An easy infusion of tea in scalded milk, makes this Earl Grey Blueberry Coffee Cake incredibly delicious and a snap to make. (Jump directly to the recipe.)
I have a new obsession and its name is Snapchat. Part of me wants to curl up in a ball and hide under a rock when I admit that. I want to call it “a guilty pleasure” but the reality is, I feel no guilt in using it. In fact, it’s reinvigorated my love of social media because it’s so refreshing to not have to deal with the insanity of the highly curated life and social media “pressure” of trying to get comments and likes on pretty much every other social media channel everywhere. Snapchat doesn’t allow for public “likes” or comments so anytime I share things on Snapchat, no one else knows if I get 10 views or 10,000 views! I love that. No societal pressure to perform, instead I get to just share whatever I want. And yes it’s infuriating to use because it’s basically designed for 13 year-olds. And I am 40-something-year-old that is feeling very geriatric lately (I’m totally doing that thing with the phone where I pull it back and forth from my eyes to try to get it into focus). But it’s exactly because of Snapchat that I ended up making this Earl Grey Blueberry Coffee Cake. And I have absolutely no guilt or regrets about this coffee cake.
It started out when I admitted to my Snapchat pals that my partner AJ was out of town and all my bad habits that I usually repress to keep from annoying him come flaring back up. This includes things like letting the dishes pile up in the sink, leaving the apartment a hot mess without picking anything up, and eating like a college student. Yes, as a food blogger, this is probably the worse admission. I order ton of cheap Chinese carryout and then gorge on it. It’s not pretty but I can’t help myself.
But I also go crazy at the grocery store! AJ basically functions like my built-in self-control. I’ll be at the grocery store, reaching for a donut, and he’ll be all “Do you REALLY need that donut?” No. I don’t. No one REALLY needs a donut. Or I’ll pile the grocery cart full of potato chips (because they’re on sale!) and he’ll be “we really don’t have room for 12 bags of chips. Maybe buy 3?” and I’ll reluctantly put back 9 bags. But the worse is the fruit. I have a habit of going crazy and buying TONS of fruit when he’s gone (because it looks so fabulous at the grocery store) only to find that I either have a ton of fruit in the fridge already, or that I overbought and can’t eat it fast enough. And this is what happened when I found myself buying another package of blueberries at the store, only to find a box of unopened blueberries in the fridge. Gah!
So here’s the thing. I COULD have just frozen the older blueberries. Which might be a good solution except that my freezer is pretty packed right now with goose stock that I just made (and yes I totally snapped me making stock — I told you I’m obsessed!). So I went on Snapchat and asked my friends what I should make? Should I make blueberry muffins or blueberry coffee cake? To my surprise more than twice as many people picked blueberry coffee cake over muffins (though one person told me I should have made cobbler…which came too late after I had decided I wanted cake or muffins). So thanks to Snapchat, I made this Earl Grey Blueberry Coffee Cake and it’s pretty damn fantastic. No guilt with this coffee cake or my new social media obsession. No guilt at all.
Earl Grey Blueberry Coffee Cake
By Irvin Lin
Earl Grey tea is black tea infused with Bergamot orange oils and its deep earthy and citrus aroma is just intoxicating. I infused the milk in this recipe with the tea, which is much easier to do than it sounds. If you aren’t a fan of Earl Grey, you can skip this step or just use a different tea (ginger or mint would be pretty fantastic as well). And if you follow me on Snapchat, you probably saw me making the recipe. If not, I’ve archived the video and you can watch it below!
Ingredients
Cake batter
1 cup plus 1-3 tablespoons whole milk, divided
2 bags of Earl Grey tea
1/2 cup (115 g or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 1/2 cups (490 g) all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
4 cups (455 g or 1 pound) fresh blueberries
Crumb Topping
2/3 cup (145 g) packed dark brown sugar
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon Turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoon unsalted butter, refrigerator cold
Directions
1. Place 1 cup of milk in a small saucepan and turn the heat to high. Heat the milk until tiny bubbles form on the side of the pan. Turn the heat off, place the bags of the Earl Grey tea in the pan with the hot milk and cover. Let steep for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350ºF. Coat a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with cooking spray then line with parchment paper.
