This post has been kindly sponsored by Kroger.
This recipe is a beautiful way to put a twist on a classic coffee cake. Ripe blueberries and fresh lemon are a match made in heaven. I love to enjoy a slice with my morning cup of hot coffee or tea.
In honor of Women’s History Month, I collaborated with Kroger to develop a vegan-friendly rendition of something my mom used to make when I was growing up. Like all good coffee cake, it has a rich and buttery base with an absolutely addictive iced crumble topping. If you’re a fan of both coffee cake and blueberry muffins, this is really the best of both worlds!
Ingredients for Vegan Coffee Cake
- Flour, salt, baking powder and sugar: All the usual suspects for a basic cake mix.
- Flaxseed meal: This will act as your egg replacer to bind the ingredients. If you can’t find or don’t like flaxseed, you can also substitute in ground chia seeds or your favorite commercial egg replacer. (Simply prepare according to package directions before incorporating.)
- Vegan sour cream: This special ingredient helps to make this coffee cake a bit more rich and moist than your typical vanilla cake. My absolute favorite to use in baking is the Plant Based Sour Cream Alternative by Simple Truth Organic — it has the most luscious texture. You only need half a cup for this recipe. My favorite ways to use up the remainder is to dollop on top of chili, or to mix in ranch seasoning to make a delicious dip for carrot and celery.
- Plant-based milk: Any kind will work here. Because the sour cream is quite thick, you’ll need to add a bit of milk to thin the batter out to the appropriate texture.
- Blueberries: You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen berries, don’t thaw them out; leave them in the freezer until ready to use. Either way, you’ll want to coat them with a bit of flour (or cornstarch) before mixing them into the batter. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- Fresh lemon: The juice and zest of one medium lemon lends the perfect tartness to balance out the sweetness of the ripe blueberries and the crumble topping. Very refreshing.
- Vanilla extract: Another must to achieve that classic blueberry muffin flavor we know and love.
- Brown sugar: We use this in the crumb topping to make it taste super rich.
How to Make Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake
Prepare the Crumb Topping
The sweet and crispy crumb topping is a huge part of what sets coffee cake apart from regular cake. Combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, and a pinch of salt to form a crumbly mixture.
In particularly humid climates you may need to add additional flour to get the correct texture. Don’t worry if that’s the case; this recipe is so simple and foolproof that it will still taste delicious if precise measurements aren’t followed.
You will scatter the crumb mixture over your cake batter and it will become amazingly crisp in the oven. Remember this recipe and you can use it as a topping for all sorts of cakes, quickbreads, muffins, and more.
Preheat Oven & Prep Cake Pan
Start out by preheating your oven to 375°F. You’ll then go ahead and mix together your ingredients for a “flax egg” — 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed and 3 tablespoons water. It needs about 10 minutes to thicken, which is the perfect amount of time to measure the rest of your ingredients.
You’ll also want to take a moment to prepare your baking dish by greasing it generously or lining with parchment. My personal preference is to use a 9″ springform pan, mainly because you can lift away the sides after baking for nicer presentation and easier slicing. But you can also feel free to use a regular 9″ cake pan, or even a square baking pan.
Make the Cake
Mix your wet ingredients first, then sift in your flour and other dry ingredients. You’ll then toss your fresh blueberries in flour (to keep them from sinking in the batter) and fold them in gently. Top with your prepared crumble mixture and bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
It’s recommended to let the cake cool entirely before icing with a simple mixture of confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice. (Though if you’re too eager to wait, I can’t blame you.) This simply allows the icing to cool and harden more quickly, which will make the crunch of the crumb topping even more satisfying.
This cake is best enjoyed within one or two days but should keep at room temperature, covered, for up to 5 days. It also freezes well if you’d like to set some aside for a quick and easy breakfast or dessert for the future.
Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 5 tablespoons butter softened
- 6 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- pinch of salt*
Coffee Cake
- 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegan butter melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup vegan sour cream such as Simple Truth Organic Plant-Based Sour Cream Alternative
- 3/4 cup unsweetened plant milk of choice
- zest of 1 medium lemon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 tablespoons flour
Lemon Icing
- juice of 1 medium lemon
- 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
- Combine flaxseed meal and water and allow to sit and thicken. Preheat oven to 375°F and grease a 9" springform pan. (You can also use a cake pan.)
- In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients for the crumb topping. The mixture should be the texture of wet sand, sticking together when squeezed in your palm. If it's too runny you can add in an extra tablespoon or so of flour.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flax mixture with butter, sour cream, milk, vanilla, and lemon zest.
- Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt and stir until combined.
- Toss fresh blueberries with flour. (This will prevent them from sinking in the batter.) Fold blueberries into batter gently, then pour into prepared springform pan.
- Sprinkle crumb topping over the batter evenly. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool completely before icing. Whisk together icing ingredients until smooth, then drizzle over coffee cake. Allow about 10 minutes for icing to set.
I’ve made this cake once before and it was delicious! I used gf flour. I’d like to make it ahead of time for an event. Does it freeze/defrost well? Will it still be as good? Thank you for your great recipes!
Love this recipe it’s great but I really wish you’d put an asterisk next to the salt ingredient since I didn’t read until after I made the cake that it you should reduce the salt if you’re using salted butter…