Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake
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If you’re looking for a delicious, seasonal, berry cake recipe to add to your morning-treat repertoire, this buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake is perfect! The batter can be made ahead of time and stashed in the fridge, allowing you to bake the cake off in the morning. What’s more? It freezes beautifully!
Buttermilk is magic. It turns everything into gold: super-moist, super-delicious gold.
This morning I awoke needing a simple, summery, cake-like-but-not-dessert-like breakfast treat. One of Ben’s friends had crashed here last night, and I thought it only appropriate to treat him to a proper breakfast.
In other words, I was craving sugar and carbs. The truth is I’ve been craving sugar and carbs and a cake like this for months. But seriously, who doesn’t need a good, seasonal, berry cake recipe in their morning-treat repertoire?
Nobody. And I think I’ve found the recipe that fits the bill: buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake. On an old photocopied sheet of paper in my mother’s hand writing, I spotted a note: “Baby Boy’s Favorite.”
Oh Baby Boy. Baby Boy is my younger brother, my parents’ favorite child, and one of the most satisfying people to cook for. If it was Baby Boy’s favorite cake, it would soon be mine, too. This cake is delectable! I think you’ll like it, too.
(And if you’re looking for more fruit options, this cake is so good with cranberries.)
PS: Divine Lemon-Blueberry Muffins
Five Favorite Recipes Made with Buttermilk
- One-Bowl Buttermilk Birthday Cake
- Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Simple Rhubarb Compote
- Tartine’s Buttermilk-Blueberry Scones
- Joanne Chang’s Buttermilk Biscuits with Maple and Sea Salt
- One-Bowl Buttermilk Pancakes
Bonus: Favorite Buttermilk Dressing for Slaw
How to Make Buttermilk from Scratch
Scale this recipe up as needed.
- Place 2 teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup.
- Fill cup with milk (2% or whole is best) until it reaches the 1/2-cup line.
- Let stand for five minutes. Use as directed.
Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 to 16 pieces
Description
This cake is a long-time family favorite. My mother made it for my siblings and me when we were young, and every time I pull it out of the oven, clichè as it sounds, I am reminded of summer mornings in my childhood kitchen. It’s simple, adaptable, and make aheadable 🙂
Over the years, many questions have been asked, which I’ve answered as best as I can in the comments. I’ve answered a few FAQs in the notes below the recipe as well.
Also, if you’re new here, welcome! You’ve landed on one of the two most popular recipes on Alexandra’s Kitchen, the other being My Mother’s Peasant Bread, which led to the creation of my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs, which includes 40 simple bread recipes and 70+ recipes for eating them up. (If you love baking, you’ll love this no-knead bread.)
Ingredients
- ½ cup (8 tablespoons | 4 oz | 113 g ) unsalted butter, room temperature
- zest from 1 large lemon
- 1 cup (214 g) sugar (set aside 1 tablespoon for sprinkling)
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups (256 g) all-purpose flour (set aside 1/4 cup of this to toss with the blueberries)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. kosher salt (I like 1.25 tsp)
- 2 cups fresh blueberries, picked over
- ½ cup buttermilk, see FAQs below
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Using a stand mixer or hand-held mixer, cream the butter with the lemon zest and the 1 cup minus 1 tablespoon of sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the batter, and stir with spatula to incorporate. Add all of the buttermilk. Stir. Add remaining flour, and stir until flour is absorbed. Fold in the blueberries. (Leave excess flour from the blueberry bowl behind.)
- Grease an 8- or 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar—I prefer this 8-inch pan because I like the thicker pieces) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. If you have parchment paper on hand, line the pan with parchment on top of the butter. Spread the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the batter with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes — a 9-inch pan will be done in closer to 35 minutes; an 8-inch pan usually needs 40 to 45 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary, especially if you’re using a smaller pan such as an 8×8-inch. It’s not unusual for this cake to take 50 minutes, so just be patient.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
FAQs
- Can this be made ahead of time? Yes. Prepare the batter, spread it into the prepared baking pan, cover it with plastic wrap, and store in the fridge. In the morning, if time permits, bring it to room temperature for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with the sugar, then bake as directed. It may need more time if the batter was refrigerated.
