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.)
Kristine M Cammarata
This is probably the 15th time I have made this. People ask for it.
Amy
This looks amazing. We have family members with dairy allergies. Do I need to do anything different if I use Almond milk instead of whole milk?
Melissa Griffiths
No that should work just fine as a sub.
Catherine Warren
I have made this so many times and it’s absolutely delicious. I was wondering if I could use whole buttermilk instead of whole milk?
Thank you!!
Leslie Splendoria
Made this exactly according to the recipe. It was absolutely delicious! I will make this again & again!!
Penny
This is without a doubt the very best coffee cake I’ve ever had. My husband is a big fan of coffee cakes and says this is the only one he wants me to make him. He was cracking me up with how much he was going on about it. I made the recipe exactly as it said and it was perfect and beautiful! We ended up not using the glaze but put butter on the warm slices instead. Heaven!
PJ
I made muffins out of this. I didn’t have a pan the size it needed. Hubby prefers muffins anyway. Used lemon juice as part of the milk because I had it. They turned out great. Will do this one often.
Hilda Cash
coffee , blueberry & Lemon cake, why is there no coffee in recipe ?
Susan B
Coffee cakes are cakes to eat with coffee not coffee flavored.
Makani
Because maybe you enjoy it with coffee??
Shelley
Can this recipe be used in a 9×13 pan instead? Thanks in advance!
Susan
Excellent coffee cake. Moist, with just the right contrast with the tangy lemon and sweetness of the blueberries. I did add an extra 1/2 berries because i had them. I’ve made this several times and for a bridal brunch and everyone raved over it. Thank you for including the internal temp when done. It turns out perfectly every time!
Jo Jo
This cake came out absolutely delicious everyone loved it. I did tweak it a little bit by adding a quarter cup of sour cream and of course I baked it a little bit longer can’t tell you how everybody raves about it
Julie
I have made this numerous times. Definitely a household favorite. I’m curious how many muffins would this recipe make?
Shelley
I liked Barbara’s original recipe. Hers was in a 9×13 pan. I tried the one in the round pan and the batter was thicker. Don’t know what was different. Different amount of ingredients? Would love to see the original recipe. Maybe for those of us who liked the original, you could reprint for us?
Melissa Griffiths
I have not changed this recipe since taking over the site but I’ll reach out to Barbara and see if she knows what you might be referring to!
Corinne A
Love this recipe, made it for my family, it was a hit! So nice and light tasting.
Dorene
Can this be made in a springform pan? Or in an rectangular baking pan?
Cindy
Made this for Sunday morning breakfast
Mandy
Is there anything I need to do differently if using frozen blueberries? Do I thaw them out first or just put them in frozen?
Melissa Griffiths
Nope, nothing different needed.
Melissa R Boutwell
Most chefs/cooks recommend not thawing the frozen blueberries or they tend to stain the batter very blue. You should also coat them in some flour first to help prevent sinking to the bottom of your baking dish.
Roberta Cruz
I made it in disposable aluminum pans For a farmers market, 7 inch and it turned out fantastic! Just make sure to spray and flower the pan no matter what pan you use
CB
This cake tastes fantastic! Easy to make, too. I make it several times a year and nobody has gotten tired of it. I just now put another one in the oven and the family is waiting for it.
Donna
I made this today for my 90 year old father! It was absolutely delicious! I substituted buttermilk for the whole milk because it was what I had on hand. This will be a regular brunch recipe.
Lisa Declet
Made this at High Altitude 10,000 ft. Added 2 Tbsp of extra flour. It was perfect! I recommend making this simple and delicious recipe.
I rarely follow a recipe to a T. I added an additional 3 Tbsp of sour cream, orange and lemon zest. My neighbors raved about it! The glaze was lemon and freshly squeezed orange juice, plus lemon and orange zest.
Don’t be afraid to play with recipes. This is a perfect recipe!!!
Tracy Harris
I make muffins out of this recipe. They are the best!!
Sophie Gascon
This is what my son asked for his 16th birthday cake! Put 3 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice into milk to create buttermilk. Batter nice and thick, so blueberries don’t sink to bottom when cooking.
Baked a tad longer as center wasn’t quite set. Turned out fantastic! Made extra lemon icing to add on each sliced piece. A recipe to keep!