Blueberry Plum Buttermilk Coffee Cake
The Story
Mama wouldn’t let me help her prepare her breakfast, or she wasn’t happy when she had to ask me to—there’s a good bit about that in the book—but on Thursday mornings, we developed a routine and I cooked a “knife and fork” breakfast, as my father called it. Meaning not cereal. A coffee cake, cut in serving-size squares and put in the freezer then warmed in the oven, really jazzed up our soft scrambled eggs—and earned me jewels in my crown.
The Recipe
Ingredients for Topping:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Ingredients for Coffee Cake:
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 heaping cup Italian plums diced
- 1 heaping cup blueberries
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square pan.
- In a bowl, mix topping ingredients together with a fork or pastry cutter until combined. Set aside.
- For the cake, beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until fluffy. I do this by hand; a mixer is great. Add the egg and vanilla and beat in.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture alternately with the buttermilk, stirring just until combined. Batter will be thick.
- Gently fold in the fruit, and spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with topping and bake 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- The coffee cake is good warm or cold. Cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before serving.
