Professor Butter Beard’s Blueberry Coffee Cake
One 9” cake (baked in a springform pan)
Topping:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp Chinese Five-Spice powder
½ tsp kosher salt
5 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, melted (you will use a total of two sticks of butter)
1 tsp vanilla paste
Cake:
1 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
Zest of one orange
10 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup canola (or vegetable) oíl
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla paste
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup Greek yoghurt (or sour cream)
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries
Filling – ¼ cup brown sugar and 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Confectioner’s sugar to finish
1) Spray a 9” springform pan with baking spray and line with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2) For the Topping: Melt the 5 ½ Tbsp butter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, spices and salt. Mix in the melted butter and vanilla with your fingers until crumbly. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3) In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the filling (brown sugar and cinnamon) with a fork.
4) In a standing mixer, mix both the sugars and the orange zest until combined and aromatic. Add the oil and butter and cream together. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla paste. With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry mix and the yoghurt, beginning and ending with the dry. Remove from the mixer and fold in the blueberries.
5) Spread half the batter into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle the filling, leaving a ½” border on the sides. Spread the remaining batter over the filling. Sprinkle all the topping over the cake.
6) Bake for 70 to 75 minutes until an instant-read thermometer reads 205 degrees. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack. When cool, dust the top with confectioner’s sugar and release from the pan.
