Huckleberry Buckle
This is a simple but flavorful cake filled with wild huckleberries and a crunchy crumb topping. If huckleberries are hard to find in your area, blueberries make a fine substitution.
Here in the western United State, huckleberries are one of our favorite treats when visiting the mountains of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington in the summertime. Sometimes we deliberately go huckleberry picking, and other times it’s fun to just spontaneously find them on the side of a hiking trail or next to our campsite.
When we are lucky enough to come home with a full container of precious huckleberries (instead of just eating them all up right away), I love to put them into all sorts of baked goods, like this huckleberry buckle! It’s made up of simple dense cake packed full of berries with a buttery crumb topping, and it’s delicious.
This huckleberry buckle and my homemade huckleberry ice cream are my favorite ways to use up huckleberries when I’m lucky enough to have them!
Table of Contents
- What is a "buckle"?
- How to make huckleberry buckle
- Serving suggestions
- Recipe FAQs
- Huckleberry buckle recipe
What is a “buckle”?
A buckle is very similar to a coffee cake. The bottom layer is moist, dense and cake-like with lots berries or other fruit mixed in, while the top layer is a crumb topping. As it bakes, the batter and crumb topping “buckle” around the fruit. It’s a simple rustic cake, but it packs a lot of punch!
How to make huckleberry buckle
- Make cake batter. Cream the butter and sugar together till creamy, and mix in an egg. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and lemon zest, and add it in 3 additions, alternating with the milk. Gently folk in the huckleberries. The batter will be thick!
- Make the crumble topping. Stir together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and melted butter until combined.
- Layer in an 8-inch pan. Grease the pan with nonstick baking spray and line with parchment paper, if desired. Spread the cake batter into the pan and sprinkle the crumb mixture on top.
- Bake. Bake in a 375°F oven until golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, about 30 minutes.
- Enjoy! Let the cake cool before serving for best results. Leftovers can be stored at room temperature for 1-2 days, or store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Serving suggestions
You can serve this huckleberry buckle in the morning as a breakfast or brunch treat, or as dessert or a snack any time of day. It’s perfect as it is, but if you like you can add a simple vanilla glaze, whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream.
Recipe FAQs
Huckleberries can be very hard to get! And don’t worry, pretty much all huckleberry recipes (including this buckle recipe) will work with blueberries just fine. The flavor won’t be exactly the same since huckleberries are generally more tart than blueberries. And blueberries are also typically bigger than huckleberries, which can affect appearance and texture.
Absolutely! You can use frozen huckleberries, frozen blueberries, or frozen “wild blueberries” (I’ve seen these at Trader Joe’s). Bake straight from frozen (do not thaw), adding 5+ minutes of baking time.
Use huckleberries just as you would blueberries! Make huckleberry jam, huckleberry pancakes, huckleberry muffins, huckleberry crisp, etc.
Huckleberry buckle recipe
Huckleberry Buckle
Ingredients
For the cake:
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter , at room temperature (56 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (240 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 cup whole milk (237 ml)
- 2 cups huckleberries or blueberries (340 grams)
For the topping:
- ½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (106 grams)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour (60 grams)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ cup unsalted butter , melted (56 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter together until combined and creamy. Beat in the egg.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Add to the mixer in 3 additions, alternating with the milk and mixing after each. Fold in the huckleberries. The batter will be thick. Spread into the prepared baking pan.
- To prepare the topping, combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cake batter.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean with a few moist crumbs and the topping is golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely, then slice and serve.
Notes
I discovered a thicket of huckleberries as I was hiking in the Cascade mountains. I picked enough to make something and found this recipe. It is absolutely delicious! I made the same recipe using gluten-free flour and it came out perfect! It was so hard not to eat the entire pan at once! I can’t wait to go back and pick more berries so I can make this again! It does not disappoint!
So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe Kim! And I’m happy to hear it turned out so well with GF flour, thanks for leaving that feedback. 🙂
I made it.It was so good .going to make more soon.It was really easy to make.
I should have gone with my gut instinct. Your pan size is way off.
9 ×13 would work better . 2 cups of huckleberries has a lot of moisture.
This is my favorite way to use huckleberries. I just found with this recipe it’s best to use a 9×13 pan.
do the berries need to be fresh or can you use frozen? i made this a few years ago and cant remember if fresh or frozen. All i remember is it was amazing!
I had.to cook this 2 times longer than the recipe said, but it is delicious. It is a dense cake.like texture. I dont need quite so much topping .
I came here to say the same thing! It took soooo long to bake. I used a glass baking dish so I’m wondering if that made a difference?
I found out the same thing. That’s when I learned it bakes up so much better and taste still so good in a 9x1e3 pan.
This recipe is amazing! Thank you! Ate half a tray.
I live in northwest Montana and have used this recipe many times over the years as makes a great little cake and only uses 2 cups of Huckleberries. The topping enhances those delicious little berries. It’s a wonderful cake recipe. Thank you ?
I’ll be making a number of these cakes this year as we’ve had a bumper crop of Huckleberries due to our rainy spring and plenty of sunshine the past few weeks
Stumbled upon huckleberries last weekend and picked them not knowing what I’d be making with them.
I found this recipe this morning and bam! Buckle was made and in the oven with fingers crossed it would turn out. Definitely was a success and will be making this again in the future! Flavors are excellent.
Thank you for posting your recipe!!
Just made it and we love it ! The berries literally bursting with flavour and I love their colour. Thank you for sharing
I made this with Bob’s gluten free flour blend. Worked great I did have to bake it 20 min longer and then I let it cool in the oven with the door closed. Love this it was an amazing treat. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the feedback! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe.
Turn out good, only my topping didn’t stay as nice and crumble on top like it should have, you say melted butter; should it say that and not just blended in for its firmer or more flour maybe? Thanks for sharing.
This recipe is really confusing, you mix the sugar and butter together and then it just sits there and it doesnt even say where to put it or what to do with it. Its very confusing and frustrating. Why put a recipe on here if you dont give direct instructions?
Hi Annmarie! So sorry you’re confused. All the steps are there, see Step 3 to add the dry ingredients and liquids to the mixer with the butter and sugar mixture. Hope this helps! 🙂
Great buckle recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Best huckleberry desert I’ve tried in a while. Definitely going to make it again.