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This fruit and Cream Cheese coffee cake is tender, buttery, and packed with jammy fruit and tangy cream cheese pockets. The thick batter comes together quickly, and the crumb topping adds just enough sweetness without any fussy pastry work. Blueberries are a favorite, but this flexible cake works beautifully with other fruit, too.
Why You’ll Love It
- Quick to make — about ten minutes of active prep and no stand mixer required.
- Tender and buttery — thick batter bakes into a soft cake with juicy fruit and creamy pockets of cream cheese.
- Not overly sweet — equally good for breakfast or dessert with whipped cream.
- Flexible with fruit — fresh or frozen fruit both work, with no thawing needed.
- Feeds six generously — perfect for sharing or enjoying as leftovers.
Ingredient Notes
Use softened butter for the cake batter—not melted, not straight from the refrigerator like a brick. Leave it on the counter while groceries are unloaded, and it should be fine. In a warm kitchen, fifteen minutes may be plenty.
The cream cheese can be regular full-fat cream cheese, and I cut it into little bits rather than trying to soften and blend it. Those uneven cream cheese pieces are part of the charm. Some bites are a little tangier than others. More cream cheese is probably good, but then we’re wandering into cheesecake territory and there have to be boundaries. Not many, but some.
For fruit, the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of blueberries or other fruit. Fresh or frozen both work. If frozen, keep it frozen. Do not thaw it unless blue-gray batter and unnecessary disappointment sound appealing. Blueberries work especially well, but chopped peaches are wonderful, and strawberries can work if they’re chopped fairly small. Bigger wet fruit pieces can make the center take longer to bake, and that kind of nonsense is unnecessary.
The topping uses either brown or white sugar. Brown sugar gives it a slightly deeper, caramel-ish flavor, which I prefer, but white sugar makes a lighter, crispier little crumb. Both are good. We are not splitting atoms here.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, or another fruit you like—frozen stays frozen
- 3 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces
For the topping:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons brown or white sugar, I usually reach for brown
- 2 tablespoons butter
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Instructions
Heat your oven to 375°F and grease an 8-inch square baking dish. I use butter or baking spray, whatever is closest and not buried behind six jars of mustard in the refrigerator. Set the dish aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened 1/4 cup butter and the sugar. You can use a hand mixer, which is easiest, but a sturdy spoon and a little elbow grease will get you there. It should look fluffy-ish. Not magazine-photo fluffy. Just blended and lighter than when you started.
Beat in the egg. Do try to focus long enough to get the egg fully mixed in, though.
In another bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture gradually, alternating with the milk. Start with some flour, then some milk, then repeat until it’s all incorporated. The batter will be thick. Very thick. The first time I made this, I was sure I had left out a liquid ingredient. I had not.
Toss the blueberries with the remaining 1/4 cup flour. This helps keep them from sinking straight to the bottom, especially with fresh berries. If you’re using frozen blueberries, do this gently and quickly. They’ll start coloring the flour a little, but that’s fine.
Fold the floured blueberries and the small pieces of cream cheese into the batter. It will be lumpy. It is supposed to be lumpy. Those cream cheese bits do not need to disappear into the batter; they’re going to soften into creamy little surprises while it bakes. Stirring everything until smooth makes the cake less appealing.
Spoon the batter into the greased 8-inch square dish and spread it around as best you can. Since it’s thick, you may need to nudge it into the corners with the back of your spoon. Don’t mash it down like you’re angry at it.
For the topping, combine the 1/4 cup flour and the brown or white sugar in a small bowl. Cut in the 2 tablespoons butter until the mixture is crumbly. I use a fork most of the time. A pastry blender is lovely if you own one and know where it is. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Try not to hit a blueberry or melted cream cheese pocket with the toothpick, because then you’ll think it isn’t done and bake the poor thing to death. Start checking at 40 minutes. Mine usually lands around 42, but ovens have moods. Let the cake cool for at least a little while before slicing, unless molten berry lava on your fingers sounds appealing.
Variations
The blueberry version is the one I come back to, but this cake will take all kinds of fruit without complaining. Chopped peaches are especially nice when ripe and juicy. Raspberries make it brighter and a little more tart. Blackberries are good, too, though they can be seedy.
You can use 1/2 cup sour cream or vanilla yogurt in place of the cream cheese if that’s what you have. The result is still moist and lovely, though you lose those distinct creamy pockets. Vanilla yogurt works well when using up ingredients in the refrigerator.
I’ve also added a little cinnamon when using peaches, and once I stirred oats into the topping for a heartier crumb. That worked well. What did not work was using very juicy frozen mango chunks without cutting them smaller. It tasted fine, eventually, but the middle was stubbornly damp.
Storage & Reheating
Cover leftovers and keep them in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese. It’s best the day it’s baked, naturally, but it stays good for about three days. The topping softens some in the fridge, which is annoying but not tragic.
For a warm slice, microwave it for maybe 15 to 20 seconds. Don’t overdo it or the berries turn into little lava bombs—I have warned you. If reheating several pieces, a low oven works nicely.
You can freeze individual squares, wrapped well, for a later breakfast or dessert. Thaw them overnight in the fridge or warm gently from frozen.
Final Notes
There’s Something about a plain little square coffee cake that gets me. No layers to frost, no fancy glaze, no need to pretend it’s a special occasion. Just fruit, butter, cream cheese, and that crumbly top that falls all over the plate—then onto the floor, where the dog will find it before I can even reach for the broom.
The kitchen smells especially good with blueberries and warm butter, with the window open and a mower nearby.
Still, there’s always more cake.
Fruit and Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Ingredients Â
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour divided
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries or another fruit you like; keep frozen fruit frozen
- 3 ounces cream cheese cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons brown or white sugar brown sugar preferred
- 2 tablespoons butter
InstructionsÂ
- Heat the oven to 375°F and grease an 8-inch square baking dish with butter or baking spray, then set it aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened 1/4 cup butter and the sugar until blended and lighter in texture.
- Beat in the egg until it is fully mixed into the butter and sugar mixture.
- In another bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder, and salt, then add this dry mixture to the butter mixture gradually, alternating with the milk, until incorporated into a very thick batter.
- Toss the blueberries with the remaining 1/4 cup flour, working gently and quickly if using frozen blueberries.
- Fold the floured blueberries and the small pieces of cream cheese into the batter, leaving the batter lumpy and the cream cheese pieces distinct.
- Spoon the thick batter into the greased 8-inch square dish and gently spread it into the corners with the back of a spoon.
- For the topping, combine the 1/4 cup flour and the brown or white sugar in a small bowl, then cut in the 2 tablespoons butter with a fork or pastry blender until crumbly.
- Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean; let the cake cool for at least a little while before slicing.