Blueberry Coffee Cake (aka Boy Bait)
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This tender blueberry coffee cake topped with a crunchy cinnamon streusel is cleverly named for its habit-forming effect on boys.
This old-fashioned blueberry coffee cake comes with a darling name and story. In 1954, a 15-year-old girl from Chicago named Renny Powell submitted a blueberry coffee cake recipe to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe & Baking Contest (the precursor to today’s Pillsbury Bake-Off). Renny took second place in the junior division for her recipe, cleverly named “Boy Bait” for its habit-forming effect on young men.
Tender, easy to make, and jam-packed with berries, boy bait has been popular ever since. My version is updated with lemon zest to complement the flavor of the blueberries and a crunchy cinnamon streusel topping. You certainly don’t need to be a teenage boy to enjoy it, but I can attest that this 14-year-old loves it — so maybe Renny was onto something ?.
What You’ll Need To Make Blueberry Coffee Cake
Fresh blueberries are ideal for this coffee cake, but frozen will work, too. If you’re using frozen berries, stir them into the batter without thawing, otherwise they’ll turn the batter purple. If you have extra blueberries on hand, or find them on sale at the market, you might also enjoy my blueberry pancakes, blueberry cobbler, or lemon blueberry pound cake – all family favorites!
How To Make Blueberry Coffee Cake
To begin, make the streusel topping by combining the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
Using your fingers, mix until no lumps of brown sugar remain, then add the cold butter.
Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture reaches a crumbly state. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Next, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beating on low speed to combine.
The batter will be quite thick.
Add the berries to the batter.
Fold gently with a spatula until evenly distributed. Do not over-mix.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly.
Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the batter.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden brown around the edges and a cake tester comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 20 minutes, then serve right from the pan. Enjoy!
You May Also Like
- Best Blueberry Muffins
- Blueberry Cornbread Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake
- Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Cinnamon-Walnut Swirl
- Blueberry Cobbler
- Crumb Cake
Blueberry Coffee Cake (AKA Blueberry Boy Bait)
This tender blueberry coffee cake topped with a crunchy cinnamon streusel is cleverly named for its habit-forming effect on boys.
Ingredients
For the Streusel Topping
- 6 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into ½-inch chunks
For the Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon packed lemon zest, from 1 lemon
- ½ cup milk
- 2 cups fresh blueberries (frozen may be used but do not defrost)
Instructions
- Make the streusel topping: Combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Using your fingers, mix until no lumps of brown sugar remain. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until it reaches a crumbly state. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Grease a 9-inch square pan with butter or nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
- Gradually add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beating on low speed to combine. Add the berries to the batter and fold gently with a spatula until evenly distributed. Do not over-mix.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden brown around the edges and a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 20 minutes, then serve right from the pan.
- This cake is best served on the day it is made. Leftovers will keep well for a few days wrapped in foil and stored at room temperature.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, double-wrap it securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place it in heavy-duty freezer bag. Thaw overnight on the countertop before serving.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (16 servings)
- Serving size: 1 piece
- Calories: 223
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated fat: 6 g
- Carbohydrates: 31 g
- Sugar: 15 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Sodium: 169 mg
- Cholesterol: 47 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Disappointing recipe. Thought it lacked flavor. Big fan of this website overall.
I had the same experience-HUGE fan of Jenn’s work and have had success with other recipes, but found this cake to be dry, not very flavorful, and the crumb topping skimpy (although it seemed like loads when I was sprinkling it over). I made the recipe just as written, so I probably won’t try again but will continue to enjoy all the other recipes here 🙂
I have to say I find it wild all the people who are commenting about there being no coffee in the cake-this is a common term and it’s ok if you don’t know that coffee cake implies it would be a nice accompaniment to coffee, vs containing coffee, but for goodness sake, Jenn didn’t name it so don’t rate her recipe down bc you don’t like the name of it!
I’ve not tried this recipe but will soon! If you haven’t tried Jenn’s Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake I highly suggest it…very moist and delicious!
Delicious cake, followed recipe exactly as written and came out beautiful. I have fresh blueberries just picked and this was the perfect use for two cups. I am trying again today but ran out of vanilla and fresh lemon so I substituted almond and orange will get back and let you know how it is.
This is a great recipe. It is moist and soft. I made it in a 9-inch springform pan and sliced it in wedges like a cake. Because of the the lemon zest, this will also be good with fresh or frozen cranberries. I will definitely make it again. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I will check out your other recipes.
This is the best blueberry Coffee cake ever. I doubled the recipe for xtra people this time. HUGE hit! Is it absolutely the best!!!!!
Do you recall, or made notes, on how long you baked it?
Made this today and it was delicious!! Only problem was all my blueberries sank to the bottom of the pan. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong?
Hi Mo, Sorry to hear your blueberries sunk. What brand of flour did you use? I have great luck with King Arthur all-purpose flour. It’s slightly higher in protein than some other brands which helps to give cakes more structure (and keeps fruit from sinking). Hope that helps!
I got it ready to put in the oven, but then plans changed and I never got around to baking it. Was it ok to freeze it before I bake it?
Hi Ann, I’ve never tried freezing cake batter, so I can’t guarantee how it will turn out when you bake it, but I just read online that it’s possible. Please LMK how the cake turns out when you bake it!
I learned this on the Great British Baking show, to avoid your fruits from sinking to the bottom of your bake, lightly toss them in flour and shake the excess off. It should keep your fruit of choice suspended within the bake. Hope this helps!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. The streusel topping is buttery, decadent and delicious. The cake is perfect with just the right amount of sweetness. I did reduce the amount of butter in the cake to be a bit more healthy, using 1/2 stick of butter plus 3 tablespoons of canola oil. This is my new favorite coffee cake!
Followed the recipe exactly. Baked in a glass 9×9. Took 45 minutes. Blueberry lovers perfect coffee cake. It is just sweet enough that the true flavor of blueberries shines through.
Thank you for the recipe, I made it yesterday. I agree with another reviewer saying it needed a touch more sweetness in the main cake part. I would say a full 1 cup of sugar would be good. And this coming from someone who doesnt like my desserts very sweet –I usually reduce the sugar. Otherwise it was good, loved the topping.
I just made this today. It’s good but I think it could use a little something additional. I put the amount of sugar the recipe listed and it isn’t quite sweet enough. It has more of the flavor of a bread, less of a coffee cake. Perhaps my blueberries weren’t sweet enough? I used organic wild blueberries.
I usually don’t like things very sweet, for me to say it isn’t sweet enough is saying something. I might make a drizzle for it. It is moist though and pretty, it tastes okay just not as good as I was expecting it to. I didn’t make any mistakes with the measurements, do you have any suggestions as to what I might have done wrong?
Hi Janice, sorry you didn’t love this! If you found that it wasn’t sweet enough, I’d guess that perhaps your blueberries were pretty tart. You could try adding up to 1/4 more sugar if you make this again but a better option would be to taste the blueberries and make sure they’re really sweet ones. Hope that helps!
Is there a way to make this vegan?
Hi Jen, It looks like you’d need to make several adjustments to make this vegan — other readers have mentioned that they’ve replaced the butter with coconut oil, you could use non-dairy milk, and for the eggs, two of the best substitutes I’ve heard about (I haven’t personally tried either of them) are a combination of water, oil, and baking powder, and carbonated water. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for more information about both. I would assume many recipes would also work with some kind of store-bought egg substitute. Please LMK how it turns out if you make all these changes!