Wild Huckleberry Streusel Sunday Coffee Cake

This versatile, sublime cake is ideal with a range of other fruits.
Originally published December, 2006
By Lou Seibert Pappas, author of Coffee Cakes (Chronicle Books, 2006)
Photo by Maren Caruso

Cake

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1-1/2 cups fresh wild huckleberries, blueberries, blackberries, boysenberries, loganberries, raspberries, red currants or pitted sour cherries

Streusel Topping


• 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup (1-1/2 ounces) chopped pecans or walnuts, plus 10 pecan or walnut halves



Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour 9-inch pie pan.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with wooden spoon or an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and orange zest, and beat well. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to blend. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk in two increments, beating just until smooth. Stir in the berries or cherries. Spread evenly over the batter in a prepared pan.

To make the streusel topping: In a small bowl or food processor, combine the flour, butter, sugar and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with your fingers or process until crumbly. Stir in the nuts. Sprinkle evenly over the batter and stud with the nut halves.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then unmold right side up on wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

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Excerpted from Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas. Copyright 2006 by Lou Seibert Pappas (Chronicle Books). Excerpted by permission of Raincoast Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.