- Can this be doubled? Yes. Bake it in a 9×13-inch pan … like this pan from Pyrex. Increase the baking time but begin checking at the 35 minute mark.
- What if I don’t have buttermilk? Use 2% or whole milk or make your own buttermilk: place 2 teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice in a liquid measuring cup. Fill cup with milk until it reaches the 1/2-cup line. Let stand for five minutes. Use as directed.
- Can this be made gluten free? Yes. I like Cup4Cup and King Arthur Flour gluten-free flour mixes, but use whatever you like, keeping in mind that all gluten-free flours absorb liquid differently, so you may need to adjust to get the batter to the right consistency.
- Should the batter be thick? Yes. As with all baking, I highly recommend using a scale to measure the flour. I have this one, which costs under $11.
- Can I bake this into muffins? Yes. Follow the baking directions on this post.
- Can I use frozen berries? Yes. No need to thaw.
- What other fruit could I use? Really any fresh fruit or berries. Around the winter holidays, I make this cranberry-orange buttermilk breakfast cake.
- Can this be frozen? Made ahead of time? Yes! Let cool completely, then wrap well with plastic wrap or other airtight wrap. Freeze for up to 3 months. Let thaw at room temperature the night before serving. Reheat at 350ºF for 15 minutes before serving. If you are not freezing it, store it at room temperature for a day. Refrigerate if storing for more than 1 day.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
3,550 Comments on “Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake”
This looks fantastic! What do you use for your vanilla extract? Have you ever tried making your own vanilla? It’s cheaper than buying the good stuff and even cheaper than the imitation vanilla. What kind do you use?
The pictures are amazing. We have a raspberry patch and will be trying it both ways!
The entire fam loved this for breakfast this morning; delish & easy! I used thawed frozen berries to save some $$ & the only thing I would have done differently is rinsed the berries & dried them before putting the flour on – the batter was VERY purple, but it still tasted great!
Do you think you can make the batter ahead of time and pop it in the oven the next day?
Leslie — Yes, definitely. I made the batter the night before and baked it off in the morning. I didn’t store it in the pan I baked it in, but according to one commenter, you can butter a baking dish, put the batter right in, and store it over night. It baked off just fine.
This sounds so delish! I just came across it on Pinterest 😉 and followed it here… I printed it out by copy and pasting it into Notepad. That worked very nicely. My mom used to make something like this – I know I’ll love it!
So excited that I found a link to your page. Just made the cake this morning, and it was wonderful and moist. So tasty!
This looks great! I plan to make this to take to work next week, but would really prefer to make it as muffins/cupcakes just so it’s easier for single servings & so I don’t have to leave my dish…has anyone tried that yet & did it turn out okay? Recommended bake time?
Natalie — This recipe works very well as cupcakes. I would bake them for about 30 minutes.
OMG OMG…love this. so similar to the one I put on my blog from Mom’s archives…check it out: https://www.myjudythefoodie.com/2012/02/blueberry-brunch-cake/
When you made these as cupcakes did you spray the paper wrappers to grease them?
Kohara — nope, I did not spray the wrappers. Just plopped the batter right in!
Can you use frozen blueberries?
Becky — yes. I have not done so, but many of the commenters have with great success. Don’t stir too much they warn — the batter turns purple — but otherwise, the cake turns out really well.
As others have said, I found this on Pinterest, and am SO glad I did. We just made it, and yum! Our house smelled so good, my daughter could barely wait out the 15 minute cooling period. I subbed in 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour for a little fiber. It was a very stiff, but added around an ounce more buttermilk. I also used 1/2 frozen, 1/2 fresh blueberries. It took 10 extra minutes in the oven, but the outcome was not affected. Thanks again for the delicious-ness!
Carolyn — So happy to hear this! Love the idea of adding a little whole wheat flour in there. Thanks for sharing!
