Blueberry Boy Bait

Growing up has lots of benefits. You get to drive. You get to stay up late. You don't have a curfew. You can watch R-rated movies without hiding it from your parents.

There are downsides to growing up, too. You have to go to work. You have to pay bills. Things happen to you that throw your whole day off -- you get to the grocery store and find that you've forgotten your wallet, or you almost run out of gas, or you have to spend your entire Saturday working.

Sarah and I are having one of those days. She spent all day shooting a wedding and came home tired and flustered. I spent all day unpacking boxes after moving back in with my parents and had to figure out where to put all of my stuff. Since today is "one of those days," we decided a little frivolity was in order... and we decided to make cake for dinner (Sarah - Logical? COMPLETELY).

This recipe is adapted from Deb at Smitten Kitchen and it is pretty fantastic. It's a moist, rich cake that's studded with fresh blueberries, and the cinnamon-sugar you sprinkle over the top bakes into a crisp crust that crackles pleasantly when you bite into a piece. We gilded Deb's lily by drizzling the finished cake with a lemon glaze.

The especially nice thing about this recipe is that it's pretty easily adaptable: try using raspberries, blackberries or pitted cherries instead of blueberries or use vanilla sugar instead of cinnamon sugar. Add lemon zest to the batter or use buttermilk instead of whole milk to add a little extra zing. You could even try baking the batter in muffin cups and extend the frivolity of eating cake for a meal to breakfast.

Ingredients:

For the Batter:

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 tsp for later

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup blueberries

For the Topping:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Juice of 2 lemons

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking powder. In a larger bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine. Add remaining milk and flour mixture and combine until smooth.

Toss 1/2 cup of blueberries with the extra 1 tsp of flour -- doing so will keep the blueberries from sinking in the batter and burning on the pan. Pour batter into a lightly greased pan. You can use a 9x13 baking pan or two smaller cake pans. Or muffin pans. You know. Whatever.

Sprinkle the remaining half-cup of blueberries evenly over the cake batter. Combine cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle that evenly over the batter, too. As the cake bakes and rises, the batter will envelop the berries and the cinnamon sugar will get crispy.

Your cake is done when it's golden-brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. We're not gonna give you a specific time frame 'cause how long you need to bake your cake depends entirely on what kind of pan you use. Deb's 9x13 cake took 45-50 minutes to bake. Our two 8" cake pans took about 20-25 minutes. Use your best judgement -- cooking is not an exact science!

When your cake is done baking, let it cool for a while as you make the lemon glaze. Juice your lemons, gradually add the powdered sugar, and stir it up until the sugar dissolves. When the cake is totally cooled, drizzle the glaze over slices and it's ready to serve.



Need some good music to blare in your kitchen while you cook all your stresses away? We did.
Enjoy.

Love,
Abby and Sarah