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Very Berry Coffee Cake
By
DK
on Oct 03, 2011
We LOVE berries. I have been known to go overboard with my purchase when it comes to berries. Leave me at Farmer's market and you know for sure what is the first thing I will buy. The issue always has been about us consuming it faster before it goes bad on us. We eat them mostly as they are but nothing beats homemade jams, flavored yogurt, pancakes and waffles with these goodies. Occasionally I bake with them and they have till date turned out to be delicious every single time.
But one thing that I never tried previously (for reasons unknown!) is making a mixed berry cake. I love Starbucks Very Berry Cake and most often buy them along with my drink. So for last month's FSB theme when Deepti announced Starbucks Specials, I could not help wondering about these goodies. Quick internet search got me many options out of which I narrowed it down to 5 recipes. My luck, the first 4 attempts were only so-so. They were not bad, but they just did not impress me as much as the ones from Starbucks. The last recipe though turned out to be a keeper for us.
Changes I Made: Moist, spongy, fluffy and mildly sweet and tart from the berries, this cake is everything we think a cake should be. After having this, I did not even take a second to wonder how close it was to the Starbucks version cos - what the heck - this one was v delicious! I made very few changes to the recipe like using egg whites instead of 2 whole eggs, replacing full fat sour cream with low fat, milk with 2% milk and the brown sugar in the topping with natural Sucanat sugar. To my knowledge I have figured that the shop version uses blueberries, raspberries and blackberries hence used the same. I usually would have opted for Yogurt instead of Sour cream but this time just used some sour cream I had in the fridge. Since there was already sugar in the cake, I thought I will replace it in the topping using a natural sweetener. I would have liked to replace some in the cake itself, but in the spirit of hitting something close to the Starbucks version, did not go all the way like I normally would have. We enjoyed it the day I made with Starbucks Style Strawberry and Creme Frappucino and the next day warmed lightly for breakfast. It did not last longer than that.:)
References
recipe minimally adapted from seattle times
Basic Information
Prep Time: Under 30 min
Cook Time: 30 min to 1 hour
Serves: 4 people
Yield: Makes one 9 inch square cake
Ingredients
- For the Cake
- 1 1/2 cups sifted All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup softened Butter
- 1 cup granulated Sugar
- 4 Egg Whites (see Tips)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Lemon zest
- 3 tbsp low fat Sour Cream (see Tips)
- 1/3 cup 2% milk
- 1/2 cup each of fresh Blueberry, Blackberry and Raspberry (see Tips)
- For the Crumb topping
- 3 tbsp softened butter
- 1/3 cup Sucanat (see Tips)
- 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp ground Cinnamon
Tips
1.Eggs : You can replace the eggs using my Egg Substitution Chart. You would need to substitute for 2 Whole Eggs.2.Sour Cream : Instead of sour cream you can use fat free Greek Yogurt.
3.Berries: You can use any type of berry you like. You can just use one berry also (use 1-1/2 cups of it). Frozen or thawed berries may be substituted.
4.Sucanat: If you cannot find it, use regular Brown sugar instead or use white sugar.
If you want to Bake using Microwave pls refer to these articles:
1) How to Bake in Microwave
2) How to Bake in Microwave Convection Oven
For making Substitutions please refer my handy chart:
1) Baking substitutions
2) Egg Substitutions
Method
1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch square pan with butter/PAM Spray/Shortening. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2
Cream butter and sugar with electric mixture until light.
3
Add egg whites and beat until fluffy.
4
Add vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream and mix well.
5
Alternately, add flour mixture
6
and the milk to the batter,
7
beginning and ending with the flour.
8
Folding the batter until everything comes together makes for even softer and fluffier cakes.
9
Spread half of the batter evenly into prepared pan and smooth the top.
10
Spread berries on top of batter. Cover berries with the remaining batter
11
and spread the top evenly with a spatula . Its fine if some of the berries shows through.
12
Meanwhile for crumb topping, combine all ingredients and use fingers to mix and form crumbs.
13
Spread crumbs on top of cake and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and cake is golden brown.
14
Cool completely in pan on wire rack.
The original recipe suggests that this cake tastes better the next day. They were NOT joking. We actually liked the cake warm from the oven. But the refrigerated left overs that we had the next day had us wanting more. It was immensely delicious. Next time I plan to make this late in the evening and enjoy it only the next day.
Serve at room temperature. See how fluffy and spongy it looks? Want a bite?
Serve at room temperature. See how fluffy and spongy it looks? Want a bite?
3 members have made this recipe!
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19 Responses to “Very Berry Coffee Cake”
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Is it possible to use self raising flour instead of all-purpose flour? I couldnt get the all purpose flour.. And would i have to add baking powder to the self raising flour?
Pls refer my Tips section for substitution list
Ugh! I made this and for some reason the cake was still uncooked on the bottom (i even kept it in the oven for an additional 20 minutes. Also, did you use salted or unsalted butter? I used unsalted and the only thing I could taste was butter
Its always unsalted butter until otherwise mentioned. I am surprised you even tasted butter owing to the fact that its not a major component in this cake. May be cos it was undercooked or something? Every oven is different, so I am not sure what temperature and the placement works in your case. Try increasing the temp next time, or try placing the cake tin at the bottom rack and check around 150-20 min mark. One thing for sure – this does not taste like butter cake!
where’s the coffee in the very berry coffee cake?
Refer this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_cake
Recently came across your site. You have some wonderful recipes with easy to follow instructions. I made this today and it was pretty amazing! I used frozen mixed berries and the cake came out surprising delicious ! I may have used too shallow a pan and perhaps that’s why it took 50 minutes to bake.
Hi DK,
Athirasam receipe is long due….!! help me in this pls !
I can post it only when I can find time to make it Nithya…
I know that it would seem a strange thing to have for dinner but a big slice of this cake and a cup of chai would be ideal right now
Look at that spongy cake… right away in my to do list!
The cake looks fabulous, love the crumb!
Thank you very much for your lovely, simple recipes always.Loooove your website and your step-by-step pics that bring so much life to your recipes
.
I donot like to waste the egg yolks(as I donot know of any good use of just yolks). So if I use whole eggs for the recipe, how many shall I use? PLease reply.
2. I have already mentioned it in my Tips section
Incredible cake, super delicious..
DK, the print button isn’t working for me. All it prints is a blank page. I know that it used to work before. Can you please check
. Thanks a bunch.
It doesnt work in IE for some reason Swapna
.But you can try Mozilla/Chrome.
Wow… looks very nice and tempting. Can we use thawed frozen berries? Also, I do not have a 9-inch square pan. Can I use 8-inch square pan? Or maybe a 9-inch round pan?
Oh yes you can. Have added that in my Tips section. Any pan will work depending on your preference. Just make sure the pan is deep/sufficient enough for the batter to rise
Love cakes with berries and this looks so yummy and bursting with berries.
gosh my mouth is watering… of lat i have been having this absurd craving for something sweet for midnite snack and this looks so yummy
Love the crumbly texture…super pretty to look at. I’m sure it was prettier to eat it all up!
That looks better than a store bought one. Yes, i will have a bite please
Btw, is that 1/4 ‘cup’ of APF in the crumb topping? You just said 1/4 APF in your hurry to bring this delicious recipe to us 
Yup..u r right..rectified pronto
Thanks for bringing it to my notice 
looks yummy DK.. you are tempting me to make it right away!!!! I definitely wanna get my hands on this one….
Perfectly done… bookmarking this one…
Add a SUPER LIKE button to this website….that is a suggestion:)