This moist, tender blackberry coffee cake recipe, tender and moist from sour cream and topped with nutty cinnamon streusel, is adapted from one of America’s best bakers. It’s the perfect snacking cake for breakfast, brunch, or dessert — especially in summer when blackberries are ripest. Learn how to make it, with my best pro tips for perfect results.
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Why You’ll Love This Blackberry Coffee Cake Recipe
This blackberry coffee cake is pretty much the best. Perfect for breakfast, with a cup of tea or coffee, or as an easy dessert, it’s effortlessly elegant: moist and tender thanks to sour cream, with juicy blackberries folded throughout for bursts of fresh, sweet-tart fruit flavor.
- Simple to make: Just make a simple cake batter, quick streusel, fold with berries, and bake.
- Adapted from one of America’s best bakers of all time: The recipe is adapted from beloved and famous Maida Heatter‘s classic coffee cake recipe.
- Keeps fresh for days: This is a very moist cake thanks to sour cream and butter, and tastes even better the next day, and freezes well.
- Versatile: This is just as delicious for breakfast or brunch as for a casual summer dessert. You can also make this all year long (just use frozen berries), or substitute other fruit like blueberries or peaches.
The recipe is adapted from beloved and famous Maida Heatter‘s classic coffee cake recipe. Maida’s cake recipes and dessert cookbooks are always reliable, and among my favorites. For this blackberry coffee cake recipe, I simply took her delicious, basic sour cream coffee cake recipe and folded in just the right amount of fresh blackberries — and added some more on top of the cake to highlight the fruit.
Whether you’re serving coffee cake at brunch, tea, or just because, it’s a simple, reliable recipe that feels just a little special. And the best part? You can use fresh or frozen berries, so it’s always in season.
More baked goods I love to serve for afternoon tea include these English scones (the official Buckingham Palace recipe) served with homemade, easy strawberry preserves, and Irish Spotted Dog soda bread.
Ingredients You’ll Need
For this recipe, you’ll make 1) a simple sour cream cake batter, and 2) a streusel topping, then 3) combine with berries and bake. Here’s the list of ingredients:
- All-purpose flour
- Cinnamon
- Brown sugar
- Butter
- Chopped pecans (you can substitute walnuts)
- Blackberries (fresh or frozen)
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Salt
- Sugar
- Sour cream
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
Ingredient Notes
Why Sour Cream Makes a Difference
Any time I see sour cream in a cake, I know it will be good. Sour cream does two things in a cake: First, it adds moisture thanks to its fat content and thick, rich texture. Second, sour cream enhances a cake by adding a little tang. This subtle tang adds a flavor dimension that you can’t achieve just with butter or sugar.
Fresh vs. Frozen Blackberries
Either fresh or frozen blackberries work interchangeably here! If you use frozen blackberries in this coffee cake, do not thaw; just add them frozen and be sure not to stir the batter too much when you fold frozen blackberries in — it will turn the batter purple!
Substitutions and Additions
- Substitute plain Greek yogurt for sour cream: Be sure to use full-fat versions of either. Greek yogurt has a nice tang and a thick texture similar to sour cream.
- Substitute the blackberries: Substitute blueberries, large-diced peaches, or plums for the blackberries. Keep the same quantities.
- Walnuts and pecans can be used interchangeably for the nuts
- You can add the zest of one lemon to the cake batter to brighten the blackberry flavor.
Step-by-Step Instructions
The full recipe is printed below, but by way of a quick overview, here’s how to make this coffee cake recipe:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease or line with parchment paper a 13 x 9 x 2″ cake pan.
Step 2: Make the streusel topping and set aside.
Step 3: Make the sour cream coffee cake batter. Stir in most of the blackberries.
Step 4: Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. Top the batter with the remaining blackberries, then the streusel.
Step 5: Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, then let cool on a wire rack until warm. Cut into 12 squares, and serve plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar, dollop of whipped cream, or some ice cream. And, of course, with coffee.
As we move into fall, this Apple Crisp With Oat Topping is another streusel-topped favorite.
How to Serve This Sour Cream Blackberry Coffee Cake
This blackberry coffee cake is wonderfully versatile. Best served warm or at room temperature, you can serve it for a weekend breakfast or brunch, or as an afternoon treat with coffee. It’s also great cut into smaller squares for casual gatherings, or plated with a dollop of whipped cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream for a simple dessert. However you serve it, this is the kind of cake that always invites seconds.
If you want more baking with blackberries, I definitely recommend this mixed fruit tart. It looks gorgeous and always earns oohs and ahhs. And the famous New York Times Plum Torte is another favorite cake, filled with jammy summer fruit.
Blackberry Coffee Cake F.A.Q.s and Baking Tips
Berries can sink in a cake for two reasons: either the cake batter is over- or under-mixed and isn’t providing the right “suspension” for the berries, or 2) the weight drifts them downward during baking. The best way to ensure that your berries don’t sink is to remove a few tablespoons of flour from the batter recipe quantity, and toss the berries in it before adding them to the cake. This provides a “grippy” coating that will help suspend the blackberries in the cake batter. (That said, I’ve never really had an issue with the blackberries sinking at all.)