To save yourself from having blue batter, just plop the blueberries on top and push them into the batter.
natalie….can i subtitute the buttermilk with sour cream? just look at the pic, i cant wait to try ur recipe, thanks for sharing
Lina — I would imagine sour cream would be a fine substitute — it’s got that tang. I’ve never tried it, so I can’t say for sure. I imagine the texture might be altered slightly, but I can’t imagine much. Report back if you give it a go.
Lina, you can substitute milk with a 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice for buttermilk. Let it curdle for a couple minutes, then blend.
For every cup of milk, 1 tbsp lemon juice = sour milk
Heather — thanks for these substitutions. I’m dying to try this cake with homemade buttermilk.
Would I need to make any adjustments for high altitude?
Liz — I’m so sorry, I have no idea. This batter is very similar to a muffin batter — it bakes beautifully as muffins in fact — so, do you ever make adjustments when you bake off muffins? If you do, I would make those same adjustments with this cake.
I am not sure if this has been mentioned already but i wanted to know if this was something that could be baked the night before (to be heated up for morning tea the next day) or if it is best made just before eaten.
Cheers,
Felicity — Yes, it definitely can be baked ahead of time — some commenters have mentioned that it tasted great baked a day in advance. I’m definitely partial to serving it the day it is baked, but you can always mix up the batter the night before and bake it in the morning. This works well. Some commenters have even stored the batter right in the pan that they baked it off in and said it worked perfectly.
I just made this with my two year old, it’s in the oven and looking awesome! This is the second time I made it…the first time didn’t go as well. I used frozen blueberries straight from the freezer, when the cold berries hit the batter it turned into purple cement. So it took longer to cook so by the time the middle was done the outside was darker than I wanted, still yummy though! This time I thawed the frozen berries overnight (fresh blueberries are awfully expensive here). And I rinsed them so all that juice wouldn’t turn everything all purple and they were room temp. I think it solved all the probs I had last time.
Thanks for the great recipie it will be a regular in our house now!
Amanda — thanks so much for the tip on thawing and rinsing the berries. Glad that solved the purple-batter issue. Hope the cake turned out well!
This recipe is wonderful!
I discovered you via Pinterest about 6 weeks ago, & have baked this breakfast cake several time since. The only change I made was using ¾ cup of buttermilk (via Paula’s suggestion; dishingthedivine.com) so that the batter would be a little easier to work with. I used fresh strawberries (cut into small pieces) once, but the cake seemed mushy — I probably should have cooked it a little longer.
Blueberries are the best; they are my favorite anyway. The cake turns out fluffy & moist; my husband loves it so much he eats most of it, before the rest of us even get a piece!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Pam — thanks so much for the tip on the buttermilk. I have blueberries and strawberries and buttermilk on hand right now … hmmmmm. So glad you are liking the cake. It definitely is easily adaptable to whatever you have on hand.
I looked through lots of the comments, but couldn’t find an answer to this one — hope it doesn’t sound too stupid. So, the batter is pretty hard to stir once most of the flour is added, I am skeptical about adding the blueberries WITH the 1/4 c of flour they were tossed in. Do you add that flour or discard it?! Hope you read this soon…!!!
Beth — not stupid at all. I usually scoop the blueberries out of the bowl into the batter leaving the excess flour behind (which I then discard). Honestly though, I’ve done it both ways and it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Hope that helps! Let me know if I can answer any other questions.
This recipe looks amazing!!! I wonder if anyone has a suggestion about how to substitute for the egg. My daughter is allergic to eggs. She can’t even have egg substitutes because they too contain egg product. Any suggestions would be awesome. Thank you.
Jennifer — Thank you for answering Krista’s question. I’m afraid I can’t be of more help — I didn’t know that egg substitutes contain egg product?! That’s annoying.
Krista — I hope one of these substitutions works out for you. Report back if you give one a go.
@Krista – picked this up off Pinterest:
Baking
For each egg, substitute one of the following in recipes. These substitutes work well when baking from scratch and substituting 1 to 3 eggs.
