Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake

This post is sponsored by Bonne Maman. As always, all opinions and recipes are my own.

Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake makes a delicious breakfast in bed for that special person in your life! This simple coffee cake makes a delicious Mother’s Day breakfast or a brunch centerpiece. Makes one 9″ coffee cake.

I don’t have many Mother’s Day memories from when I was a kid, but I know that my sister, my dad and I always worked together to make something for Mom for dinner or dessert.

The only memory that comes to mind without fail is centered around a Key Lime Pie. A failed one.

My mom loves Key Lime Pie. But key limes are hard to find. And since the rest of us were just so-so on the pie, she never made one for herself.

One Mother’s Day, we decided to go all in and baked a Key Lime Pie to show how much we love and appreciate her.

We baked a gorgeous pie – complete with a homemade crust – and when we took our first bite of it after our special Mother’s Day dinner, everyone cringed.

Bitter faces all around.

Turns out, we forgot to add the sugar to the pie, making it inedible.

Why I love this recipe:

Whenever I think of Mother’s Day, that pie comes to mind, as well as how we wanted so badly to make Mom something she loved.

In the years since, I’ve worked on my execution of baked goods. While I still fail on occasion, I’ve gotten more consistent.

And I’ve gotta say: This Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake turned out dreamy, even though it’s not the failed dessert we once served.

It’s got excellent lemon flavor, thanks to lemon zest, with pops of blueberry goodness, courtesy of Bonne Maman preserves. It’s the perfect sweet-tart combination, wrapped up in a gorgeous cake with a streusel topping.

What’s not to love?

Other Mother’s Day brunch recipes are adore: Chocolate Raspberry Overnight French Toast Casserole / Vegan Banana Muffins / Gluten Free Broccoli Quiche Lorraine Bites / Princess Violette Cocktail / Sage Browned Butter Homemade Home Fries

Looking for more brunch ideas in general? Check out my Breakfast and Brunch landing page.

What do I need to make this recipe?

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• Round cake pan
• Glass bowls
• Hand mixer
• Dough blender (for the streusel.)
• Zester

In addition to these tools, you’re going to need some ingredients, too. Make sure to scroll all the way down to the recipe card to get the exact amounts!

• Unsalted butter—we want the butter softened and at room temperature, so remember to take it out of the fridge about 45 minutes before you want to bake this coffee cake recipe.
• Granulated sugar—also known as white sugar, there is no substitute for this.
• Lemon zest—we’ll need about 2 lemons’ worth of zest, so get some good ones at the store, and wash them before you zest them.
• Plain Greek yogurt—I suggest using whole fat yogurt here because it results in a better tasting coffee cake, but you can use nonfat yogurt if that’s the only yogurt you have on hand.
• Eggs—
• All-purpose flour—we keep unbleached flour at our house, but you can use regular AP flour, too. I have no tried this coffee cake recipe with a gluten free substitute, so I do not suggest making a flour swap.
• Leaveners—we’re using a combination of baking powder and baking soda to give our coffee cake some lift!
• Kosher salt—I like to use a fine grain salt in recipes like these. You may also use a fine grain sea salt if you have that on hand.
• Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves—
• Dark brown sugar—
• Pecans—roughly chopped
• Unsalted butter—I’m listing this again because for the streusel, we need the butter to be cold and cut into ½” cubes!
• Pure vanilla extract

Please note that the lemon coffee cake with blueberries gets its blueberry flavor from the preserves, not from fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries.

How to make Lemon Blueberry Coffee Cake

Make The Crumble Topping

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour and chopped pecans. Use a fork to mix them together.

Add in cubes of chilled butter and vanilla. Use a pastry blender or that same fork to combine the mixture until it’s the texture of wet sand. (I prefer the pastry blender for this step since it can get the streusel topping mixture a bit finer.)

When the streusel reaches the texture of wet sand, pop the bowl in the refrigerator until time to bake.

Make the coffee cake

Prepare. Preheat the oven, and spray a round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.

Cream the butter and sugar in a medium bowl with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Add the lemon zest, yogurt and eggs to the wet ingredients. Blend until smooth.

Sprinkle the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined, and then pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Using a tablespoon measure, dollop the Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves on top of the batter. I like to space mine out and give each dollop a little breathing room since we’re going to swirl these preserves into the batter.

Run a butter knife through the preserves, swirling them into the batter. Obviously, you can do as much or as little of this as you’d like. I recommend trying to swirl evenly, so every bite has some blueberry.

Sprinkle the cold streusel topping on top of the batter.

Bake. Transfer the cake pan to the preheated oven and bake.

Once baked through and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, remove from the oven, cool completely, remove from the pan and serve with your favorite breakfast beverage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Erin’s Easy Entertaining Tips

This Lemon Coffee Cake with Blueberry Preserves would be an excellent recipe to serve at an at-home brunch.

Here are some ideas for using this breakfast recipe for a gathering:

• Bake the coffee cake in advance. That way, you don’t have to wake up earlier to bake this goodness. Reheat the coffee cake in a 200°F oven before it’s time to serve.
• Make double. If you’re serving a crowd, make two coffee cakes instead of one so everyone can have a big ‘ol slice!
• Serve it alongside sippers. If your people like mimosas, consider creating a mimosa bar.

Quick tips and tricks to the best coffee cake

• How to store: Wrap the completely cooled coffee cake in plastic wrap, and store in the fridge. Reheat in a 200°F oven.
• Don’t have yogurt? Use sour cream instead!
• Don’t like pecans? Leave ’em out, and have your coffee cake be nut free.

What can I pair with this?

• Strawberry Champagne Cocktail
• Pineapple Fruit Cocktail
• Brunch Salad
• Fresh Strawberry Cake

Now who’s ready for a slice of this gorgeous cake?

Scroll on down to learn how to make this beauty of a breakfast to surprise your mom with…