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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This blueberry coffee cake (aka Boy Bait) will be in regular rotation at my house. I can’t believe it took me so long to try this recipe since I make so many of your other ones for my family, and who doesn’t love a good coffee cake? This cake is perfection, easy to make and stayed fresh till it disappeared at 3 days. I love the tender crumb and the streusel is perfect, what a great way to use a couple cups of blueberries. Thank you so much for yet another winner!
Could this be made in a loaf pan? 8×4 or 9×5 if so? And how long would you bake? Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Viki, I haven’t tried it, but think you could make it in either. If you want to use an 8 x 4, you’ll need to halve the recipe. The bake time would be different in either case but I’m not sure by how much, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on it. Please LMK how it turns out if you try it!
How come there are no measurements? Would love to make it but it doesn’t say how much of all ingredients.
Hi Kim, It sounds like you are just looking at the portion of the page that has the pictures with some instructions above. If you scroll down a bit to under the pictures, you’ll find the full recipe. Alternatively, at the very top of the page, to the right of the recipe name, you’ll see an orange/red button that says Jump to Recipe – if you click on that, it will take you directly to the recipe. Hope that clarifies!
Could I use whole milk versus 1%?
Sure!
Just made this for my husband tonight and have actually made it years ago when I stumbled upon this recipe for the first time. This time around I made some slight adjustments. Only had a round 9 inch cake pan available, subbed the milk for buttermilk, added about a 1/4 cup of sour cream, and doubled the streusel with extra cinnamon and dark brown sugar – half was put in as a middle layer and the remainder on top. This still came out great! Smells and looks beautiful! Super moist and not to sweet. Great balance between the sweet and tart of the blueberries, the lightness and slightly sweet of the cake crumb, and the buttery, toasty, caramel spiced sweetness and crunch of the streusel. Great recipe on its own, but also a great base recipe to play with and experiment.
Our family loves this recipe! Sometimes we do 1.5x the recipe and bake in a metal 9×13 pan. Recently we have been substituting sour cherries from our cherry trees and it makes for a perfect combo of tart and sweet!
i don’t have whole milk. should i use one percent or buttermilk?
I’d use 1 percent. Enjoy!
Love this recipe and make it often either as written or 1 1/2ing for a 9×13 pan. I used frozen blueberries for the first time today and was a bit concerned about how long it would take to cook after reading reviews but it just took an extra 5 minutes (45 rather than 40).
New household favorite. I used cup4cup gluten free multipurpose flour & followed everything else exactly and it bakes up beautifully. Takes about an additional 5 minutes. Make sure you use enough lemon zest, my lemons were small so it took 2 to get the full amount. Delicious, flavorful, & moist!
I cant believe how much everyone and I mean everyone loves this desert!
It seems I am baking it weekly!
Do you think this recipe could be adapted to using peaches or apples?
I have a friend allergic to berries.
Thank you for so many wonderful recipes,
Hi Denise, so glad you like the cake! I have never tried it with peaches so I can’t say for sure, but another reader commented that she replaced the blueberries with peaches successfully so I think it’s worth a try. And if you want to use apples, I’d suggest this apple cake instead (and you can use the streusel topping from this recipe on top of it). Please report back if you try this with peaches!