Tender, moist lemon coffee cake loaded with blueberries crowned with a crunchy, sweet crumb topping and drizzled with a tart lemon glaze. A fun way to change up blueberry muffins. It makes a family-favorite breakfast or brunch recipe.
❤️ Why You’ll Love this Recipe: This simple but impressive coffee cake has the perfect balance of moist, cakey texture and sweet crumb topping. It’s a great make-ahead treat for brunch, breakfast, or an afternoon pick-me-up.
Update: This is one of the most popular recipes on the blog! So I’ve updated the post with new tips and a video to make it even easier for you to enjoy this lemon blueberry coffee cake ASAP.
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake
I first made this recipe as an alternative to my streusel blueberry muffins which everyone loves. It’s a fun twist that’s easy to transport if you’re bringing a baked treat for a crowd. To boost the flavor of this coffee cake, I added lemon zest to my traditional blueberry muffin recipe.
And since coffee cake is always better with a crumb topping, I had to add streusel. For the cherry on top, a sweet-tart lemon glaze. The glaze sits on top and drips down the sides for a beautiful presentation
Lemon Glaze for Coffee Cake
Make a quick and easy lemon glaze with just two ingredients: powdered sugar and lemon juice. Whisk until you have a smooth, pourable texture. When the cake is cooled, you can drizzle the glaze on with a spoon if you like. However, I prefer to use a quart-sized Ziploc bag.
Put the bag in a tall drinking glass or mug and fold the edges over the top of the mug to make a wide opening. Then fill the bag with your glaze. Seal up the bag and snip off a bit of one corner with scissors. Then simply drizzle the glaze over the top of the coffee cake.
If you want to get drips down the side of the cake, put a little puddle of glaze along the edge of the loaf. It will make a pretty little drip down the sides. If your glaze doesn’t drip nicely, you may need to thin it out a bit more.
Storage
You can store leftover coffee cake wrapped tightly in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to four days. For longer storage, keep the wrapped cake in the freezer for up to three months. You can defrost the cake overnight at room temperature to serve.
If your family loves blueberry muffins as much as my family does, they’ll love this coffee cake too. It takes blueberries to a whole new level.
More Breakfast Baking Recipes
If you love this lemon blueberry coffee cake, try these other tasty breakfast and brunch recipes next:
- Cinnamon Creme Coffee Cake is my riff on the beloved cake from Corner Bakery.
- Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake is a beautiful coiled cake with cinnamon spice and classic glaze.
- Pumpkin Sour Cream Coffee Cake has a sweet glaze and a dense, pumpkin flavor.
- Banana Bread Coffee Cake, Crazy for Crust
- Banana Streusel Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze, Shugary Sweets
- Marionberry Cherry Crumb Cake, filled with tart marionberries and dried cherries crowned with a sweet, crumbly topping and glaze.
Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- ½ cup granulated sugar 99 grams
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour 35 grams
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
Cake Batter
- 2 cups all purpose flour 284 grams
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened, 1 stick
- 1 cup granulated sugar 198 grams
- 2 eggs large
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk 4 ounces
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar 60 grams
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
- Prepare crumb topping by mixing the sugar, flour, and butter together in a small bowl well with a fork and set aside. The mixture should be sandy and then start to form small clumps.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Mix in lemon zest. Add flour mixture and mix just until combine. Stir in blueberries.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
- Bake at 350º for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The center should be 210 degrees F. with an instant read thermometer.
- Whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a thin glaze.
- Cool the cake 10 minutes in the pan, then run a knife around the edge and remove ring. Drizzle icing on cake. Cool completely before serving. (Unless you're like us and would rather eat it hot even though the cake doesn't cut as well.)
Ellen Fresh
I make this recipe at least once a month and share the finished cake with my neighbors. It gets rave reviews from all of us. Always moist & delicious.
Emily Young
Sadly the middle of my cake sank overnight. It needed to be baked longer than 45min I guess. I added a little bit of lemon juice to the batter and about a 1/2-1tsp of cinnamon in crumble – I received a lot of compliments on this recipe despite my slightly underbaked center!
