Sourdough Blueberry Breakfast Cake

This Sourdough Blueberry Breakfast Cake comes together fairly quickly, tastes amazing, and is a great way to put sourdough discard to good use. Isn’t it just lovely to have something slightly sweet and full of good carbs to snack on early in the morning with a cup of coffee? A reward for waking up early! The house is quiet and the sun is just starting to flood the sky with color and light. The sting of yesterday’s worries has faded and the morning is full of new mercies waiting to be received. This is my favorite time of day. This time of day deserves to be celebrated. Celebrations almost always have cake!

Many of the breakfast cake recipes I reviewed in my research called for buttermilk. I do love baking with buttermilk, but I find that it’s just not an easy ingredient to keep on hand. Unless you have your own cow and are routinely churning cream into butter, you’d probably have to make a special trip to the store just for that ingredient. I wondered if sourdough discard, which is acidic like buttermilk, could be a substitution in this case. It worked out very well. So instead of using buttermilk, I used a combination of whole milk and sourdough discard. The acidity is needed to react with the baking powder, which helps the cake rise and have a lighter, softer crumb.

The tang of the blueberries and sourdough discard balance out the sugar really well here. The cake is not overly sweet. But do be sure to sprinkle that tablespoon of sugar over the top of the batter before baking. For simplicity’s sake, I decided not to add any kind of streusel or crumb topping to this cake. Though it would be delicious, it’s another stick of butter, more measuring cups, and another dirty bowl. No thanks, not today. That sprinkle of sugar over the top bakes up with a nice crackled shine.

I used frozen blueberries in this recipe, though fresh ones would be just fine if you have them. I love the blueberries in the frozen section labeled “wild”. They tend to be smaller and more flavorful in my experience. If I see them, I stock up so that I have them in the freezer for baking. To keep the blueberries from all sinking to the bottom, this recipe calls for a coating of flour before folding them into the batter. I still find that they sink some, but there’s still blueberry goodness in every bite so it’s okay.

Be careful not to overmix the batter for this recipe. I like to cream the butter, sugar, and eggs together with an electric or stand mixer, but then once the flour is added, I mix by hand. A Danish dough whisk is such a great tool for mixing batters and doughs. If you don’t have one, it’s a really inexpensive kitchen tool that you’ll find yourself reaching for often.

I hope this Sourdough Blueberry Breakfast Cake finds its way into your kitchen, and that you enjoy a little early morning celebration (solo or otherwise) as I do. Happy baking and cheers (coffee mugs clink together) to a great day!