Bursting with the best fruit flavor the season has to offer, this gluten-free, dairy-free Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake is truly habit forming!
Let me be completely honest. I made this cake with zero intention of sharing it with all of you.
I made it simply because my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I visited the farmer’s market last week (pro tip: don’t hit market right after the gym when you’re STARVING) and I didn’t want any of the precious produce to go to waste, so I decided to whip up an old neighbor’s famous blueberry coffee cake. Plus, this mama-to-be has to been craving rich, moist cake for weeks now, so – two birds, one stone.
But when this beauty came out of the oven, and all of the sweet memories of eating this as a little kid came flooding back (it was my mom’s go-to coffee cake recipe!), I thought: is it right to keep this from the world? I was overrun with guilt, so I snapped a few photos and the rest is history.
And when I say “the rest is history” I mean this Gluten-Free Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake was history within hours of the photos being snapped. I knew this cake was going to be good, but I forgot just HOW good. Disappearing within mere hours good.
Yes, there are only two of us in this household. No, we didn’t have any house guests or visitors. Yes, I totally deserve that judgemental look but I’m eating for two, okay? 😉
As you may have guessed, the original recipe wasn’t written to be gluten-free, but thanks to my gluten-free flour blend, the flour swap was a cinch. The REAL question mark I had here was about making this coffee cake dairy-free.
You may remember me mentioning a few months back that the baby boy that I am currently growing has made me lactose intolerant. (Oh, the joys of pregnancy.) It’s been interesting — CHEESE I MISS YOU – but I’ve actually had really great success using dairy-free butter alternatives in my baked goods and have always loved baking with (and drinking!) almond milk as it was, so the switch has been a lot easier than I thought!
Regardless of the dairy-free success I have had thus far, I will admit, I was a bit nervous about the swaps in this recipe. Could a dairy-free version possibly hold a candle to the rich, buttery flavor I remember oozing through every crumb of the original cake? Much to my surprise – YES!
I WILL attribute some of that to the best fresh blueberries and peaches I have maybe ever purchased, though. Berry season (and summer fruit in general), I love you.
Speaking of which, you may have noticed that I referred to the cake from my childhood as a blueberry coffee cake. But have you ever had peaches and blueberries together? A match made in HEAVEN my friends. I think God certainly had a plan when He orchestrated their peak seasons so close to each other.
High-fives to the Big Man.
So, of course, I had to add some of those extra peaches into the coffee cake. It’s basically mandatory this time of year.
The addition of the peaches also inspired me to make one more little adaptation to the original recipe (if you haven’t caught on yet, I’m TERRIBLE at following recipes to a T). Surely you’ve heard of peaches and cream? Yes, yes. I’m sure you have.
In my mind, the ONE thing that was missing from this recipe was a nice thick drizzle of sweet icing (kind of like cream? roll with me here) over the top to really make this coffee cake epic. It’s just a simple powdered sugar + almond milk glaze but OH BABY does it make all the difference!
[[Totally called DIBS on the slice with the big puddle of icing right there ↑↑↑ but CAN YOU BLAME ME?!]]
My advice as far as your priorities this week? RUN (don’t walk) to your local farmer’s market and load up on as many peaches and blueberries as you can get your hands on while they’re still around, and bake as many Gluten-Free Blueberry Peach Coffee Cakes as humanly possible. The cake consumption will take care of itself. Promise. 😉
Gluten-Free Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake [Dairy-Free, too!]
- Cake:
- ½ cup (1 stick) dairy-free butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk (or other dairy-free milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
- 1 teaspoon xanthun gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 pint fresh blueberries
- 2 small peaches, chopped
- Cinnamon topping:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ stick (2 Tablespoons) dairy-free butter
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup pecans, finely chopped
- Icing:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons unsweetened almond milk
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together until soft. Beat in the egg, and then stir in the vanilla extract, almond extract, and almond milk.
- In a separate bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, xanthun gum (if needed), baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing well.
- Gently fold the blueberries and peaches into the cake batter, and spoon into the prepared cake pan.
- In a separate bowl, combine the cinnamon topping ingredients using a fork until the mixture is crumbly and uniform in texture. Sprinkle on top of the cake batter.
- After this, Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and almond milk. Once the cake has cooled slightly, drizzle the icing over the cake.
- Enjoy!