1 tsp. baking powder, 1 T. liquid, 1 T. vinegar
1 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 T. water, 1 1/2 T. oil, 1 tsp. baking powder
1 packet gelatin, 2 T. warm water. Do not mix until ready to use.
I believe I have heard of people using the first one, not sure about the rest. Hope this
helps!
I just made this yesterday to have for breakfast today because we have a lot house guests. So easy and delicious! This recipe came together so fast and the cake is light and flavorful. Thanks for sharing!
This looks like a really good twist on our frequent weekend-morning blueberry pancakes!
@ Krista: chia seeds make a good egg substitute, I have used them successfully.
@ Lina: not sure about sour cream, but I use plain yogurt interchangeably with buttermilk. If it’s a thicker yogurt, I mix it 1:1 with milk, a thinner yogurt just needs a splash of milk to thin it out a bit.
mine is sitting on the stove cooling (and hopefully still cooking a bit) now! I start a new job tomorrow and wanted something that I could eat quickly for breakfast so this was right on time. The batter was quite thick and it seems like it takes a bit to cook in the middle but it looks yummy! I don’t have toothpicks but when i stuck the knife in, it came out with some batter on it. I think the next time I’ll put it in a slightly larger pan so it’s not as dense in the middle can can bake more evenly. Can’t wait to try it!
The sunday school class loved it!!!! I used splenda because my husband can’t eat sugar …always double the amount when I use splenda. I mixed up the night before and placed in prepared pan with cake baking spray. . Baked in the morning before church. Be careful with the frozen blueberries. Fresh blueberries here were going to cost me $13.00 for aprx 4 cups. Let the frozen one become room temp. I made the same mistake and turned it to clay. It was very hard to mix berries and spread in pan without making mush out of the berries…But it was so good. I added 1/4 cup of buttermilk to the top when added the sugar to help moisten it back up. I think discarding the excess flour in the blueberry mix would have been the key. I will have to make this again on my husband demands. Don’t know what the cold temp does to it but it must make the difference or maybe it was because I doubled the recipe.
.
I baked a Gluten free version of this today and it was wonderful! I just replaced the flour with a rice flour blend. Great recipe, thanks!
Becky — would you mind sharing your rice flour blend recipe? I am curious and so is Pam 🙂
I want to make this for a brunch on Sunday with about 20 people. Do you know what the measurements would be if I made it in a 9×13 pan instead of a 9×9? Thanks
Marisue — I haven’t made this in a 9×13 pan yet, but many of the commenters have. The consensus seems to be to double the recipe for the 9X13 and to add about 5 to 10 minutes of cooking time. Letting it cool completely before serving is also key. Hope that helps!
I read this recipe last night and had to try it as soon as I could! 14 years ago we stayed at a lovely B&B near Yosemite and the owner baked us something like this for breakfast. I have never found a recipe that was quite like it until now
This morning I pulled out a bag of blackberries (left over from a bumper crop in the autumn) from the freezer. As soon as they defrosted I made the cake. It was ridiculously easy and utterly divine. The blackberries mostly held their shape and the cake wasn’t too sweet, unlike breakfast cakes I’ve tried before. Cloudy Yorkshire felt like sunny Yosemite for a while.
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe
Jay — thanks so much for writing in. I am so happy to hear this story. I imagine home-grown blackberries make this cake especially divine. I hope one day to visit cloudy Yorkshire. It looks beautiful.
It’s in the oven right now… I did use frozen blueberries that I THOUGHT had thawed enough, but It’s been baking for 45 minn now and it’s no where near done. The center is still gooey! Hope this turns out all right. My kids and the hubs keep asking if it’s done! 🙂
Please publish the gluten free receipt…we have that problem in my home and am trying to find good tasting food
Pam, hi, I don’t have a specific gluten-free recipe, but I recently discovered C4C flour, which is expensive but gluten free and works really well. Also, RecipeGirl (www.recipegirl.com) just informed me that making gluten-free flour mixes is really easy. I haven’t tried her recipe, but if you visit her site, I bet you can find it.