Blueberry Zucchini Breakfast Cake
Sometimes you just need cake for breakfast. It could be that great red velvet cake left over from your friend’s birthday, or it could be this cake: wonderfully moist and full of fresh blueberries and zucchini, and a crunchy walnut streusel baked into the top, this cake will have you getting out of bed early in the morning. (That one was pretty cheesy. If there was a contest for corny food descriptions, I think I might win.)
I mean, who doesn’t want to wake up to a big ol’ hunk of this next to their morning cup of coffee?
I baked this cake as a weekday-morning parting gift for the lovely staff at the office where I interned this summer. It was quickly devoured by a fairly small company.
There were plenty of smiles at the start of an otherwise-daunting Monday. Breakfast cake will do that.
This guy’s got a lot of ingredients, but they are all fresh and good and probably things that are already in your fridge or pantry. Before we get to the recipe, I’ll give you a few handy baking tricks that you can use while preparing this cake. They’ll help your cake taste great and make you seem like a fancy baker. What’s not to love?
Tip #1 — Squeeze excess water out of your grated zucchini. Though this is not essential, it will help you control the moisture content of your cake. After grating your zucchini, dump it into a tea towel. Roll the towel around it and wring it out, allowing most of the water to be squeezed out. Don’t worry- your cake will still be plenty moist, and your batter won’t be watery!
Tip #2 — Rub the lemon zest into the white sugar with your hands. This infuses the bright flavor of the lemon into the sugar, which will help intensify it and evenly distribute it throughout the cake.
Once you have whisked your dry ingredients, including the white and brown sugars, you can add the wet. The wet mixture consists of cooled melted butter (gotta have the butter!), whole milk, and two eggs. Feel free to add a dash of vanilla. Why not, right?
Tip #3 — Coat your fresh blueberries in a teaspoon or so of flour before adding them to the batter. This will help suspend them in the batter so they don’t all sink to the bottom of the pan while the cake is baking. This way, the final product will be evenly polka-dotted with juicy blueberries!
Tip #4 — ADD STREUSEL TO ALL BREAKFAST-RELATED ITEMS. Muffins, quick breads, cakes, anything. Whatever it is, people will love it more with streusel. It’s a fact.
I used walnuts and cinnamon as my prominent flavors in this streusel, but you could use pecans, or you could skip the nuts altogether. We sprinkle it in the bottom of the greased bundt pan like so:
And when the cake comes out of the oven, it has a beautiful crunchy top full of our favorite things: (butter, sugar, cinnamon, toasty nuts)
For visual appeal and an extra tangy zing to complement the blueberries, stir together some powdered sugar and lemon juice and drizzle it on top. Then your cake will be truly irresistible.
Blueberry Zucchini Breakfast Cake
Cake ingredients: 3 cups flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, zest of two lemons, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/8–1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional), 3 tsp baking powder, 1 cup whole milk, 2/3 cup melted and cooled butter, 2 eggs, 1 heaping cup grated zucchini, 2 cups fresh blueberries + 1 tsp flour
Streusel ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped walnuts, 3 tbsp flour, 1 tbsp white sugar, 2 tbsp brown sugar, pinch of salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 3 tbsp softened butter
Glaze ingredients: 1 cup powdered sugar, juice of one lemon, 1–2 tbsp milk as needed
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a bundt pan with softened butter and dust lightly with flour. Set aside.
2. Grate zucchini finely. Place the grated zucchini in a tea towel and squeeze well to remove excess water.
3. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder.
4. In a small bowl, use your hands to rub the lemon zest into the white sugar. Add brown sugar and whisk both sugars together.
5. Add sugars to dry ingredients and whisk until fully combined.
6. In a small bowl, thoroughly beat together milk, melted and cooled butter, and eggs.
7. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in grated zucchini.
8. Toss blueberries in flour to coat. This will prevent them from sinking in the batter. Fold them into the batter.
9. In a separate bowl, combine all of the streusel ingredients. Add the butter last and use your fingers to work it into the dry ingredients.
10. Sprinkle the streusel evenly in the bottom of the prepared bundt pan. Pour the batter evenly over the top of the streusel.
11. Bake cake at 35o degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a light crumb.
12. While the cake cools, make the glaze. Whisk together lemon juice and confectioners sugar in a small bowl. When the cake cools, drizzle the glaze over the top. Garnish with lemon zest if desired.
Accidental cake-for-breakfast days happen. They happen because of hard days at work, break ups, cravings, your inability to shop for proper groceries, or just because it was your best friend’s birthday the night before and they made you take home the extra.
With this recipe, I offer you an intentional cake-for-breakfast day.
Make this one afternoon or evening,
have sweet, sweet dreams,
and wake up happy and ready to share the joy.
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P.S. If you’re lovely and dedicated enough to still be reading, I’ll take a break from regular baking programming to give a quick apology. I know my posts recently have been sporadic, at best. But I’m working on getting a handle on this whole being a college-kid thing, and I hope to be writing more often again soon. Here’s to dreams of working ovens and free time!
