Blueberry Buckle is a deliciously tender lemon kissed cake studded with fresh blueberries and topped with a sweet buttery streusel topping. This old fashioned recipe is a favorite to serve with coffee, tea or for dessert.
What is a buckle? A traditional buckle has a cake-like batter and is topped with fruit; as it cooks the cake rises around the fruit, or “buckles” around the fruit.
This delicious Blueberry Buckle is similar in texture to a coffee cake dessert my grandmother used to make; sweet, moist and delicious with a crumbly streusel topping. It’s pretty effortless and the end results are amazing! The simple from scratch base is made like most cake recipes, sugar, butter and egg are creamed together, then the remaining dry ingredients are added, alternating with the milk.
Blueberries make the most delicious addition to summer desserts and hold up well in baked goods like muffins and quick breads. The only thing better than a blueberry dessert is one that has been kissed with a bright lemony flavor. Zesting lemon is an easy way to add brightness to almost any dish, sweet or savory and if pairs perfectly with blueberries.
When zesting a lemon you want to be sure to only get the very outer edge of the skin, the yellow part because the white part (the pith) is bitter. I use either a microplane grater or a zester to get the most zest from each lemon.
Once zested, the lemon zest is added to the batter, fresh blueberries are gently folded in and it is spread into a prepared pan.
A couple of notes about the blueberries in this recipe:
- Fresh blueberries are best. Tossing them with a spoonful of flour keeps them evenly distributed throughout the cake.
- If using frozen berries, there is no need to defrost first but your buckle make need a few extra minutes to finish baking.
- Frozen blueberries may change the color of your batter but will still taste amazing.
- Any fruit can be used in place of blueberries such as rhubarb, strawberries or even apples. (I add an extra dash of cinnamon to my topping if using apples).
This cake is perfect as written but this recipe also makes amazing blueberry buckle muffins! Just divide the batter between your muffin cups and top with the streusel. Bake about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Blueberry buckle is amazing warm out of the oven but it also freezes beautifully. Simply bake as directed, cool completely and place in a very well sealed container. This will keep for a couple of months in the freezer and and still be wonderfully moist.
I love this recipe and my family cannot get enough of it! It the perfect way to enjoy fresh summer berries and our favorite alternative to a traditional cake.
Make it a la mode for a decadent dessert or serve with a dollop of freshly whipped cream it with your afternoon coffee or tea. This Blueberry Buckle recipe perfect for any occasion so don’t be surprised if everyone asks for seconds (and the recipe)!
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup butter softened
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
Topping
- ¼ cup butter + 1 tablespoon, cold
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 pan.
- In a large bowl, cream sugar, butter, egg & lemon zest until fluffy.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to sugar mixture, alternating with milk mixing just until combined.
- Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour. Fold into batter and spread in prepared pan.
- Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter and bake 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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How refreshing to find a recipe that works perfectly the first time! This one is so highly rated, I even skipped reading the comments til afterwards. Thanks for the tip about tossing the berries in flour–not all blueberry coffeecake recipes offer that crucial tip. Luckily, I knew to use cold butter for the topping, which looked like too much. However…I just now pulled the buckle out of the oven, and it’s gorgeous! The quantity of topping looks ideal, and a side view of the glass pan reveals evenly-distributed berries. I can’t taste it yet, since it’s for an event, but if it’s half as good as it looks, I’ll be making it again.
I ate a slice of this the day it was prepared, after cooling–then tried a slice the next morning after storing it covered overnight. Definitely 5 starts. I will just add that this was better the second day. Six hours after removing it from the oven, the topping was a little too stiff and crunchy. But after sitting covered overnight, the moisture in the cake and berries softened it up, and the whole cake was evenly moist and sliced more cleanly. Delicious!
I made this using frozen blueberries. I did have to bake it 15 minutes longer than suggested. I used the zest of a whole lemon. Great recipe. H
How do I get the entire buckle out of the pan? I want to send it as a gift. I might have to cut it up.
Maybe use parchment paper, and hopefully I can lift it entirely out of the pan?
I think lining the pan with parchment or foil would be the best option. Enjoy!
