A moist, sweet blueberry coffee cake that's stuffed with fruit for a lovely morning treat. Separating the eggs gives the cake a beautiful, airy texture and a light crumb.
This blueberry coffee cake is a riff of Alice Waters' 1-2-3-4 cake, which is my go-to, fall-back, standard, etc. cake when I want a good, sturdy, buttery vanilla cake that should be plain but simply isn't. In this iteration, you'll add blueberries for a gorgeous punch of blue.
It's a dense, lush, and sweet cake, just about everything you might wish for in a fruity cake. It's not a coffee cake and it's not for breakfast, though of course you may drink coffee and eat this cake for breakfast (or dinner) if you so choose. But it's a standalone, good in its own right for dessert or Saturday afternoon noshing or really, yes, anytime that feels good.
Though - I do like calling it a coffee cake even though it lacks the familiar coffee cake-crumble that's ubiquitous to coffee cakes. This cake is reminiscent of a coffee-shop cake, a cake that's been sliced and wrapped up in plastic and sold for too much per. But it's so much better than that! A sturdy crumb that nonetheless manages to have a hint of delicacy thanks to separating the eggs and whipping the white separately before folding them into the batter ensures that it will stand apart from the usual vanilla cake crowd.
Recipe
Blueberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs , separated
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups blueberries can use fresh or frozen blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x13" pan and line the bottom parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. Beat in the four egg yolks one at a time. Add the vanilla to the mixture.
- Add the flour mixture and milk alternately, starting and ending with one third of the flour. Stir just until the flour is incorporated.
- In a clean, large bowl, using clean beaters, whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Stir one third of the egg whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest. Very gently fold in the berries.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Remove cake from oven and let cool in minutes in the pan. Cut pieces directly from the pan to serve.
Stacy says
I completely understand the desire to have a little 'normal'. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and man, that first break I took (on Royal Air Maroc) to Spain was amazing. It was such a treat to blend in among the crowd, which takes nothing away from the wonderful experiences I had in my village. On the way back, we had an overnight stay in Casablanca due to flight schedules, so I had a chance to wander a bit along the beach but little else. I enjoy your stories and recipes that go along.
Helen spiridakis says
Lovely post....your photos of Paris are gorgeous.....and your reference to its food makes me drool.....as does your cake.
Leslie says
Very nice and not at all rusty! As much as I love looking at that cake, I can practically feel that hardwood floor underfoot! I had some that were less nice in my old apartment and I do miss them, as there's nothing else quite like hardwood to the bare foot...So, yum! to blueberry cake and yum! to hardwood, wind, and weather vanes and yum! to the many delectables of Paris. Most especially, yum! to feeling like eating and cooking and planting and spring. Take care and keep on doing what you do--