Bumbleberry breakfast cake

Another delicious not-too-sweet treat!

The triple-berry combination of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries was purportedly given the funny name ‘bumbleberry’ many years ago in the Maritime region of Canada, to describe the assortment of berries or other fruit on hand that you might “bumble upon” in your fridge. You’ll most commonly find bumbleberry pie or preserves but I recently decided it might be fun to see how they’d work out in a not-too-sweet breakfast cake, similar to an old-fashioned coffee cake. Good news: it’s a delicious and super easy treat, and one that freezes well also. If you’re a fan of coffee cakes (which, of course do not have coffee in them but are meant to be served with coffee or tea), you might also enjoy my apple sour cream version, my raspberry cream cheese coffee cake or this yummy blueberry-cardamom version.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup (125 g) sour cream or plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla extract
• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups (330 g) fresh berries (a combination of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries)

Topping:

• 1/4 cup (57 g) butter
• 1/4 cup (39 g) rolled oats
• 1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
• Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla; stir until evenly blended. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the liquids, blending until smooth.
• Fold the berries into the batter very gently, then transfer the batter into the prepared pan.
• In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scatter over top of the batter and berries.
• Transfer to preheated oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
• Let cool five minutes then slice and serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves 9 – 12.