I was quite old before I realized that the "blueberries" in the Jiffy muffin mix were not actually blueberries. I like to think that I come by in genetically since my mom reached adulthood before she realized mushrooms were not the square little black things in cream of mushroom soup.
I remember when I had my first "real" blueberry muffin - It was literally the WORST thing in the world. Sour and squishy and tart and I did not like it at all.
Then I moved to the Pacific Northwest, where blueberries grow like wildfire and all your neighbors invite you to come over and pick theirs. I fell in love with blueberries then. My kids went crazy for them. They couldn't pick them fast enough. We would go picking blueberries and they would have their little buckets and they would pick their little hearts out and when we got home the little buckets would be empty and their faces would be covered in juice.
Sadly, in Utah we can't grow blueberries - not at all. I guess we make up for it in peaches, but I sure miss those berries sometimes. When we have them they almost always get eaten before I have been able to do anything with them. But we picked up 2lbs at Costco the other day, and I got to them first.
Blueberry Muffin Cake
Ingredients:
For the Blueberry Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used regular milk that I soured with the juice of the lemons that I zested - Brilliant!!)
Zest of 2 lemons
1 pound fresh blueberries
For the Buttermilk Glaze:
3 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup powdered sugar
For the Oat Crumble Topping:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons sliced almonds
Directions:
For the blueberry cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with flour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the flour and buttermilk, alternating each, until all incorporated.
Finally beat in the lemon zest before turning the mixer off. Use a spoon the stir in half the blueberries. (slowly and gently so they won't bleed through your batter)
Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top. Bake for 60-80 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Once the cake is cooling on the rack, mix the oat crumble. Add all the ingredients to a small bowl and pinch with your fingers to blend the ingredients and break into small pieces. Sprinkle the mixture over a baking sheet and bake in the heated oven for 5-10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet before proceeding.
For the glaze, whisk the buttermilk and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and immediately sprinkle the oat crumble over the top of the cake before the glaze dries.
