Blueberry Crumb Cake Recipe (2024)

I use yogurt in place of buttermilk in almost all cases. I almost always have plain yogurt.

Mark Bittman* tells how to “sour” regular milk by adding 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to 1 3/4 cup of milk that is at room temperature. (I use a waterbath; a microwave is okay, too.) Let mixture sit for about 10 min. until it clabbers (thickens with lumps). For this recipe, I added just -3/4 tblsp. to a half-cup milk. My “buttermilk” gave a wonderfully moist zing to this most delicious of crumb cakes. [*How to Cook Everything]

I made it exactly as the recipe says. Even with everything mise en place the night before, this took half an hour to get into the oven, but it came out beautiful and delicious, and disappeared quickly as people took yet another piece! Very nice for a special breakfast or tea.

Buy powdered buttermilk and mix it as needed. It keeps for months. You can purchase it in the baking section of a large grocery store. OR you can use 15 T milk and 1 T white vinegar or lemon juice (mix and let stand ~ 5 minutes). I do the former but the latter works.

I see a lot of complaints about baking time -- Covering with foil, too much browning, not done at 55 min.
May I suggest investing in an oven thermometer? All ovens run at a variable rate -- gas or electric, some are hotter than the temp set; many are colder. I bake professionally in people's homes and always bring thermometer. It's amazing to see the 100 degree swings in ovens. PLEASE. They're not expensive, and they'll save your recipes more often than you realize.

Since I experienced disaster recently with a NYT sour cream coffeecake, I made 2 adjustments when making this recipe: (1) I used a tube pan (not 8x8 so batter overflows) and (2) no butter in the streusel (which sank & was gooey in the other recipe) but I did sprinkle a few pats on the top before baking. Re-adjusted this turned out beautiful & delicious!

Delicious and moist but next time I would double the cinnamon, a tad more nutmeg, and either double the lemon zest or add some lemon extract... yummmm.

I wanted this to be more of a coffee cake, so I decreased butter in cake by one tablespoon and added two tablespoons of sour cream. Also added cinnamon to the topping and additional cinnamon to cake. Perfect at 52 minutes. Looks beautiful and tastes wonderful!

This is a "best in class" cake! My family likes a little cinnamon, so I added 1/4 teaspoon to the topping.
Thank you!

I agree with what Ellen said. This is a great treat for both family and guests to enjoy. Perfect for dessert or breakfast.

Followed the recipe exactly. The cake was moist and delicious, with the blueberries a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the crumlble topping. I would definitely make this again!

I'm a Belgian reader, and find the butter tbs, very inconvenient.
I found 1 tbspoon butter = 14.2 g ! The cake is cooking. No overflow with a 8x8 inches metal pan Le Creuset.

At end of max cooking time (65 mins), topping gold but center wet (liquid bubbling up). Covered it loosely w/foil to prevent burning top & checked every 5 mins for total of 90 mins -- still wet, so turned oven off & left it in (still covered w/foil) 15 mins -- looked less wet but still damp. After cooling on rack 30 mins, center had sunk in deeply -- texture fine & tasted good, but what happened? Oven temp is OK, used 8" square Pyrex -- maybe 9" square instead? So popular, I'd like to fix it.

This cake was easy to make, not too sweet, and delicious the next 2 mornings with my coffee. The crumb is especially nice. Set timer for 50 minutes to start testing for doneness; you want the cake light and moist.

I used frozen blueberries and I thought it didn't taste much like blueberries. It seemed more plain coffee cake.

Delicious cake, all the family loved it! I didn’t have any buttermilk so used yogurt instead, worked beautifully. Will definitely make again!

Didn’t see the notes about pan size and used a 9 inch cake pan instead of the suggested pan. Almost overflowed. Had to bake for almost 80 minutes. Will try bundt or large springform next time. Flavor is really nice - not too sweet. Will try again when local nj blueberries are in season.

Mark Bittman* tells how to “sour” regular milk by adding 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to 1 3/4 cup of milk that is at room temperature. (I use a waterbath; a microwave is okay, too.) Let mixture sit for about 10 min. until it clabbers (thickens with lumps). For this recipe, I added just -3/4 tblsp. to a half-cup milk. My “buttermilk” gave a wonderfully moist zing to this most delicious of crumb cakes. [*How to Cook Everything]

This cake is perfection—especially the crumb topping, which I plan to appropriate for apple crisp this weekend. Made a few small changes:- Made this GLUTEN-FREE by swapping in 1:1 King Arthur GF flour. Worked perfectly.- Rather than zest, which my husband hates (I know, I know), I used the juice of one lemon. Next time might use even more.- We didn’t have buttermilk, so I used the 1/2 c. whole milk 3/4 tbsp white vinegar tip another commenter recommended.Took a long time, but worth it

Surprised to find a disappointing experience at this site! The cake sagged and was soggy in the middle, even after an hour plus in the oven, but also seemed dry and not that flavorful. The crumble topping was nice but not unusual. Meh.

I used half whole wheat flour and sour cream thinned with a little milk as that was all that I had. Delicious!

Easy to assemble and really delicious. I'll definitely make it again.

I wanted this to be more of a coffee cake, so I decreased butter in cake by one tablespoon and added two tablespoons of sour cream. Also added cinnamon to the topping and additional cinnamon to cake. Perfect at 52 minutes. Looks beautiful and tastes wonderful!

I'm a Belgian reader, and find the butter tbs, very inconvenient.
I found 1 tbspoon butter = 14.2 g ! The cake is cooking. No overflow with a 8x8 inches metal pan Le Creuset.

A bit labor intensive, yes, but an absolute winner. I will be making this again!

Used a metal meatloaf pan, cooked for 65 mins, turned out beautifully. Agree with others that this isn't a "sweet" bread, but I find it the perfect sweetness level especially if you like sugar/creamer in your coffee. I added-- and recommend--the zest of a whole small orange (roughly the size of baseball) which came out to be approx 1 tsp. because I couldn't figure out what a 1/4 of an orange really meant. I would make this again if I had buttermilk I needed to use up.

I see a lot of complaints about baking time -- Covering with foil, too much browning, not done at 55 min.
May I suggest investing in an oven thermometer? All ovens run at a variable rate -- gas or electric, some are hotter than the temp set; many are colder. I bake professionally in people's homes and always bring thermometer. It's amazing to see the 100 degree swings in ovens. PLEASE. They're not expensive, and they'll save your recipes more often than you realize.

Kefir is a perfect substitute for buttermilk. I always have some on hand as I use that instead of milk for morning breakfasts.

Spectacular! Overflowed an 8 inch square pan. Should be baked with another bigger pan on the rack beneath it to catch spill, or maybe try a 9 x 9 pan?

Good coffee cake, but nothing special. I have baked it for 55 minutes.
Streusel is a bit to crusty for my taste. Maybe I will change some things next time.