Strawberry Cheese Crumb Cake

Despite my deep love of chocolate, somehow warm weather brings out my desire for fruit based desserts. Oh, I'm not quite ready to give up the flour, butter and sugar. It's just that I'd rather see lemons and blueberries in the batter than cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Flipping through my treasure trove of pinned recipes, I found lots for coffee cake/crumb cake creations with berries and I've been trying a few. None were really bad but none were stellar, either. That is until I tried The Barefoot Contessa's blueberry crumb cake. The cake itself is moist which not all of them are. The crumb topping is generous, which is so very important in a crumb topping and the lemon zest adds a certain something.

So we have a clear cut winner in the lemony, fruity, coffee/crumb cake department. Except that this weekend I sort of felt like having a little cheesecake layer in there. Sort of like my brownie cheesecake (link) but with blueberry crumb cake instead.  Hmm. I looked through recipes for a while and then realized I was being silly. Why not just adapt a recipe I already loved? And so, with all due respect to the Contessa, here is my modified version of her amazing recipe. It uses strawberry preserves instead of fresh fruit and includes a cheesecake layer under the crumb topping.

Ingredients

Crumb Topping Layer:
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Stick unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

Cake Layer:
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)
3/4 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 Cup sour cream
1 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup strawberry preserves combined with 1/2 cup of water
Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Cheesecake Layer:
16 oz. Cream cheese
1 Egg
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Teaspoons vanilla
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
To make the crumb topping, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Stir in the melted butter and then the flour.  Mix well and set aside.

To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar together using either a stand mixer or a hand mixer. Add the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest and sour cream and continue mixing until combined. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix into to the batter just until combined.

To make the cheesecake layer, blend the ingredients with a hand mixer, stand mixer or food processor until thoroughly combined and free of lumps.

To assemble the cake, pour the cake layer batter into a greased 9" round spring-form pan (you can also bake this in a 9" square baking dish). Spread the strawberry preserves over the top of the batter. Pour the cheesecake batter over the preserves and, using a butter knife, lightly swirl together. Crumble the crumb topping evenly over the batter and bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for approximately 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing from the spring-form pan. Dust the top with confectioner's sugar before serving. Makes approximately 8-10 servings.

To see the original Barefoot Contessa recipe for blueberry crumb cake, click here.