Gluten Free Blueberry Vanilla Crumb Cake

Whether you’re serving this gluten free blueberry coffee cake for a special get-together, or at home with your family, you’ll love how easily this healthier coffee cake recipe comes together. The gluten-free flour mix is made with oat flour, brown rice, and coconut flour (no xanthan gum needed here!). It’s a hit with everyone, and the perfect recipe to make during blueberry season, or anytime with frozen berries.

Gluten free blueberry vanilla crumb cake

My friends, we’re making traditional coffee cake even better with this recipe! Fluffy cake with the best crumble topping plus fruity bursting berries. So good!

You can use fresh blueberries if you have them, or frozen blueberries if fresh isn’t an option. Don’t have blueberries? No worries! Use whatever fresh or frozen berries you have on hand!

The bursting blueberries between the perfectly soft and sweet bites are totally perfect.

We love this blueberry buckle because it’s…

• Moist.
• A little fruity.
• has buttery cinnamon streusel goodness.
• Quite vanilla-y.

Ingredients for gluten-free blueberry coffee cake

Scroll down to view the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions.

• oat flour
• brown rice flour
• coconut flour
• rolled oats
• natural cane sugar
• baking powder
• sea salt
• eggs
• unsweetened almond milk
• unsweetened applesauce
• avocado oil
• vanilla extract
• blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• unsalted butter

How to make gluten-free coffee cake with juicy blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a 9-inch cake pan (or springform pan) lightly with oil. Cover the bottom with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl add 1 cup of oat flour, brown rice flour, coconut flour, ⅔ cup of natural cane sugar, baking powder, and sea salt. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond milk, applesauce, oil, and 1 tbsp vanilla extract.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, until your cake batter is combined. Do not over stir. It will look slightly lumpy. Fold in the blueberries and pour into the bottom of the pan.
5. To make the streusel topping combine the softened butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, ½ cup oat flour, ¼ cup rolled oats, and 2 tbsp natural cane sugar in a small bowl and mix with a fork or pastry cutter. Distribute evenly on top of the batter.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Test with a toothpick for doneness. You want a slightly moist toothpick. Not gooey but not bone dry. The edge should be light golden brown and the cake will spring back when you press on it lightly.
7. Let the cake cool fully before removing it from the pan.

Watch me make a really good coffee cake

The full how to video can be watched below, or on my YouTube channel!

How to store

Once the coffee cake is cooled, it can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge. You’ll want to cover it or place it in an airtight container so that it doesn’t dry out.

It keeps well for up to 1 week!

Substitutions

Below you’ll find a list of substitutions that will work well in this gluten free blueberry coffee cake recipe. 

If you try something different out, please leave a comment below letting us all know how it turned out!

Gluten-free flour mix – To replace the 3 flours, you can use a store-bought gluten-free all-purpose flour. You can also use almond flour in place of either oat flour or brown rice flour or coconut flour. I would not suggest replacing all 3 flours with almond flour, as the cake will not be as soft.

Rolled oats – Quick oats and old-fashioned oatmeal are good alternatives to rolled oats.

Natural cane sugar – Both coconut sugar and brown sugar are good alternatives to cane sugar. White sugar would work here as well. You can also use maple syrup to replace the cane sugar, however, you’ll want to reduce the almond milk by half to account for the extra liquid you’ll get from maple syrup.

Almond milk – Use your favorite milk option if you don’t have almond milk on hand. Regular milk, oat milk, cashew milk, hemp milk, rice milk, or soy milk will all work here!

Unsweetened applesauce – If you don’t have applesauce on hand, increase the almond milk in the recipe. You can also replace the applesauce with canned pumpkin, however, it will darken the color a bit.

Avocado oil – You can substitute avocado oil for melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, or even melted butter.

Vanilla extract – Try using a little almond extract in place of the vanilla extract. Reduce the amount by half.

Blueberries – If you don’t have fresh berries, use frozen! Here’s a tip when using frozen berries. Toss the berries with ½ cup of the flour mixture before adding them to the cake mix. That will help keep them a bit more separated instead of clumping together. You can also substitute any berry or fruit that you have on hand. Large fruits like peaches should be diced. Watery fruits like watermelon or grapes wouldn’t work well in this recipe.

Butter – Both ghee and coconut oil are good options to replace the butter in the crumb topping.

Like this recipe? Check these out too!

• Gluten free cranberry orange coffee cake
• Blueberry breakfast bread
• Healthy no sugar banana cake
• Carrot cake with greek yogurt cream cheese frosting (gluten free!)
• Almond butter zucchini muffins (gluten free!)
• Triple chocolate cake
• Apple crisp without oats

If you try this blueberry crumb cake recipe, I’d love it if you left a star rating and comment below letting me know how it turned out!

XO

Heather

Originally published in November 2011. Updated March 2023.