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.
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❤️ 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.
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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.)
Rachel
what if you don’t have zest? I really want to make this right now lol
Melissa Griffiths
It’ll be less lemony but you can for sure do it.
Juliana giuka
can this be made using some brown sugar for part of the sugar in the crumb topping? it looks delicious. gonna make I soon. thanks
Melissa Griffiths
Yes that will work great!
Patti
I recently found this recipe online and tried it for a breakfast potluck. It was the first thing to disappear completely from the lineup. Really delicious!!
The only thing that was not according to the recipe was that I used frozen blueberries, and it took almost twice the baking time. So if using frozen fruit, or larger cultivated blueberries (as opposed to the little wild ones) watch the baking time carefully.
Melissa Griffiths
Thank you for letting us know!
Linda T
Made this record for the second time. Putting the fresh blueberries I picked to good use. Delicious!
Paul Desrosiers
Melissa, I must have downloaded this recipe awhile back because the recipe included Boyajian pure lemon oil(to taste). Why is it now excluded in the recipe?
I have a small bottle of this lemon oil and a small glass eye dropper handy for lemon recipes or other recipes that I want to intensify the lemon flavor or add lemon flavoring.
Melissa Griffiths
Maybe you had a different recipe? The addition sounds wonderful though.
Nancy B
Am I able to substitute Almond Flour for the A/P Flour? If so, what would the exchange ratio be?
Thank you so much!
Melissa Griffiths
Almond flour can be tricky, I don’t know the substitution with out trying it myself…
Gina
This recipe is incredible! It’s light and fluffy and soooo delicious. It’s my new favorite coffee cake!
I sifted the flour first, and I also tossed the blueberries in a tiny bit of flour before adding them the batter to prevent them from sinking to the bottom.
I didn’t have a springform pan, so I used a 9” square pan and lined it with parchment paper and spray. The baking time was spot on. The crust was crisp and the cake was so light. Thank you for this recipe!
Melissa
I’ve made this as both a cake in a glass pan and muffins with some minor modifications. I am gluten-free and dairy-free and have successfully substituted those ingredients with a gf 1:1 flour and a non-dairy stick. I’ve recently moved and realized I did not have baking powder so substituted soda and lemon juice for the bi-carbonate. And to top it off, did not have lemon zest so added a tsp of almond extract. It turns out so well every time, it’s become a favorite recipe for my husband. Thanks for such a great recipe!!
Patricia Stearns
Can I use a Bundt pan?
Barbara Fisher
I made this two days ago and its so delicious. I used lime juice because I didnt have lemon. Two small containers of fresh blueberries were plenty. This is a keeper and I can make it ahead for company with no concerns. Thank you.
Nancy
👍 Thank you so much for your reply, Melissa! 🙂
Judy
Hi, I’d love to make this, but I don’t have a springform pan. Would a bundt pan work?
Melissa Griffiths
Yes that should work great, just adjust the baking time as needed.
Barbara Fisher
I made in a 9” square square, perfect height. A 9” round pan world work. In a Bundt pan you might not get the streusel effect, not sure. This was very pretty and so delicious! Retained its moisture very well to third day…we ate it all by then!
Stacey
Absolutely delicious!
Melissa Griffiths
Thank you Stacey!
Marion
Excellent, just more zest in cake and drizzle.
Melissa Griffiths
Thanks for sharing what you liked!
FoxyGrammy
Excellent recipe!!! I added a few pinches of lemon zest to the glaze, it was pretty and added some zing to it.
Maribeth
Hi,
Do you have to cook the crumb topping separately?
Melissa Griffiths
It improves the texture but feel free to try it without.
Val
I want to bake this in a 13″ x 9″ glass pan and I want it to be full. Should I increase the recipe? Any other suggestions? Do you recommend lining the pan with parchment paper? Will I need to adjust the time or temperature?
Melissa Griffiths
You’ll probably just need to play around with how it works for you. I’d try one recipe first, grease the pan well, the cooking time will probably be decreased… it’ll need some experimenting on your end as I haven’t made it like that yet.
Paul Desrosiers
This recipe sounds great. I’m going to make it this weekend.
Here’s a tip for all your recipe makers out there that LOVE the flavor of lemon like I do. I bought a small bottle(3.4 oz.) of Boyajian Pure Lemon Oil on Amazon some time ago. I keep it in the refrigerator with a glass eyedropper attached to it with a rubber band. Whenever I want to intensify the flavor of lemon in my recipes, I add the lemon oil drop by drop until I get the the intensity of lemon flavor that I desire. The bottle of lemon oil is a little pricey, but a little goes a LONG way.
Can’t wait to try this recipe !
Michael Vaticano
Can I substitute almond milk for whole milk?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Michael – I haven’t tried it but almond milk should work fine in this recipe.
Jennifer
Is there any way I can make this into cupcakes? can’t wait to try this as is!!!
Jennifer
I meant muffins, not cupcakes.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Jennifer – yes, here’s a muffin version without the lemon https://www.barbarabakes.com/best-blueberry-streusel-muffins/ you can use as a guide. Enjoy!
Cindy
I made this wonderful cake yesterday, I didn’t change a thing other than using skim milk, and it was fabulous! I will definitely be making it again
Barbara Schieving
That’s great to hear – thanks Cindy!
FoxyGrammy
Excellent recipe!!! I added a few pinches of lemon zest to the glaze, it was pretty and added some zing to it.
Josephine Brown
Hey I love this recipe and have made it many times, I was wondering if it was possible to substitute the blueberries for raspberries? Any adjustments or tips would be incredible!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Josephine – raspberries tend to break apart when mixing, so be sure and gently fold them in or even push a few into each cup instead of mixing them in.