These blueberry brown sugar almond crumb cakes are like a very elegant muffin and they deserve an elegant wrapper. We like using either the tulip papers you see in the photo from King Arthur Flour for these individual breakfast cakes. The crumb cake is a very rich sour cream-cardamom batter with pockets of fresh, juicy blueberries, topped with a crunchy brown sugar almond crumb. These are best served the day they are baked, as that is when the topping is crunchiest and provides the best contrast to the cake.
Blueberry Brown Sugar Almond Crumb Cake
Author: Bakepedia
Makes: Makes 8 individual coffee cakes
Ingredients
Crumb Topping:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sliced, blanched or natural almonds
- ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup melted unsalted butter
Cake:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Heaping ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 cup fresh blueberries, or frozen, not defrosted, divided into ¾ cup and ¼ cup
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream, at room temperature
Instructions
- For the Topping: Toss together the flour, almonds, brown sugar and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Drizzle melted butter over the dry mixture and stir until combined and moistened; set aside.
- For the Cake: Position rack in the middle of your oven. Preheat to 350° F. Arrange 10 individual tulip paper wrappers in the muffin pan's wells.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom and salt in a medium bowl to aerate and combine. Divide this dry mixture in half and add ¾ cup blueberries to one half and toss to combine; set both mixtures aside.
- Beat butter until creamy with flat paddle on medium-high speed, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually and continue to beat, about 3 minutes at medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Add egg, beating well to combine. Add the flour mixture (without the blueberries) in two additions, alternating with the sour cream, leaving a few floury streaks; batter will be thick. Fold in flour/blueberry mixture just until combined. Divide batter evenly in paper wrappers and top generously with crumb topping, mounding slightly. Gently place the remaining blueberries here and there, nestled into the crumbs.
- Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick shows a few moist crumbs when removed; the crumb will be golden brown. Cool pan on rack for about 5 minutes, then place individual cakes on rack to cool further. They may be served slightly warm or at room temperature. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days in an airtight container - although these are truly best eaten fresh.
What would I bake these in? Will it work in my 8 Square, 9 Round, Loaf Pan or Muffin Tins?
These were baked in a muffin tin with wrappers called “tulip” wrappers, but you could bake them in muffins tins with regular paper wrappers, or you could coat the muffin tin with nonstick spray and not use any wrappers at all. You could also try this in an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan, but the baking times will be different. We don’t recommend a loaf pan as it is too deep for this batter to bake properly.
Thank you. 🙂
Our pleasure. Let us know how the recipe works out for you.
Just seen this recipe, can’t wait to try it! Sounds soooooo good!! Thanks