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
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
More Recipes You’ll Love
I made this to bring to a BBQ and it was delicious. I would highly recommend this recipe.
My hubby loves everything & anything made w/blueberries, so I aim to please! These recipes look & sound amaxing, so he’ll be a happy guy! I like to use Evaporated Milk instead of regular milk in baked goods, & also in other dishes, whenever a recipe calls for milk, I like the final result. Thanks Holly
That sounds delicious Angelina. I hope he loves this recipe too!
This recipe is absolutely perfect! My claim to fame is as a chef not a baker (except I’ve been told that my blueberry pies and New York cheesecakes are good) so I was happy that the recipe was quite easy! I used freshly picked blueberries that I picked myself. I did add a tiny bit of vanilla extract to the batter. My blueberry buckle was delicious. Just one thing; my topping did not come out crumbly like in the picture. It was flat. Delicious anyway but flat. Anybody know why that happened?Nonetheless, I’ll be making it and enjoying it again! My wife is the baker in our house. I’m sure her topping will be perfect!
That is awesome Mike! Glad this recipe was a success for you…and with fresh-picked blueberries! Yum! As for your crumble topping, you want to make sure the butter isn’t warm. That will help it stay crumble instead of going flat.
Absolutely wonderful
Love this recipe! We get fresh blueberries this time of year and this is the go to recipe. This year we had some fresh Georgia peaches and I made one recipe with half peaches/half blueberries. It was delicious! Super easy recipe that takes little time to put together. My 3 year old granddaughter loves to help.
This is delicious. I had a cup and quarter of blueberries and needed to use them. Did a quick Google and this recipe came up. It was super easy to make and tastes very good. It’s like a streusel blueberry muffin but more coffee cake texture. Definitely one to keep and make often.
This is the first recipe I tried from your site. My husband and daughter love it (me too!) and have now made it many times. It’s delicious, it’s pretty, it’s easy enough to make in the morning! I search your site for many different recipes now~
Welcome Kim! What a lovely breakfast treat!
Have made this buckle three times and it is not only good, but easy to make. The second time I made the Blueberry Buckle, I did not have a lemon and the cake wasn’t a disappointment, but sure lacked the brightness the lemon adds. Oh, don’t forget the ice cream!
This is the BEST recipe. I’ve been trying to perfect a breakfast cake, and this is it!! Crumbly crunchy topping, tender cake. Amazing. I’ve made it a few times, I added almond extract to the batter and some salt to the topping once and now that’s my new recipe. Thank you!!
You’re welcome Heather! So happy to hear that!
Prep time for blueberry buckle is WAY out of line. It took me 2 1/2 hrs to get it put together and into the oven, not 15 min! You must have stage hands, like Rachel Ray does, doing all the grunt work. No way this info is correct.
I got it thrown together in 15 minutes, if that. No way would it have taken me 2.5 hours to put together before going into the oven. That’s a LOT of time to put into these limited ingredients. Better luck next time.
It took me 10 minutes and I was moving slow. I find it hard to believe it took you 2 1/2 HOURS!
SO good and moist!
Different than I expected. Tasted great but a little dry. More like a drier cake. Any suggestions. Floured the blueberries but most of them did sink to the bottom, but that was fine. It was the dryness that bothered me. Any suggestions?
Hi – You did it wrong my good sir/lady; this recipe makes for a very moist and succulent cake! It truly is the most fluffy, soft, and lightly sweet cake i’ve ever made! Just add a pinch of salt to your struesal and i say that’s perfection in a pan lol.
Try mixing the wet batter for 10mins on medium, and then slowly add the dry ingredients with the milk!
I have made this many times, and everybody I’ve shared it with has loved it. Thank you for a fabulous go-to recipe!
My all time favorite blueberry recipe. This cake isn’t complicated and I had it in the oven from start to finish in under 30 minutes including zesting the lemons. The cake is moist and not overly sweet and I love the blueberry and lemon flavor duo. Made it as written but used oat milk and wouldn’t change a thing. My family loved it and I’ve already shared the recipe. My blueberries were fat and sweet and that’s certainly an important ingredient in this recipe. I used a hand mixer for the creaming of the butter, sugar, egg and lemon zest but folded the flour mixture and milk in with a spatula. Delicious!
I LOVE how concise your recipes are – easy to follow with no room for error! Everything I’ve made has been delicious, including this blueberry buckle which my family is really enjoying this lazy Sunday afternoon. Thank you!
You’re so welcome! Thank you very much Anna! You made my day!
Thank you Holly! This blueberry buckle has an amazing flavour with simple ingredients. It receives wonderful taste-tested reviews wherever I bring it. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It has been a treat for many! The recipe is being passed along to friends and family.
You’re very welcome Lisa! So glad to hear that everyone loves this buckle recipe!
I’ve been making buckle for years- this is by far the best recipe yet- and my critics are not only me but my family!
Excellent! I love blueberries but couldn’t eat all that I bought in time, so I made this. The first time I had a lemon so I had true zest, but the 2nd time I just used lemon extract. It tastes great, very moist!
Outstanding recipe! Thank you so great!
Favorite recipe of 2020. I’ve made this so many times and given it to many people who immediately ask me for the recipe. I do add a smidge of vanilla extract too. Thanks for this delish recipe.
You’re very welcome Anna! We’ve made it plenty ourselves. Easy and tasty!
This was absolutely delicious! Made it during a blizzard in between shoveling! Had lots of fresh blueberries and came across this great recipe. Hubby loved it too! I made the batter into all mini muffins for about mins. At 350 temp. Love mini muffins bc you can just pop one in at a time and not feel like you have to eat a big muffin or piece of cake at a time:) ! Enjoy !