Perfect for a crowd, this recipe highlights everything you love about blueberry muffins - in sheet pan form: Bursting with 4(!) large cups of blueberries, generously topped with a buttery crumble, and sprinkled with crunchy sugar sparkles.
Elaine would be proud.
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Blueberry Muffin Top Cake
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: Serves 20 - 24 1x
- Category: Breakfast & Brunch
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
You will need an 18x13x1-inch sheet pan for this recipe.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Crumb Topping:
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, melted (¾ cup, 6 oz)
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar (106 g)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1 ¾ cups + 2 TB all-purpose flour (225 g)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp fine-grain salt (like table or sea salt)
For the Muffin Top Cake:
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (270 g)
- 1 TB baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine-grain salt (like table or sea salt)
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (¾ cup, 6 oz)
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (250 g)
- zest of 1 lemon, preferably organic
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups full-fat sour cream (340 g)
- 1 TB pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups fresh blueberries, divided
- ¼ cup turbinado sugar (45 g)
Instructions
For the Crumb Topping:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well combined. Add the flour, cinnamon, and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until a thick dough forms. Set aside.
For the Muffin Top Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Grease the bottom and sides of an 18x13x1-inch sheet pan with butter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and lemon zest on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl (the mixture may look curdled, but will smooth out as you add the rest of the ingredients).
- Add half the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until incorporated, then mix in the sour cream and vanilla. Add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and mix just until a few streaks remain. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold in 2 cups of the blueberries.
- Pour the batter onto the prepared pan and spread it evenly to all four corners. Top with the remaining 2 cups blueberries. Break up the crumb topping into uneven clumps with your fingers and scatter evenly over the batter, all the way to the edges of the pan. Finally, sprinkle the top with the turbinado sugar.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set the sheet pan on a wire rack and let the cake cool for a least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Loaded with LOTS of blueberries and extra crumb topping, this recipe really pushes the pan's boundaries, so be sure to use a true 18x13x1-inch sized pan. If dubious, you may want to line the bottom of your oven with aluminum foil, just to be on the safe side.
- I love this just-different-enough-to-make-a-huge-difference method for making the crump topping: Adding the flour separately allows the topping to actually keep its crumble, vs just turning into more batter.
- An easy way to visualize 4 cups of blueberries = two 1-pint containers.
- To capture all of the lemon zest's natural oils (read: flavor), pour the sugar into the mixing bowl and zest the lemon directly over the sugar and into the bowl.
- If you have one, using an offset spatula is an efficient way to evenly spread the batter into the sheet pan.
- The original recipes says to store the cake, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator. But I've always just kept it on the counter. Feel free to store as you wish.
- You could easily make this cake 4th-of-July festive using a combination of blueberries and raspberries and serving with vanilla yogurt. Even better: zero in on the "cake" part of the recipe title and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream 😉
- Recipe adapted from Molly Gilbert's book Sheet Pan Sweets.
Charysse S
Last night I made this cake for the 2nd time this summer. My baking dish (9 x13) only fits half of the recipe but maybe I will invest in a bigger pan. When I offered 1/2 of the last one I made to my ex-husband, he sat on my staircase and ATE IT ALL in 5 minutes. Not a crumb made it out of the house. I had already devoured the other 1/2 so the whole thing was gone in less than 24 hours. It has a light, fluffy texture and a not-too-sweet taste. The crumb topping is incredible!
I'm hoping this 2nd batch lasts a bit longer. 🙂 Thank you Sarah!
Sarah Marx Feldner
I love everything about this comment/review. Thank you, Charysse!!! 💙
Joanne
Can this recipe be halved?? And would it be too much batter for a 9X9 square pan??
Sarah Marx Feldner
Hi Joanne! I, personally, haven't halved the recipe, but I checked with my friend who has ("Charysse" - who also wrote a comment). She cuts the recipe in half and bakes it in a 9x13 pan for the same amount of time (~25 minutes). I think the 9x9 pan might be too small - but I haven't tested it, so I don't know. This recipe is intended to be a thinner cake, more like a muffin top than a traditional cake. *If* the 9x9 pan can hold half the batter, the cake would definitely be much thicker. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the baking time, and possibly the oven temperature, would have to be adjusted accordingly. 💙
Joanne
Thank you so much for the quick reply! I can’t wait to try it and, for reference, I found your website on Caleb Wyse’s channel. He posted that you sent him the cutest wax paper “baking sheets” and I just had to find out where they came from. ❤️
Sarah Marx Feldner
That is so fun to know how you found me. Thank you! I'm so glad you're here!! 😊 And Wyse Guide is great! I am in love with his kitchen - he has an entire Baking Room!!! The kitchen tour (the article, video, and resources shared) is so detailed and dreamy!
Charysse S
Hi Joanne,
I think 9x9 would be too small and won't hold all of the batter and topping. And, trust me, you will be upset at not having all of the topping! 🙂