Served with tea or coffee, this Simple Blueberry Cake is a perfect balance between a dessert or morning cake.
Today we’re preparing a super simple, yet moist and delicious, blueberry-ricotta coffee cake. Whether you’re pairing this with your morning coffee, or enjoying it as a light dessert, this is one confection you should be sure to add to your repertoire this winter season.
Why You’ll Love Today’s Blueberry Coffee Cake.
1) Super Moist. Courtesy of the ricotta, this cake is super moist, and deliciously textured.
2) Simple. By baking standards, today’s cake couldn’t be simpler to put together, simply combine the wet and dry ingredients, blend, and then top with blueberries before baking. And, that’s about it.
3) Versatile. Today’s cake pairs great with coffee in the morning, or as a light dessert.
Ingredient Notes and Tips
1) Raw Sugar aka Demerara aka Turbinado Sugar. Yes, they are all the same thing. No, they are not actually ‘raw.’ How so? Let’s get into the weeds…er, ‘canes’ on this. Before we begin, let me begin by say that what makes sugar ‘raw’ or not, is whether or not it’s been refined. What does the refining process do to sugar? It simply removes any of its naturally occurring cane molasses. That’s it. As such, the difference between completely refined white sugar, and unrefined brown sugar, is molasses (some brown sugars are simply white sugar to which molasses has been added, but we’re leaving those aside for today). In this regard, Demerara/Raw sugar is actually deceivingly mislabeled, since it is, in fact, ‘partially’ refined sugar, placing it midway between unrefined brown sugar and wholly refined white sugar. This has the effect of leaving Demerara/Turbinado/Raw sugar in a bit of an odd place in culinary terms, since it’s too ‘weak’ or ‘thin’ to act as a stand in for regular brown sugar, but also somewhat too heavy and ‘caramel-like’ to stand in for fully processed white sugar. This means that demerara has surprisingly few culinary uses, relegating it to something of a ‘decorative ingredient’ as we’re doing today.
2) The Flour – All-Purpose vs Cake Flour vs Bread Flour; What’s the Difference? One word – protein. To understand this, let’s begin with all-purpose flour and work our way down…and up…from there, since all-purpose flour is a midpoint between the three. All-purpose flour has been processed and ground down until only the starchy endosperm of the original wheat grain remains. This has the effect of ‘standardizing’ all-purpose flour to around 9-10% protein content. By contrast cake flour contains no more than 8% protein, while bread flour sits at a comparatively hefty 11-13%. This might not seem like a big difference, but consider that the less ‘protein’ flour contains the ‘lighter’ and less dense the resulting baked good is. By contrast, the more protein flour has, the more ‘chew’ and ‘body’ a baked good will have. Not only that, but flour requires protein to produce gluten, and gluten is what gives bread dough its ‘stringy bits’ that make the dough elastic enough to knead. Thus, for a light and airy cake, cake or pastry flour is the order of the day. For an excellently textured pizza dough, bread flour will give the best results. By contrast, you could just use all-purpose flour for either one, and get a fine result all the same. For today's recipe, however, we're using all-purpose flour.
3) Ricotta Cheese. One of the oldest cheeses in the world, ricotta has been produced in Italy since around 2500 BC. While we tend to think of ricotta purely as that creamy cheese that melts beautifully in things like stuffed shells and lasagna, ricotta also comes in smoked, aged, salted, and baked varieties. Produced from whey, ricotta is made from a variety of milks, including from sheep, goats, and Italian water buffalos. However, in the US, ricotta is produced almost exclusively from cow’s milk. This naturally results in Italian ricotta being both naturally sweeter and somewhat less moist than its American counterpart.
4) The Blueberries. Ouch. I went a bit nuts talking about blueberries, and didn’t feel like scaling it all back. So, I instead decided to devote an entire segment to them below.
Blueberries – How To Spot Quality Berries, and How to store them once they’re home
1) The Feel. Blueberries that are firm to the touch are not yet ripe. However, blueberries should ‘not’ feel like they are about to burst or crumble to nothing in your hands either – those berries are overripe. The skin should be smooth, free of smudges and fuzz. Those blueberries are well past their due date.
2) The Color. Blueberries that have a reddish tinge to them are underripe. Deep blue or blue-black berries are the way to go.
3) The Grey ‘Dust.’ On the topic color, contrary to popular belief, fresh, well kept blueberries will have a slight dusting of ‘grey’ in their blue color. This is perfectly fine.
4) Storing your Blueberries. Keep them in a cool, sun-free area. Exposure to heat or direct sunlight will rapidly spoil your berries. Also, it is best to keep them in a perforated plastic container or basket. Bags will result in crushed and overripe berries.
Simple Blueberry Cake
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour - sifted
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 tsp. baking powder
- 3/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 1 cup ricotta cheese
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tbs. rum
- Raw sugar- for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat Oven 350 degrees F.
- Place the blueberries in a bowl with the rum and sprinkle with the raw sugar.
- Combine sugar, eggs, vanilla, softened butter and ricotta cheese in a stand mixer on low and let combine until smooth.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Add the sifted ingredient to the wet ingredients and blend until combined.
- Butter a 9 ½ inch pie dish and place the batter in the dish.
- Top the batter with the blueberries and the rum.
- Sprinkle the top with the raw sugar.
- Bake 45 – 55 minutes until the toothpick test comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to rest before slicing.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
David J Myers says
Catherine, Love a good blueberry muffin so why not a cake? Even more for me to enjoy! I like my blueberry muffins/cakes with butter heated just enough to melt. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
Rhian Westbury says
I do love a blueberry muffin so I'm sure I'd love a blueberry cake as well, esp as the fruit will keep it a bit more moist x
Lily says
This is amazing. I would love a slice of this
Yeah Lifestyle says
Such a delicious looking cake and this looks perfect for breakfast with a cuppa coffee, thank you for sharing the recipe
Jupiter Hadley says
Oh wow I love blueberry muffins but I have never had blueberry cake! What a cute cake!
Ceana Andrea says
I love blueberry and this one are so perfect for Christmas. And the recipe and tips are so easy to follow. My family will love this
Everything Enchanting says
Oh, this looks so yummy 😍 I love blueberry cakes, So I'll surely give your recipe a try someday soon! 👌🏻
MosaicLab Black Friday says
That Blueberry cake looks SO GOOD!!! I can't wait to bake me one this weekend, can't wait!!!
Ashley says
Yum! This blueberry cake is so perfect--not too sweet; great with a cup of coffee. Great recipe!
Shelley says
Such a pretty cake, with such lovely moisture from the ricotta! A perfect BFF for my cup of coffee, any time of day!
Beth says
I love how moist and tender this cake is! I'm a big fan of the absolutely massive amount of blueberries it has in it, too!
Charah says
So easy to make and my family loves it, will make more of this recipe. thankyou for sharing
Kathleen says
I love how this blueberry cake looks and sounds. It's perfect for breakfast, dessert or a snack.