Sourdough Blueberry Crumb Cake – a Great Use for Sourdough Discard
on Feb 15, 2021, Updated Feb 02, 2025
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This sourdough blueberry crumb cake is one of our favorite ways to use up sourdough discard – big hit for brunch or a sweet treat!
Other Great Uses for Sourdough Discard
Table of Contents
If you’ve jumped on the sourdough bandwagon, you need sourdough discard recipes. We find lots of ways to use our discard, including:
- Flaky Sourdough Discard Biscuits
- Sourdough Dinner Rolls
- Sourdough Stuffing with Roasted Red Onion with Kale & Sausage
- Sourdough Pizza
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
- Sourdough Chocolate Cake with Berries & Whipped Cream
This recipe for blueberry crumb cake made with sourdough discard is also one of our favorite ways to use up the precious discard. I adapted this crumb cake recipe from one on King Arthur Baking.
It’s pretty easy to make and is perfect when you need a sweet addition to breakfast, or something delicious to take to a gathering.
What if I don’t have sourdough discard?
If you’d like to make this recipe, but you don’t have a sourdough starter, I highly recommend getting one! There are a few ways to get a sourdough starter:
- You can start your own by following King Arthur’s tutorial.
- You can ask a friend to share their starter with you. If you’re local, let me know! If you aren’t local – let me know that too. I might be able to help out.
- You can buy a sourdough starter kit.
Ingredients for sourdough crumb cake
- 8 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks or 113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, at least 65°F
- 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
- 2 cups (241g) unbleached all-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (57g) milk, at room temperature
Crumb Topping Ingredients
- 2 cups (241g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 tablespoons (2 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. A triple berry mix of blueberries is also delicious. We like to use the frozen berry bag available at Costco.
How to Make Sourdough Crumb Cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″ square pan. I’ve also made this in an 11″ pie plate. My husband prefers the cake to berry to topping ratio in the slightly larger pan, but it’s round. You might also want to try the 11″ pie plate.
Recipe Tip
I like to use butter wrappers for greasing. I store them in my fridge and pull them out as needed.
To make the batter:
Beat the butter and sugar until well combined in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and starter and mix until smooth. Make sure to scrape the bowl’s sides and bottom.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add to the butter/starter mixture, stirring until evenly combined. Add the milk and mix until smooth.
Pour blueberry crumb cake batter in prepared cake pan. Top with berries, but do not mix.
To make the crumb topping:
Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add the vanilla extract to the melted butter. Stir to combine, then pour the butter into the flour mixture. Stir until you have a uniformly moist, crumb-like mixture.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Finally sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the top.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, and the edge of the cake just barely pulls away from the pan. Remove it from the oven and cool on a rack.
Cake can be stored at room temperature in the pan covered with plastic for several days. Or you can wrap it well and freeze for longer storage.
Blueberry Crumb Cake Made with Sourdough Discard
Ingredients
Batter
- 8 tablespoons 113g unsalted butter, at room temperature, at least 65°F
- 1 cup 198g granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup 227g sourdough starter, unfed/discard
- 2 cups 241g unbleached all-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup 57g milk, at room temperature
Topping
- 2 cups 241g unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup 198g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 tablespoons 170g unsalted butter, melted
Berries
- 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. A triple berry mix of blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries is also quite delicious.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9" square pan.
- To make the batter:
- Beat the butter and sugar until well combined in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and starter and mix until smooth. Make sure to scrape the bowl’s sides and bottom.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add to the butter/starter mixture, stirring until evenly combined. Add the milk and mix until smooth.
- To make the crumb topping:
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a medium sized bowl. Add the vanilla extract to the melted butter. Stir to combine, then pour the butter into the flour mixture. Stir until you have a uniformly moist, crumb-like mixture.
- Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Add the berries – do not mix. Finally sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the top.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, and the edge of the cake just barely pulls away from the pan. Remove it from the oven and cool on a rack.
- Cake can be stored at room temperature in the pan covered with plastic for several days. Or you can wrap it well and freeze for longer storage.
Nutrition
If you liked this Sourdough Crumb Cake Recipe, you might like these too:
How to Maintain and Feed Sourdough Starter
Maybe check your recipe in the paragraph form because some of the measurements are much different than what you have listed at the bottomโฆ I didnโt find that out until I went to make this comment that there were different recipe measurements at the bottom. Itโs in the oven now so hopefully it turned out OK!
hmmm – that is odd! I will double check. Thank you for telling me!
Made this on a whim and it was a big hit with the fam. I love finding uses for sourdough discard. The consistency of the cake was a perfect texture for a breakfast coffee cake. Mine did overflow a bit as I used a pan that was a short 2″ tall so be sure to use the generously sized 9″ square pan.
Curious how it would turn out if the blueberries were folded into the batter prior to baking?
I’m glad to hear it was a hit! I haven’t folded the blueberries in the batter so I don’t know, but you could sure try! ๐
Can I double this recipe for a larger crowd?
I never have, but I don’t know why not. It might take a bit longer to bake? Good luck!
Made this tonightโฆdelicious! I did bake it in an 11×7 pan. Could have used a 9×13. I think 8×8 would have overflowed.
Can this be long fermented?
I have never tried a long ferment with this recipe. Sorry!