I know this cake is a touch out of season but fact is we've been drowning in blueberries lately, so much so that I felt compelled to create this little beauty as a means to help work through our overstock.
You see, Muppet's been on a bit of a blueberry bender as of late, begging for them at every turn. Shocked by the fact that one of our kids was (no-kidding) ASKING for fresh fruit, and not wanting to blow a food-hero opportunity while actually buying something healthy for them, my wife and I each purchased mondo boxes of the lovelies last week. As fate would have it, the day after we presented our young berry fiend with her fruit-booty she had upper braces slapped on her teeth and promptly lost her taste for just about everything….well, except maybe for chocolate. Poor child.
As there were only so many berries we could sprinkle on our morning granola, and given that Muppet had temporarily relaxed the fruit drawer surveillance system designed to only allow HER access to the most precious berries, I decided to craft this cake and use up a couple cups of the little devils. You could make this cake a tad simpler by just baking the cake base and passing on the streusel topping…..I'm not at all sure why you'd want to do this, but I thought you should know you have options here. If you do decide to pass on the streusel (you freak), then a dusting of confectioner's sugar over the top of the plain cake would be a nice way to dress it up for serving.
This treat turned out quite delicious and will be even better when we have super-sweet local blueberries later this summer. If you want to use frozen berries you can, just make sure they are defrosted before you mix them into the batter for baking.
Cheers – Steve
Ingredients
for the cake:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (plus more for the pan)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups fresh (or frozen and thawed) blueberries
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
for the streusel topping:
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350℉ and set a rack in the middle setting.
- Butter and flour a 9" spring form pan taking care to knock out any excess flour. Set aside.
- Sift the A/P flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- In a standing mixer beat the butter and sugar on high for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Turn the speed to medium and add the vanilla and the lemon juice, then the eggs one at a time allowing each to be fully incorporated in the batter before proceeding. Turn the speed down to low and add the flour mixture and mix until the batter is smooth and the flour fully incorporated.
- Place the berries in a bowl and sprinkle with a pinch of flour, toss to coat. Remove the mixing bowl from the machine and fold the berries into the batter gently by hand until nicely dispersed. Spoon and press the batter in the buttered pan, evening the top with a large spatula.
- For the streusel, dump all the ingredients into a medium sized bowl, and working with your hands, mix until the the topping resembles wet sand. Evenly sprinkle all the streusel onto the cake in an even layer.
- Pop the pan into the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes (ours was done at 45), or until a tester in the center comes out clean. Let the pan cool on a rack for 20 minutes or so before running a knife between the cake and the pan and releasing the springform side. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.