Yes! this coffee cake also makes about 24 standard size muffins. Portion the batter into paper-lined muffin tins, and divide the streusel topping among each muffin and bake. Muffins will take about 20 to 25 minutes to bake.
Blackberry coffee cake keeps well at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Store in an airtight container or covered with foil to help keep it moist. This cake also freezes well. Wrap the cake tightly in foil or plastic wrap, and freeze for up to two months. Let it thaw at room temperature, and if you like, warm slices slightly before serving. I like to cut the coffee cake into large squares, wrap them individually, and freeze them. That way, you can pull out any quantity you need, whenever you need it.
More great breakfast baking recipes that are easy and loaded with berries:
- Sour Cream Crumb Cake (add blueberries as you like!)
- Blueberry Pound Cake
- The New York Times’s Famous Plum Torte
Blackberry Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping
Essential Equipment
- 1 9" x 13" x 2" baking pan
- 1 Spatula
- 1 mixer with paddle attachment
Ingredients
For the Coffee Cake Topping
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cold butter, diced
- 1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
For the Cake Batter
- 4 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal; Morton's is quite salty)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 cups (about 18 ounces) fresh or frozen blackberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease or line with parchment paper a 9"x13"x2" rectangular cake pan.
- Make the topping. Stir together 1 tablespoon flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon together in a mixing bowl. Add the 2 tablespoons butter and work it into the flour mixture with your fingers until you get sandy crumbs. Stir in the chopped nuts, and set aside.
- Make the sour cream coffee cake batter. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream 4 ounces butter and sugar together on medium until lightened and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until light. Scrape the bowl once or twice with a spatula during this process to ensure that the batter is evenly mixed.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and sour cream. Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture in two additions, alternating with the sour cream (dry, sour cream, dry). Scrape the bowl.
- Fold in most of the berries. Use a spatula to stir in 3/4 of the blackberries (about 3 cups). Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan, and use the spatula to smooth the top. Top the cake evenly with the streusel, and dot all over with the remaining blackberries.
- Bake and serve. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool until warm. Cut into 12 squares. Remove them from the cake pan with an offset brownie spatula or similar.Serve plain or with a dusting of powdered sugar, dollop of whipped cream, or some ice cream. And, as ever, with coffee.
Notes
- You can substitute blueberries or large-diced ripe peaches or plums for the blackberries.
- Full-fat plain Greek yogurt makes a perfect 1:1 substitute for the sour cream
- Add the zest of one lemon to the cake batter to brighten the blackberry flavor
- Walnuts are the correct substitute for the pecans
- How to Prevent Berries From Sinking in the Cake: The best way to ensure that your berries don’t sink is to remove a few tablespoons of flour from the batter recipe quantity, and toss the berries in it before adding them to the cake. This provides a “grippy” coating that will help suspend the blackberries in the cake batter. (That said, I’ve never really had an issue with the blackberries sinking at all.)
- Making This Blackberry Coffee Cake Into Muffins: This coffee cake also makes about 24 standard size muffins. Portion the batter into paper-lined muffin tins, and divide the streusel topping among each muffin and bake. Muffins will take about 20 to 25 minutes to bake.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutrition information is provided for courtesy purposes only, and is an estimate not verified by medical or nutrition experts. Read the full nutrition disclaimer.
9 comments
PJ
This is a delicious cake!! I really enjoyed making it and it’s the perfect ratio of topping, berries, and cake batter. I froze half but we ate the rest over 3 days and it was still moist. Do you think this would be good with apples? Thank you!
Lisa Ruland
Hi, PJ! Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed. I think that diced apples would be fantastic in this. Can’t wait to hear about it if you try.
EJ McGovern
I love this recipe and have made it many times, both plain and with different types of berries. Blackberries are my go-to because they are very juicy when baked, but I recently made a blueberry version, also great. I add a little extra nuts to the topping (my favorite part), but otherwise make as-is. Delicious.
Felicia
I have made this a few times since it was first published and it is a 5/5. Very moist and good topping.
Lisa
Hi Lisa …
I wanted to let you know advertisements are blocking the area of your recipe which offers substitutions & notes.. I even tried clicking the advertisement & then going back, but it seemed to make it worse. The recipe looks so good! I’m not sure how I mussed this one.
Thanks.
Lisa
Lisa Ruland
Hi, Lisa. Great to hear from you but yikes! That is so strange–and inconvenient as a reader as well. I tried to adjust the ad placements and hopefully you will see improvements soon. Keep me posted, and I hope you enjoy the cake!
Blondie89
Excellent recipe as is.
Joy D.
I made this for guests over 4th of July weekend and it was a great hit. I added a little lemon zest and walnuts instead of pecans. Wonderful and will make again!
S.B.
Turned out great. I love Maida Heatter’s books, and was happy to see this recipe was inspired by her coffee cake recipe. She’s the best! I did a blend of blueberries and blackberries.