Raspberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

4.65 from 14 votes

Raspberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Moist coffee cake filled with raspberry jam and a crumbly coconut crumb topping. Possibly the best coffee cake you've ever tasted.

Course cake

Cuisine American

Keyword buttermilk coffee cake, raspberry cake, raspberry coffee cake

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 25

Total Time 45

Servings

Calories 364

Author Erren Hart

Ingredients

For the Cake

1¼ cup all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp butter softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raspberry jam

For The Topping

2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp granulated sugar
⅓ cup all purpose flour
6 tbsp cold butter cubed
2 tbsp sweetened shredded coconut
¼ tsp salt

For the Icing

¾ cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
½ tsp vanilla

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F/176°C and grease a 8 x 8 inch square pan.

For the crumb topping

TO MAKE BY HAND Mix the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and coconut in a bow. Add the cold butter and using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.
IF USING A FOOD PROCESSOR: Add all of the ingredients to the bowl and pulse until the ingredients it resembles coarse bread crumbs.
Set aside.

For the cake

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
Add the egg, then buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Mix the flour mixture into the wet in three batches scraping the bowl in between.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Add three rows of jam a third at a time evenly spaced over the surface of the cake.
Crumble the crumb topping over the in between the rows of jam until evenly distributed.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out with little to no crumbs. Allow cake to cool for 20 minutes while you prepare the icing.

For the Icing

Add the powdered sugar in a medium bowl, add two tablespoons of milk and the vanilla extract. Mix until fully combined with no lumps. If the mixture is too thick, add one more tablespoon of milk.
Drizzle the icing over the cooled cake before serving.

Notes

Note: I tested this recipe many times and on a couple of occasions, the jam sank into the cake during baking. When that happened, I added a little more over the hot cake after baking. It worked great giving a nice layer of jam from top to bottom.

Don’t have a food processor? A pastry cutter could be used to make the topping by hand.
The secret to a superb light cake is to cream the butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes.
To make your own buttermilk for this recipe: Use ¾ cup milk + 2 ¼ teaspoons vinegar. If you do use your own buttermilk, I would start with using half cup and add more to loosen the batter as needed. The batter needs to be quite thick to support the topping (see the step by step instructions for photos).

Nutrition