup)
  • 4 eggs (1 egg)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla (1 teaspoon)
  • 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen--do not thaw if frozen (2/3 cup)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Make topping by mixing brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts together and set aside.
  • Mix together sour cream and baking soda. In separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Set aside.
  • In medium mixing bowl cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time then vanilla. Cream until fluffy.
  • Add sour cream and flour mixtures alternating and mixing thoroughly.
  • Spread a scant (see note) one half of the cake mixture in greased 9" x 13" pan (6 x 6 pan for small batch version). Sprinkle blueberries over this, then top with 1/3 of the topping. Carefully spread the remaining batter on top, then sprinkle with the rest of the topping.
  • Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Check periodically and cover with foil if browning too quickly. Serve warm or cool.

Notes

The top layer of cake batter is a little challenging to spread over the nuts, topping & berries. Be sure you use only half (or a bit less) of the batter for the bottom layer.
Adapted from White Gull Inn

Nutrition

Serving: 1 sliceCalories: 653kcalCarbohydrates: 92gProtein: 9gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 15gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 118mgSodium: 452mgPotassium: 213mgFiber: 3gSugar: 56gVitamin A: 809IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 162mgIron: 3mg
I am not a health professional and nutrition data is calculated programatically. Accuracy may vary with product selection, calculator accuracy, etc. Consult a professional for the best information.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Originally published July 6, 2014.

27 thoughts on “Blueberry Coffee Cake

  1. Vicky

    Delicious blueberry coffee cake. Perfect to prepare this afternoon and surprise my children and treat myself. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Jolene

    Love using Greek yogurt in baking! Will have to try the white whole wheat flour swap out too. Looks fantastic!

    1. Inger Post author

      I was so excited when the yogurt worked perfectly! It’s a staple in my house (along with frozen berries) so I can make this anytime now!

  3. Susie

    My husband and I loved their coffee cake last summer. I plan on baking it for friends this weekend. Just to clarify I donโ€™t have wheat flour. Can I use 4 cups flour instead?

    1. Inger Post author

      Yes, no problem using regular flour. That would actually be closer to the original. I hope you enjoy it!

  4. A A

    Just made this. It’s nice, but it makes a lot. Serves at least 10, more likely 14 or more. If I were to make it again, this is what I’d change:
    * Halve the recipe, put it in a smaller pan with deeper sides — it overflowed the top edge of my pan.
    * Add something else to the sugar-spice topping mix. Cinnamon-sugar is fine, but it is a one-note song. A bit of Nutmeg or Anise perhaps.
    * Increase the berries by at least twice and make them two layers instead of one; this will necessitate increasing slightly the accompanying sugar-spice mix to accompany both berry layers.
    * Add almond extract or lemon rind to the cake: it’s kind of bland, and there’s a lot of it. The interesting parts of this cake are the tart berries and crunchy topping, and both are loud flavors. The cake needs a bit of refinement to counterbalance that loudness.

    1. Inger Post author

      Thanks for the comments AA. Yes, per my recipe, this makes 12 pieces–and they are good-sized, since the restaurant serves this as a breakfast entree, rather than a side. I halve it when I make it too–well, I pretty much halve everything!

      I may sound picky but I don’t care for Nutmeg, Anise or Almond flavors (whenever I see almond extract I substitute vanilla), but I could see adding lemon to this! Of course, more berries is always better!

  5. Pingback: Strawberry Stuffed French Toast & Veggie Wednesdays - Art of Natural Living

  6. Beth

    Oh, and I forgot to mention – my condolences on your girls’ working arrangements! Sounds like they’ll be keeping you busy this summer!

  7. Choc Chip Uru

    Thanks for recreating this incredibly delicious coffee cake – I am dying for more than a serve, it looks so indulgent ๐Ÿ˜€

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  8. Louise

    Hi Inger!
    Where oh where have I heard of this place before. Probably from you but for some reason, a cookbook comes to mind. I must check.

    Congratulations to the Inn for winning the contest! How lucky are we to have you recreate their Blueberry Coffee Cake, pretty darn lucky I’d say! It looks delicious! Thank you so much for sharing, Inger. I’d love a piece the size the Inn serves, please:)

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