SUMMERTIME STREUSEL COFFEE CAKE
A sweet and delicious coffee cake cake made with summertime fruits
My dad loves nectarines and berries. So with Father’s Day approaching, I decided I wanted to incorporate all of these components into a dessert.
I found some really nice-looking recipes online involving nectarines and berries, and I even saved a few to consider. And although these recipes had been tested already and thus proven successful for the creator (as well as reviewers), I just knew that I would somehow end up modifying them anyway. So I thought I would take the chance on experimenting with this Father’s Day dessert recipe…
I liked the idea of a coffee cake, because I knew that this would be sturdier and therefore more capable of handling the wetness that fruit would contribute, more-so than a standard layer cake would. But I still wanted the cake to end up with a nice (read: not dry) texture and light pleasant flavor so it would actually play a role in the finished product, other than a neutral stage for fruit to sit atop of.
I combined cake flour and a decent amount of butter for the tenderness of the cake, as well as enough eggs to give it lift but without weighing it down. I also added a little bit of butter extract, along with vanilla, to bring out those flavors more. I knew that ginger and nutmeg complement nectarines or peaches well, so I put in just enough I felt would not overwhelm it.
I felt peach yogurt would pair nicely and add more moisture without making it too dense. You could also use vanilla if you wanted to.
Lastly, I had planned to use an equal amount of berries, but after I picked through the raspberries and blackberries, I had half the amount I’d expected. So I compensated with more blueberries.
And of course, a coffee cake needs a good streusel topping!
I brought this to my dad, and he was very impressed! Another good sign was that my mom really enjoyed this, and she is not typically a fan of nectarines or blueberries. My spouse also said it was delicious. Although somewhat labor-intensive, I think it was worth it.
Hopefully you enjoy it as well.
Recipe:
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Ingredients Section:
TOPPING
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 6 TBS cold butter
CAKE
- 10 TBS butter, softened
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp butter extract
- 2 2/3 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (6-ounce container) nonfat peach or vanilla yogurt
- 4 ripe nectarines or peaches, peeled and sliced thin and patted dry
- 2 cups blueberries
- 1/2 cup raspberries
- 1/2 cup blackberries
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Coat a 13×9 inch cake pan with nonstick spray.
TOPPING
- Combine flour, sugar, pecans and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well.
- Add cold butter and cut into mixture until crumbly. Set aside.
CAKE
- Beat together the 10 tablespoons of softened butter and both sugars until creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Beat eggs in one at a time.
- Add both extracts and beat until combined.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger and nutmeg.
- Stir in 1/3 of flour mixture to butter mixture, then stir in half of yogurt.
- Again, stir in 1/3 of flour, then the other half of yogurt, followed by remaining flour mixture.
- Mix until there are no longer streaks of flour showing through.
- Spread one-third of batter evenly onto the bottom of the pan.
- Top with the nectarine slices.
- Then top nectarines with one-third of the topping.
- Dollup remaining cake batter over the topping.
- Spread carefully and as evenly as possible with the back of a spoon.
- Top this with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.
- Cover berries with remaining topping.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven until edges are lightly browned and cake doesn’t jiggle in the middle.
- Allow to cool before cutting
Notes about this recipe:
- You can use any combination of berries to equal 3 cups total, but I find that blueberries hold up the best; raspberries and blackberries tend to become more delicate, especially after washing.
- I’m sure peaches would probably work well in place of nectarines.
