Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

Name: Blueberry Buttermilk Cake Recipe
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 28 min
Total time: 53 min
Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour (sifted); 1 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; 1/4 tsp salt; 1-1/4 cups light brown sugar; 3 tbsp honey; 1/2 cup butter (unsalted); 1 cup buttermilk; 1 egg; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 cup blueberries; 6 tbsp flour; 3 tbsp brown sugar; 3 tbsp butter (unsalted - melted and cooled); 1/4 tsp cinnamon; Tiny pinch of salt; 2-1/2 cups blueberries; 1/4 cup sugar; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1 tbsp honey; 1/2 tsp cinnamon

With warm cinnamon notes, a light airy texture, and a juicy blueberry filling will make this your new favorite coffee cake.

By Mark Hinds | Updated January 23, 2026

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This blueberry buttermilk cake is light and airy with warm cinnamon flavors and a juicy blueberry filling that pops with every bite.

What makes this cake special is its light, fluffy texture and depth of flavor. The lightness comes from sifting the flour and lightly combining the wet and dry ingredients. The flavor comes from the combination of buttermilk, honey, and brown sugar that adds depth and complexity without too much sweetness.

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A Better Tasting Cake

I love rustic coffee cakes with fruit fillings that work equally well for breakfast, dessert, or as an afternoon snack. For this blueberry cake recipe, I wanted to use the tartness in the buttermilk as a contrast to the sweetness of the blueberries.

Blueberry Cake With Drip — Filled with late summer blueberry flavors, the filling is so good you’ll want to eat it with a spoon.

The first couple of batches were good, but it felt like the band was playing without a drummer. Whenever a dessert feels one-note, I like to reduce the amount of sugar and replace it with honey. Using a good honey adds complexity and a balanced sweetness that refined sugar lacks.

The golden yellow hue in this cake comes from the brown sugar and honey, giving it a warm and inviting look.

The cake’s flavors are built around a few ingredients that work together to create warm caramel notes that are the perfect backdrop for the blueberries.

Buttermilk – The tangy, complex flavor in buttermilk adds depth and provides a foundation for the cinnamon and brown sugar.

Brown sugar – The advantage of using brown sugar as the primary sweetener is how it adds complexity and moisture.

Cinnamon – Adding a little cinnamon to the cake, filling, and streusel connects the flavors in the other components.

Honey – The floral notes and complex flavors in honey make baked goods more interesting.

A Lighter, More Interesting Texture

A simple way to improve how a cake tastes is to add competing textures. Adding texture gives your palette something to think about. Sometimes it’s as simple as frosting or adding a glaze, the way we do with this Maple Cinnamon Bundt Cake.

Slice With Texture — With three different textures, your palette will have something to think about.

This recipe uses three competing textures to add intrigue to each bite. The dominant texture is a light, airy crumb that is paired with a juicy blueberry filling that bursts with blueberry goodness when you bite into it, and a crackling crumble of streusel. Using the streusel on both layers adds crunch to the top and middle of the cake.

A simple trick that goes a long way to making cakes light, especially when using all purpose flour, is to sift the flour. Sifting helps aerate the flour, giving the cake a lighter, more airy texture.

Sifting Flour — Sifting the dry ingredients creates a light, airy texture.

It’s also important to combine the ingredients without overmixing them to avoid building up gluten. The paddle attachment for my stand mixer is one of my favorite tools for combining ingredients without overmixing them. I particularly like the soft rubber band on the outside that helps the paddle scrape the sides of the mixing bowl clean.

Using 8-inch round cake pans with the blueberry filling peaking through the middle creates a visually stunning cake. High-quality baking pans with some heft and thickness help the batter bake evenly, making it easier to get each layer out in one piece.

I’ve also found that letting the layers cool completely makes it significantly easier to get them out. A bonus to spreading the streusel on both layers is that it lets you choose the best looking one for the top.

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A Moister Cake

This coffee cake is one of my favorite fruit desserts and can be made a day or two ahead of time. The buttermilk and brown sugar help balance the texture and make sure it doesn’t dry out.

The secret to not drying cakes out is to stop using a toothpick in the center to test when it has finished baking. There are two problems with the traditional version of this test.

The first is that it doesn’t take carryover cooking into account. A cake coming straight from the oven will continue to bake for a few minutes after it’s removed from the oven. The second is if a cake is cooked until it is completely done in the center, the areas around the edges will be overbaked.

Tooth Pick Test — Tired of dried-out cakes? Use our updated toothpick test.

A better test is to insert the toothpick halfway between the center and the edge and to take the cake out of the oven when there is still a little bit of crumb stuck to the toothpick. If the toothpick is wet or has batter on it, the cake needs more time.

Blueberry Coffee Cake Tips

This buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake will last for three to five days stored in a cake stand with a lid or an airtight container in the fridge. It can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to three months.

A Simpler Streusel

There are a lot of different ways to make streusel. Working on this recipe, I tried using cold butter with a pastry cutter, a stand mixer, and a food processor. The simplest method that worked was to melt the butter first and let it cool down.

The cool, but still viscous butter is easy to mix with the flour and brown sugar. A tip for making streusel is to use the fork to bring the ingredients together in the same way you would beat an egg, using an overhand circular motion.

Frozen vs Fresh Blueberries

Fresh blueberries work better than frozen in the cake and the filling. The biggest difference between fresh and frozen berries is that the fresh berries add more juiciness to the filling and improve consistency.

Frozen blueberries are a good choice when fresh ones aren’t available or are ridiculously expensive when fresh berries aren’t in season. I made test batches with frozen berries that were still frozen when added to the cake and with defrosted berries.

Spreading Blueberry Filling — Fresh blueberries make the best filling.

Frozen and defrosted worked about the same in the cake. Starting with berries that were still frozen produced a better filling than ones that had been defrosted. The defrosted berries don’t break down as well as the still frozen ones.

A tip when working with frozen berries or fresh ones that are giving off too much liquid is to pour out a little of the liquid if the filling is taking too long to thicken.

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Mark Hinds

Mark is an experienced food writer, recipe developer, and photographer who is also Umami’s publisher and CEO. A passionate cook who loves to cook for friends, he can often be found in the kitchen or by the grill testing new recipes.

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Blueberry Buttermilk Cake

A Better Tasting Cake