This recipe contest winner is a lighter version of coffee cake with a surprising twist of flavors. Give this Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake a try when you need a home run recipe for brunch.
When I first began Make Healthy Easy in 2015, I entered a lot of recipe contests. I was looking for both inspiration and quite frankly, money, to get this website off the ground. It was a fun time of chasing inspiration and unique ingredients and I happen to have won, not one, but four contests along the way.
One of the contests I stumbled upon was a challenge to pair blueberries with an uncommon flavor pairing. I chose bananas and mascarpone cheese and dreamed of a healthy blueberry coffee cake that brought all of these flavors together. I came up with this Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake and it was a grand prize winner in the Blueberries Meet their Match recipe contest. It's definitely one of my all-time favorite recipes I've created.
When creating baked goods for MHE, I often use whole wheat flour to make it a little bit healthier by increasing nutrients like fiber. There's also some honey in this recipe to enable using a little less sugar.
The end result is a healthy blueberry coffee cake that tastes like what would happen if banana bread, cheese danish, and blueberry pancakes all got together (but healthed-up a little). It's the perfect combination of flavors, moistness, and just the right amount of sweetness.
This cake bakes for about an hour which gives it slightly crunchy edges and a super moist center. Oh, and of course, being filled with blueberries and bananas adds great nutritional value and fiber. It's a winner in every way.
The mascarpone cheese is swirled into the cake batter, ensuring each piece is marbled with cheesy goodness.
Here's how you make it:
PrintRecipe
Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Description
This recipe contest winner is a lighter version of coffee cake with a surprising twist of flavors. Give this Healthy Blueberry Coffee Cake a try when you need a homerun recipe for brunch.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick, softened)
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 cup mashed bananas (from 2 bananas)
- 1 teaspoon plus ½ teaspoons vanilla (divided)
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup low fat buttermilk
- 2 heaping cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese (softened)
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with nonstick baking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together for about 4 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the honey and mashed bananas and mix until combined. Next, add eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and mix thoroughly.
- In a separate bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk to the wet ingredients in 3 increments.
- Fold in blueberries to batter. Pour batter into pan and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whip mascarpone, powdered sugar and vanilla together until well combined. Drop mascarpone mixture in spoonfuls over batter. Drag a knife through the batter to spread out the mascarpone.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Remove and cover with aluminum foil. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool and cut in to squares to serve.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Brunch
Keywords: blueberry, brunch recipes, coffee cake
If you're curious about the other recipe contest winners, I only have one other currently posted on this site because the photos are so bad and I need to retake them. Check out my Savory Mediterranean Yogurt Parfait for a fun and savory spin on a yogurt parfait. It was a winner in a recipe contest for olives.
Enjoy!
