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.)
Larissa
Just made this for my dad for Father’s Day! Here’s hoping it tastes as good as it looks! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Barbara Schieving
It definitely does. Enjoy!
Shauna
I made this vegan last weekend using vegan butter, soy milk and egg replacer. It was SOOOO good! Everyone loved it! Cant wait to make it again. Thank you for the wonderful recipe. Your pictures are beautiful too!
Mariam
Just made this last night (at 11 pm lol) and I added poppyseeds and a little bit more lemon (I like it tangy). Regardless, this came out SOOO good! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Mariam! So glad you enjoyed it. Coffee cake sounds like a perfect late night snack, and extra lemon and poppy seeds sound like perfect additions too.
Diane
I am baking this now in 9″ springform pan at 350; it has been in the oven now for about 75 minutes and is still slightly wobbly in the center. I think it needs a large tube pan. Hope it gets done before the outside burns. I will try to post the results. I make a coffee cake similar to this in a tube or bundt pan, turn it out onto a plate to catch any crumbs that escape, then flip it back over onto a cooling rack. When you drizzle on the icing it kind of seals the loose crumbs .
Barbara Schieving
Hi Diane – Hope the cake turned out okay. I’m surprised at the long cook time. You could definitely make it in a tube or a bundt pan next time. I have a coffee cake pan that I like to use too.
Sonia
This looks amazing!
I do not have a spring form pan…is it possible to use a regular baking pan??
Barbara Schieving
Yes, you can use a regular 9″ cake pan, it just won’t be as easy to serve. Enjoy!
Aimee @ ShugarySweets
WOAH. This is gorgeous!!! PINNED. Thanks for the sweet shout out 🙂
judy
This may be a dumb question, but I’m not really a baker lol…do you have to thaw the blueberries ahead of time if you use frozen?
Barbara Schieving
No you don’t need to thaw the blueberries before adding them. In fact, it’s better no to. Enjoy!
Megan
Made this to share with my Bible study group today-a huge hit!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Megan! So glad your group loved it.
Bridget
I am actually going to make this for my son’s birthday cake I think. He loves blueberry muffins and is not a huge fan of regular birthday cake, so I am going to give this a try. Looks yummy!
Barbara Schieving
I’d love this for my birthday cake. Great idea!
Nutmeg Nanny
This looks gorgeous 🙂 such a perfect flavor combination! Can’t wait to make this
Marta
This looks delicious not to mention beautiful.
May I ask what nonstick spring form pan you use…need to get a good non leaking pan. Thanks for the recipe
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Marta! I recently bought this Nordic Ware Leakproof Springform Pan http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Leakproof-Springform-Inch/dp/B000237FSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1393872464&sr=1-1 and it’s been great.
Jamie
Wowee this is so bookmarked! Gorgeous! I adore the lemon-blueberry combo (who doesn’t) and put the streusel on muffins but boy would we love this coffee cake!
Ash
Chanced upon this recipe while I was looking for Starbucks blueberry streusel muffin recipe…and am I glad I came across your site!
Made this cake and it was perfect 🙂 Each bite was a soft , pillowy delight! The lemony tang was perfect with the sweet oozing blueberries!
This recipe is a keeper..Thank you!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Ash! I love the way you described it. How about if I bake and photograph and you write my posts 🙂
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles
What a beautiful coffee cake, love the lemon and blueberry together!
nanos
looks yummy! Can we replace the blueberry with strawberry or it wouldn’t be the same? We don’t have blueberries in this part of the world ;-(
Barbara Schieving
I don’t love baking with strawberries because they turn a weird sort gray color. Do you have another berry that’s available in your area? Dried fruit such as raisins or cherries would be a good substitution as well.
Lauren
My mom has a blueberry muffin recipe that calls for a mixture of lemon zest and sugar on top, and I LOVE LOVE it! So your addition of zest and the lemon glaze is definitely an inspired one in my book! I can smell it baking now….YUM!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Mum I feel as though you made this for me too! It’s just my sort of coffee cake! I also use zip lock bags for icing. It’s so much easier to get that lovely drip!
Laura Dembowski
Blueberry cake with streusel is the best! Love the addition of the glaze too!
Teresa
Barbara, you are such an artist! I love drooling over all your stuff. Pinning this for sure!
Madonna/aka/Ms. Lemon
I just made a lemon cream cheese coffee cake. I have not posted it yet, but now I think I should have incorporated a little blueberry as well. Love the look of the drizzle. Looks like a party.