Elizabeth
This cake is delicious. I followed the recipe exactly except I used oatmilk instead of regular milk. The cake is the perfect lightness with the sugar crumb topping creating a little crunch. It’s AMAZING. It is going in my favorite recipe box to be made for years to come. Thank you!!
Barbara Krebs
Delicious! Made this for a recent family beach week gathering and it was a hit! Only change I made was mixing both brown and white sugar with a touch of cinnamon for the topping. This recipe is a keeper!
Stephanie
I just made this and it’s delicious. I subbed most of the butter in the cake with apple sauce to cut the fat, and it still turned out moist and fluffy. If I made it again (…when I bake it again), I’d add more lemon rind and massage it into the sugar before mixing with butter to really bring out that lemony goodness. All in all, a win!
Bev
Love this recipe! The cake is moist with just enough crunch and sweetness for the topping. I used very little glaze to add a little lemon flavoring, but it’s truly fine without it!
Marie Miller
I entered this at a fair and got best of show. Also a blue ribbon at two other fairs!!!
Betty
My husband and I really like this recipe for lemon blueberry coffee cake. I noticed in some of the pictures that the blueberries sometimes to sink to the bottom. I used the weight measurements you provided and didn’t have that problem. I also added a Tbs of lemon juice to a scant 1/2 cup of milk and let it set until I was ready to use it. I used 2 tsp lemon extract and 1 tsp vanilla. We ate our first slice very warm so, you’re right, it didn’t slice easily…but the flavor was wonderful!!!
Betty Williams
My husband and I really like this recipe for lemon blueberry coffee cake. I noticed in some of the pictures that the blueberries sometimes to sink to the bottom. I used the weight measurements you provided and didn’t have that problem. I also added a Tbs of lemon juice to a scant 1/2 cup of milk and let it set until I was ready to use it. I used 2 tsp lemon extract and 1 tsp vanilla. We ate our first slice very warm so, you’re right, it didn’t slice easily…but the flavor was wonderful!!!
Bethany
Made this for a meeting and it was delicious. The only change I made was adding an additional ~tablespoon of lemon zest to the crumb topping. Without it I don’t think the lemon flavor would have come through strongly enough. It was just the right balance of tart and sweet with the additional zest, and I think it tied the crumb into the rest of the cake better. Overall delicious, will make again!
Elizabeth
The very best blueberry coffee cake I have ever made ! Thank you so much!
The changes I made were to add a Tbsp of fresh lemon juice to the cake batter since I wanted a more pronounced lemon taste than just the zest was providing, used 2 1/2 cups of blueberries ( just to use them all up) and then in the glaze I used 3 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice and 2 Tbsp of milk to get the drizzling consistency I wanted without it being too tangy
My daughter said it looked and tasted like it had been professionally made !
Pat
Very good. Made a slight adjustment to the topping… used brown sugar and added 1/2 tsp. Of cinnamon
The lemon really comes thru and be sure to drizzle the glaze on the cake. I did this on each piece as it was served.
Thanks for a great recipe
maria
Great taste. Easy recipe. Glad I didn’t have to go out and buy buttermilk or cream like other recipes. Also glad that both frozen or fresh blueberries could be used.
Mary Dixon
I love this recipe, delicious and it looks great too. A question, does it freeze well if I need to make in advance?
Melissa Griffiths
It should freeze just great! Thaw if a few hours at room temp or overnight in the fridge.
Gabby
Blueberry and lemon is my favorite summer flavor combination and this coffee cake knocked it out of the park! I wish I could give it ten stars! I thought it might end up too sweet for me, but it is so well balanced with the fruit flavors. Just wonderful.
Debbie
This is my third time baking this delicious coffee cake. Everyone that has tried it just loves it as much as I do. So celebrating the 4th with a piece today. Happy 4th!!
Norma Laws
I was very disappointed in this recipe. I think it was the streusel. It just wasn’t compatible with the cake (in my opinion) Sorry
Jane
My husband and I loved this!