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?