Blueberry Buttermilk Coffeecake

Most Helpful Positive Review

Because I've had a quart of buttermilk to make use of and have been making lots of "Buttermilk This and Thats," I've learned very quickly what an incredible, stark difference in moisture real, fresh buttermilk makes in batters! SO much better than using soured milk, or powdered buttermilk, and so much better than not being included at all (I offer the "Black Magic Cake" from this site as proof!) The crumb is soft, tender and moist, just as it is in this cake as well. This cake is not overly sweet, so I hope no reviewers will dock it for that - it is a coffeecake, after all, not a dessert cake, although for my tastes it's perfectly suited for dessert too! For those of you familiar with "Blueberry Buckle," either the butter or shortening version, this coffeecake is similar...but better because the cake is significantly more moist, fluffy and has a more delicate texture. The ingredients and preparation method are perfect as written, tho' those wanting more "spunk" could certainly add some cinnamon to the crumb topping, or swap out the blueberries for other berries, or even use a cinnamon swirl or fruit filling (peach sounds awesome to me)! The crumb topping is what it should be, somewhat crackly and buttery, not cloyingly sweet or greasy. This batter is so basic, and so good that I'll be including this recipe in my reference file. Once again I'm convinced that any batter-type recipe with buttermilk in its list of ingredients is worth giving a second glance to.

—naples34102 

I haven't tried this recipe but in reading the reviews someone said the blueberries all sank to the bottom. To prevent this add the blueberries to the dry mixture and make sure they are well coated with the dry ingredients before adding the wet. This also works for raisins & nuts.

It's about time I rated this recipe because I have used it so much with great success. It's great just the way it is, but is also really easy to amend to your needs. I usually halve this recipe and bake it in an 8x8 inch glass pan with great success. The halved recipe also did well in a 9 inch springform pan IIRC. I halved the amount of baking powder in the original recipe in order to get rid of that metallic taste that comes with using too much. You could also try making baking powder using baking soda and cream of tartar which would also not leave a metallic taste. I have started adding a very small amount of cinnamon to the dry ingredients. I use 1/8 tsp when I make the full recipe. Just a tiny bit really adds something. I too added brown sugar instead of white to the topping, which made it look much better. I also like to use oil instead of butter which creates a cake that keeps very well, moist, and you don't have to spend time creaming it. for a lower fat cake I have tried substituting water for half the oil, but this made a slightly tougher cake. I might try applesauce sometime instead. I add the oil to the wet ingredients. whole wheat pastry flour mixed in with the white flour also worked quite well.