A summer treat worth savoring: blackberry zucchini coffee cake with a sweet honey glaze. The cake is tender and moist, full of fresh seasonal blackberries and zucchini. It’s topped with a very generous amount of rich, buttery streusel. And the drizzle of honey glaze over top is the perfect finishing touch.
blackberry zucchini coffee cake – the details
There’s three components for this blackberry zucchini coffee cake – the cake layer, the streusel layer, and the honey glaze.
In the cake itself, you’ll find your classic ingredients, plus sour cream for richness and lots of vanilla for flavor. The sour cream adds that special something to the cake and helps create an incredibly tender texture.
Fresh blackberries and grated zucchini are folded into the batter before it’s evenly spread into a cake pan. The blackberries add pops of sweet juiciness and the zucchini lends moisture to the cake.
For the streusel, you’ll combine brown sugar, salt, melted butter, and flour until a thick streusel is formed. It won’t have the powdery texture of a standard streusel topping, but it’ll be somewhat wet and much more dense. Mixing it together with a fork will help ensure it stays crumbly instead of completely clumping together into one solid mixture.
I like to add extra blackberries on top of the streusel layer so you can see them popping out of the cake. Once baked, the streusel creates a really rich and buttery top crust that is just so deliciously addicting.
While I’d say the honey glaze is optional, I absolutely love it drizzled over this blackberry zucchini coffee cake. It adds a floral sweetness that’s midler than a regular sugar glaze. Plus, its silky-smooth texture works so well with the crisp streusel topping.
Serve this cake as a decadent breakfast, an afternoon treat with a cup of tea, or as a summer dessert!
PrintBlackberry Zucchini Coffee Cake with Honey Glaze
a tender, moist blackberry zucchini coffee cake with a sweet honey glaze
yield: 1 (9”) cake
Ingredients
Streusel
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 ½ sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
Coffee Cake Batter
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 (8 oz) container sour cream
- 8 oz grated zucchini
- 12 oz fresh blackberries, quartered
Honey Glaze
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp water
- flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×2” cake pan and line it with parchment paper. Prepare the zucchini by placing the shredded zucchini in the center of a kitchen towel. Wrap up the towel and wring out most of the liquid by squeezing it over the sink. Set aside.
- For the streusel, combine the brown sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in the melted butter and use a fork to mix. Lastly, add in the flour and mix with the fork until just combined (it should be thick and crumbly). Set the bowl of streusel in the fridge.
- For the cake batter, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add the softened butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Add the egg and continue to mix until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Lastly, mix in the sour cream.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. Fold in the zucchini and ¾ of the blackberries using a rubber spatula. Spread the batter into the cake pan. Top the cake with the streusel and remaining blackberries.
- Bake on the middle rack, uncovered, for 35 minutes. Cover the pan with a piece of aluminum foil. Continue to bake for about 8 more minutes, or until just cooked through. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, for the honey glaze, combine the powdered sugar, honey, and water in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Use the parchment paper to gently lift the cake out of the pan and set it on a cooling rack. Drizzle the honey glaze over top. Sprinkle a pinch of flaky sea salt. Serve the cake warm or at room temperature, using a serrated knife to cut it into slices.
