Thursday, June 6, 2013

Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

It started out looking like this ... a bunch of ingredients, helter skelter...

Blueberry Streusel Cake...

And I had a bag of frozen blueberries just begging to be let out of deep freeze.

"Ruthy.... RUTHY!!!"  Their call grew louder and louder as if they knew Bethany saw a recipe for something blueberry-ish on the World Wide Web.

And so I crept to the freezer.

Yes.

The blueberries were hailing me, ready to give up their frost-filled lives for our consumption.

Noble. Strong. Proud.

Blueberries are one tough fruit. Not as tough as APPLES but I won't even GO THERE because I live in apple country, home of the Applefest.

Back to blueberry cake...

Beth made the crumble topping and it was with some skepticism and more than one raised brow at this most recent attempt to domesticate her:



1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 butter softened

Mix together with pastry blender, fork or two knives, criss-crossed.... Mixture should look crumbly, hence the name "crumbled topping".  :)



Well, that just seemed skimpy and I had enough blueberries for TWO cakes so why not double the topping?

So we did.

It didn't look like enough so we made a third (yes, folks, you read it here first!) batch of topping because there's no such thing as too much topping, right?

(This theory is only true in the abstract as shown below)

Cake:

2 Cups flour (I used Softassilk, should have used a heartier flour, OOOOOPS!!!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk (or sour milk by placing 1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice in 1/2 cup milk and let stand five minutes)

3 cups frozen or fresh blueberries (if frozen, keep frozen despite their pleas!!!)

Preheat oven to 375° unless you think you're smarter than everyone and decide 350° is better. It's not, by the way.

:)

Sorry, had to duck away and eat three of the tiniest chocolate chips ever, just so I don't forget what chocolate tastes like while I'm low-carbing my life to wellness.

Okay, I'm back.

Combine all dry ingredients.


 Cream egg and butter and vanilla extract.


Alternately add buttermilk and flour to the creamed mix, beating after each addition. Fold in blueberries.

Spread the batter in greased 9" x 9" pan. Bake at 375° for 50-60 minutes...


"Z-Z" was on clean-up committee that day:


Here's the cake, pre-oven:



(Remember we doubled the batch here? And added extra topping? And then put it in a 13" x 9" pan? And then reduced the oven temp to 350°????)

So mine didn't come out PICTURE PERFECT.

I'm not even sure where that picture is, I probably burned it in protest!!!

Sigh.

Stinkin' Yankee know-it-all!!!

(hunts through files, searching for pic of blueberry catastrophe!!!)

Nope, can't find it. Well, suffice to say that my topping SANK below the cake like a Cat In the Hat story... and the blueberries stayed on the bottom while the cake (what there was of it) rose to the top. So it was more like a blueberry cobbler/crisp than anything resembling a cake.

Was it good????

Oh my stars, it was delicious!

But it was NOT PRETTY!!!!

:)



I blame her, actually. I actually have to pause and take care of this sweet baby now and again!!! Isn't she precious?

11 comments:

  1. Yeah, the baby is cute, but look at that RUG!! I haven't seen a rug like that since visiting my grandma's house when I was little. They just don't have those out here.

    Ok, yes, blueberry season is coming!! Right after mulberry season. We picked mulberries tonight and I realized that was my very first YBC post. I think. I can't be positive...

    Now I want blueberry cake.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That rug is so stinkin' old. It's got DUCT TAPE holding it together on the underside because the threads holding the braid together have fallen apart. I'm not even close to kidding. I bought that after we pulled up the old linoleum tile and sub-floor here twenty-years ago... and we've KILLED IT!!!! But I love the colors... J. C. Penney, darling, one of their collections and it's a great look in an old place like this, right????

    The cake, oh my stars, it was so U-G-L-Y. But it tasted good (no, I didn't eat it, I'm still behaving) but my local peeps voted it delicious.

    But they agreed it didn't look anything like the online pic. :)

    Of course following the stinkin' directions might have helped that, LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  3. LOL!! I think you deleted the photo on purpose! So I wouldn't laugh at you.

    Of course, I'm too nice to laugh at you. But I can always act like I would make fun of you. :)

    I'm with you on tripling the topping! Even at the risk of it sinking. Love it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Missy, ugly doesn't begin to cover it. If a cake could get warts, this one looked like it had them in spades....

      Luckily we looked beneath the UGLINESS!!!! :) To the deliciousness hidden below.

      But I wouldn't be servin' this baby at no weddin' shower!

      Delete
  4. Yum. And this recipe is easy to "de-glutenize"!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SWEET!!!!

      Fruity stuff is always special. I'm out of whipped cream right now. I'm a little sad about that.

      Send me some, wouldja, Julie???

      Puhlease????

      Delete
  5. LOL this is the best how not to bake a cake recipe I've ever read! Glad it tasted good for after all that effort. Wouldn't want to disappoint the blueberries. I think I might just be tempted to try this on the weekend. And yum with a dollop of vanilla ice cream! I'm drooling already!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, it's like the recipe was screaming, KILL ME NOW!!! PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY!!!! WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY DO TO MESS ME UP????

      :)

      Kind of funny, right?

      Delete
  6. Blueberries... Jen made blueberry oat bars AND blueberry muffins on Tuesday. Said she was being frugal (no money for extra goodies right now), but I think she was nesting, considering the baby arrived yesterday.

    Doubling, even tripling the topping? Yep, I do that with homemade pineapple upside-down cake! Tripling causes the gooeyness to be drawn up throughout the cake itself and is divine. *drool*

    And I agree with Missy--thinking that you deleted the finished product pic on purpose! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might have, really. I could have sworn I took a pic but it might have been with my phone and I didn't think to look there because I'm so techno-un-smart that I can't figure out how to get the pics off my phone. There must be a cord involved, right? But where is it???

      There's the rub!!!

      I love that baby's name!!!! Lilyana Grace! Oh my stars, it's a lovely name!

      Delete
  7. I've been AWOL today...looking for blueberries. I thought I had some in the freezer, but no.

    Plenty of blackberries, though. How about blackberry cobbler? :)

    The baby: adorable!

    The rug: my dear husband used to want one like that, but now he's thinking cowhide. He's becoming a real westerner - but no cowboy boots. Yet.

    The topping: there is no such thing as too much. Maybe too little. Maybe not quite enough. But never too much.

    Melanie's granddaughter: I LOVE her name! Dibs on using it in a book!

    ReplyDelete