Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Preheat oven to 350ºF and make sure oven rack is in the middle position. Grease a 10-inch tube pan with butter.

For the topping:
Combine sugar, zest and almonds. Mix well. Drizzle vanilla over the top and mix until well incorporated.

For the cake:
Place butter, sugar and lemon zest into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula about halfway through mixing. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well until no longer visible. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between egg additions. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until full incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Then add half of the sour cream and mix until fully incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Repeat, ending with flour.

Remove 1 1/4 cups of cake batter. Fill the tube pan with the remaining cake batter and scrape down the sides of the bowl.

For the filling:
In a mixing bowl with the paddle attachment, add cream cheese, vanilla and lemon juice. Mix on medium speed until smooth.

Take the filling and evenly spoon filling over the cake batter. Keep filling 1 inch away from the edge of the pan. Smooth the top of the filling. Sprinkle blackberries evenly over the top. Cover with remaining 1 1/4 cups cake batter and smooth the top. With a butter knife, gently swirl the cake batter in a figure 8 motion, being careful not to touch the bottom or the sides of the pan. Firmly tap the pan on the counter 4 times to dislodge air bubbles. Sprinkle with the topping mixture and press into the cake to adhere.

Bake cake 45 to 50 minutes until top is golden and cake is firm. A knife or tooth pick will come out clean when inserted into the cake (if inserted into the filling, it will come out wet). Cool cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 1 hour. Gently invert the cake onto a plate. Remove from the pan, place the wire rack on top of the cake and invert, topping side up. Cool to room temperature.

When storing, store cake covered in the refrigerator.

(Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen.)