Berry-Topped Coffee Cake

Spring is fully here now. The garden is going, the light is staying later, and the farmers market opened this weekend for the season. I go every Saturday when I can and this Saturday I went with Kezia, who had never been to this particular one and who approached it the way she approaches any place where food is gathered: with attention and a willingness to ask the vendors questions that most adults consider too elementary to ask.

She asked a woman selling spring onions how you know when they're ready to pull. She asked the man with the honey how the flavor of the honey changes through the season, which led to a twenty-minute conversation about which flowers the bees prefer in which months. She asked a girl selling dried beans — probably her own age — how her grandmother stored them and the girl told her a method involving a bay leaf in the jar to deter weevils and Kezia wrote it down immediately. A bay leaf in the jar. I've been doing this for years without knowing it was a documented method. It just came from Bernice, who got it from someone before her, and so on back.

We came home with more than I intended to buy, as is always true at the farmers market. Spring peas, early strawberries, ramps, a bunch of radishes, that honey in three varieties. I made a simple lunch: new potatoes and ramps sautéed in butter, fried eggs, a strawberry shortcake that didn't take long and didn't need to. Spring cooking is like that — the ingredients are so right in themselves that the cooking is mostly just getting out of the way.

That strawberry shortcake I mentioned — it started with the same instinct this berry-topped coffee cake comes from: the strawberries were so good that the recipe only needed to stay out of their way. I’ve made this one enough times now that it feels less like following instructions and more like setting a stage. The berries do the real work, and after a morning of watching Kezia remind me to pay attention to where food actually comes from, that felt exactly right.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 9

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh mixed berries (strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (for topping)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (for topping)

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 375°F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Combine the wet ingredients. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the milk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Make the batter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Top with berries. Scatter the fresh berries evenly over the top of the batter, pressing them in very lightly.
Make the crumb topping. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and cinnamon. Add the cold butter pieces and work them in with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the berries.
Bake. Bake for 33–37 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Berry-Topped Coffee Cake — The Shortcake Spirit of a Saturday in Spring