3. Place the butter, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes or until the butter is light and fluffy and clings to the side of the bowl. Add 1 egg and beat until incorporated. Repeat with the 2nd egg.
4. Measure out the Earl Grey tea into a liquid measuring cup. Gently squeeze the tea bags to get as much flavor out as possible. Add an additional 1 to 3 tablespoon of plain milk to bring it back to 1 cup of liquid (no matter how much you squeeze the tea bags, some milk will be absorbed.
5. Add 2 cups of the flour to the batter and mix until the flour is incorporated. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add half the milk. Beat to incorporate. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour to the batter and beat until absorbed then repeat with the remaining milk.
6. Gently fold in the blueberries into the batter and then scrape the cake batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Make the crumb topping by placing brown sugar, flour, Turbinado sugar and cinnamon in a medium size bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2 chunks and sprinkle over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, smash the butter into tiny chunks, then blend into the dry ingredients, continuing to blend in, until the crumb topping starts to stick together in clumps when you squeeze it with your hands. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the cake.
7. Bake the cake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Makes sure to test a few different places as you may hit a blueberry. Let cool completely in the pan before lifting up with the parchment paper and moving the cake to a cutting board to cut and serve.
Makes 12 servings.
If you like this coffee cake, check out these other coffee cakes:
Rhubarb and Blackberry Coffee Cake
Peach and Blueberry Coffee Cake
Cherry Buckle Cake
Sugar Roasted Peaches and Blueberry Bacon Infused Buckle
And check out some of my other coffee cakes from around the web:
Foodness Gracious’ Chocolate Espresso Coffee Cake
Chez Us’ Upside Down Cranberry Coffee Cake
Nutmeg Nanny’s Zucchini Coffee Cake
Simply Recipes’ Apple Coffee Cake
White on Rice’s Pumpkin Spice Coffee Cake
heather (delicious not gorgeous) says
i am a sucker for earl grey and summery (even elderly) blueberries, so this coffee cake will have to happen as soon as i get my hands on some deserving berries.
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says
This sounds fantastic!! I’ve been looking to make more recipes with tea — coffee had been the king in this but I think you can get more flavors from tea. And I think we all need to be a little bit of an eccentric when we are by ourselves. I would have said “slob” but I wouldn’t call myself that. And when I’m in a store if it says “new” I’m a sucker. Wish you had some cake leftover — I’d be at your door.
Kari says
Yum! I’m such a fan of making recipes with tea in them!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Denise says
I have been thinking of your coffee cake recipe since watching you make it on SnapChat – glad the recipe is here. Thank you for sharing our cranberry coffee cake – it is prefect for the holiday season!
gerry speirs says
I am a major fan of coffee cake and Earl Grey and Blueberry sounds so awesome!! Thanks for linking up 🙂
Melanie says
I’ve always wondered how to make such topping. Seems a piece of cake 🙂 Thanks for the lovely recipe, it’s perfect for an afternoon snack 🙂
Kelly Madison says
Blueberry coffee cake – now that is something I should definitely try. Thanks for posting 🙂
2pots2cook says
Now this is interesting: two weeks ago, I have published Blackberry Apple Earl Grey Jam on my blog and your post makes me thinking of putting some of it into the batter instead of Earl Grey and blackberries …. or maybe on the top of the batter and then the crumbs and bake….. this could turn into something delicious !
Thanks for the recipe, anyway !
sue parker says
I made the Earl Grey coffee cake and took it to my Friday group. Hands down a real favorite even for the people who don’t like the tea! Will definitely make again. Only change I made was to cut recipe in half and bake in 8×8 pan. A Winner! Just discovered this website and am I glad.
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