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Boysenberry Coffee Cake with Oatmeal and Brown Sugar Streusel

Roberta Reynolds
I love boysenberries and found myself with quite a few bags in the freezer after an overzealous picking session last summer. Since I also happen to love coffeecakes, this seemed to be a fine answer to my dilemma. A one layer, easy as can be boysenberry coffee cake that is brimming with berry goodness. There are frozen berries of course, since that was the point of this whole exercise to begin with, but also generous dollops of boysenberry jam in the center to pump up the berry flavor and add to the moistness of the cake. The streusel topping is buttery, with rich brown sugar and plenty of oatmeal for a nice crunch. This recipe should work with any type of blackberry, so if you have marionberries or other variety of blackberries laying around, go for it!! This cake is so addictive I had to hide it from my husband….OK, he hid it from me.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 ½ cups brown sugar
  • 1 ½ cups oatmeal you can use quick cooking oatmeal, but I think its lots better if you use regular oatmeal and pulse it in a food processor or blender until it gets to the size of almost a grain of rice.
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ cup butter room temperature
  • ½ cup butter melted
  • ¾ cup buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups frozen boysenberries marionberries, or blackberries, each berry cut in half
  • 2/3 cup boysenberry or another blackberry jam

Instructions
 

  • FOR THE TOPPING
  • Combine ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup flour, ½ cup oatmeal, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ cup room temperature butter, either pulsing in a food processor or mixing together with a pastry blender or using your fingers to mush the butter into the flour mixture until it becomes crumbly. Set aside.
  • FOR THE CAKE BASE:
  • In a large bowl, combine 1 ½ cups flour, 1 cup brown sugar,1 cup oatmeal, ¾ teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons baking powder.
  • In a smaller bowl, combine the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.
  • Stir or mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, only until well blended.
  • TO ASSEMBLE:
  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  • Spray a 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray (if you want to be extra careful, cut out some parchment paper to the size of the bottom of the pan and drop it into the bottom of the pan. This will make removing the cake from the pan a cool breeze. NOTE: If you do not have a springform pan, use an 8x8 inch baking dish – again, well sprayed.
  • Spread the cake base layer evenly over the bottom of the pan.
  • Scatter the frozen berries evenly over the cake base layer.
  • Spoon the jam in dollops over the berries.
  • Sprinkle topping over the berry mixture.
  • Bake for about one hour, or until the sides start to pull away from the edges of the pan, and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted into the center either comes out clean (not counting berry juices) or with a few dry crumbs. The top will feel ‘set’ if you touch it.
  • Allow to cool, at least to warm, before serving. If you can’t wait, I’ll understand.