I made it. It is absolutely delicious and tender.. This recipes is about perfect. Instead of zest, I added one tsp of lemon extract. In addition, I used 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar for the batter. Frozen blueberries turned out good, but I think next time I will use fresh, because I had to bake it for about 10 minutes longer.
I have frozen blueberries. I hope it will turn out well. Yours looks so delicious!
I just tried this recipe this evening, since I had a carton of blueberries, and the oven was already at 350 degrees (used it to make dinner. I made a couple of mistakes; I used a half cup of butter instead of a quarter cup, and I missed adding the lemon zest (couldn’t find my lemons); even with my mistake, doubling the amount of butter and omitting the lemon zest, this buckle turned out super yummy. Both my husband (my worst critic when it comes to baking, since his Mom was an excellent baker) and my son enjoyed the results very much. The ate it right out of the oven.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It is a keeper for sure.
You’re welcome Jeannie, thank you for sharing! So glad to hear that your husband and sone (and you!) love this blueberry buckle!
I made this the other day with gluten free flour and it came out beautifully! Just as I remember having blueberry buckle as a child. Only thing I added was a bit of nutmeg as I love the flavor with blueberries. I’ve made streusel a handful of times so knew to keep that butter cold so that it forms individual pieces to make a crumble so no issues there. Thanks for this great recipe and reminding me of a happy childhood memory that I can now share with my kiddos!
Delicious. I made a double batch and substituted half of the granulated sugar with brown sugar (I love the decadence of brown sugar). Wonderful! I made the crumble topping with softened butter, it was a bit clumpy. I just crumbled it on with my hands. My husband is in love with this recipe. Will definitely make again!
So glad I came across this recipe while looking for something to do with extra blueberries. So simple and delicious. The lemon was perfect with the blueberries. I added some cinnamon to the batter and a pinch of salt to the topping. It barely lasted 2 days in my house! Will definitely make again.
This was amazing! Making it again today.
So good. We have made this 3 times in the last week. Perfect recipe. Thank you for sharing, definitely a new fave. :)
I love this recipe. I have made it several times. The only changes I make are to leave out the lemon and I only use 1/4 cup of butter in the topping. I also use a mixture of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.
Just made this last night and it’s already gone! Definitely a HIT in my house. I added a little vanilla extract. I’m happy I read the comments about the crumble topping. The butter should be cold and not melted. Maybe adding that to the directions. Thanks!
Made the Blueberry Buckle today. Came out beautifully and tasted delicious!!!!
Should I adjust the recipe in order to make muffins? I’d like to have individual servings due to you-know-what. I have made this twice and now people ask for it. I made it as written and it came out great.
This works just fine as muffins as written. You’ll want to make your muffin wells about ⅔ full. Let us know how it goes!
A perfectly delicious cake. It can be a breakfast cake or a dessert. It’s moist and lots of blueberries. I used a glass pan in the heat directions were perfect. But as with other reviewer‘s the streusel topping did not work properly because are you soft butter also. I did not read the reviews and that was a big mistake on my part. But cold butter of course would’ve made the streusel so that you could sprinkle it instead of a paste. Still absolutely yummy. But the author should correct this recipe since so many people have made the same error by following the written directions.
the batter was very watery I did not know what happened I did the recipe exactly.
I can’t say for sure as I haven’t had the same problem.
I should have read all the comments before attempting. The streusel topping does not work as written. The butter should be cold and cut into the dry ingredients, not softened. Otherwise, it’ll be a goopy doughy mess on top (like mine, and others). I’ll try this again but will redo the topping.
I fell victim to the sloppy streusel….I thought I did something wrong so I made it again – same sloppy outcome. I wished I had read the reviews in advance – thank you Kevin, I will use cold butter next time.
I used another crumble recipe and everything worked out just fine.
This was absolutely delicious!
Hi Holly, I made this blueberry buckle recipe today. However, I have a question. For the topping you have 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon softened butter. Did you mean for all of that butter to be softened or just the tablespoon? I feel like my topping was not crumbly because my butter was too soft. Regardless it looks and smells amazing! I will be serving it for dessert tonight with vanilla ice cream. Thank you so much for any help you can offer.
Amber, yes, all of the butter is softened. So happy it smells so great!