Wasn’t it just New Years? Or at least Valentine’s Day? I only yesterday took the Easter runner off my piano. Geez, Alyce. After a month away from home, hearth, dog, and blog, I was –after getting a little reacclimated — amazed to see Mother’s Day coming up quickly on the heels of Cinco de Mayo. The time simply runs. Perhaps you, too, have yet to make the first plan for Sunday, May 12, 2024, but you might start right here with nearly the simplest of sweet treats, my Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake–which you can throw together and slide into the oven in truly a few minutes. If you are a really good soul (and you are, right?) and are baking with a local kiddo, it might take a few more. And if you’re skipping Mother’s Day all together, go ahead and bake this for yourself or have a favorite neighbor in for coffee. Don’t wait. Everyone should have a 9″x 13″ coffee cake in their back pocket and if you’ve not yet found yours, claim this one now. It’s fast, inexpensive, easy, flexible, and requires no chopping of fruit since it’s made with toss-in-the-bowl blueberries. Frozen work as well as fresh; just rinse and use — no thawing necessary. One thing about this cake is: it’s really a cake, by golly. This isn’t bread masquerading as cake. There’s a bu** load of sugar and even more fat than that and you’ll darned well like it when you eat it, I promise you. Diet another day and make sure the coffee is hot, good, and strong (just like mom!) while you’re at it.
Now that your sweet is sorted, in case you need something resembling protein for brunch, consider one or more of these goodies. You know I, just like my good friend Chris Kliesen Wehrman, never met an egg I didn’t like:
…and just for kicks, make my Za’Atar Bloody Mary. ( P.S. It’s just as good without the vodka!)
…and for health’s sake, a gorgeous bowl of berries, Greek yogurt, and some granola would suffice for a side.
Friends or family joining? This little menu lends itself easily to a potluck. Noncooks can bring a bottle of bubbly for starters and even quiche can be snapped up at the deli in a pinch. But you, you’ve got this coffee cake in your back pocket now, I know. Make and bake in a New York minute or even in two shakes of a stick when you try this:
KIDS BAKE MOTHER’S DAY: Blueberry Streusel Coffeecake
Ingredients
STREUSEL:
- 1 ½ cups (320 g) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon EACH: ground ginger and cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
CAKE:
- ½ cup (4 oz/113 g/one stick) salted butter, melted
- 1 cup (200 g) neutral oil (canola {my choice}, safflower, light olive oil, etc.)
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup (227 g) milk
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose, unbleached flour
- 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (150 g) fresh or frozen blueberries
- ½ cup (57 g) chopped walnuts
Instructions
- PREPARATION: Preheat oven to 350 F and set oven rack at center. Grease a 9" x 13" metal baking pan. Set aside.
- MAKE THE STREUSEL: In a medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Set aside.
- MAKE THE CAKE BATTER: Set the melted butter aside to cool a bit while you put the cake batter together. You'll use it to drizzle over the entire cake later, just before baking.In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: oil, eggs, vanilla, and milk. Set aside.In another large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.Add the dry ingredients (flour mixture) to the wet ingredients (milk mixture) and mix just until well combined. Do not over mix. Add blueberries and stir gently until berries are distributed evenly throughout the batter.
- LAYER THE BATTER, STREUSEL, NUTS, AND MELTED BUTTER INTO THE PAN: Using a rubber spatula, scrape ½ of the cake batter evenly into the prepared pan. Sprinkle ½ of the reserved streusel topping on top of the batter. Scrape the other half of the bake batter onto the streusel and, using a small offset spatula or table knife, spread as evenly as possible. Don't worry if it's not perfect.Sprinkle the batter with chopped walnuts and then with the other half of the streusel. Drizzle with reserved melted butter.
- BAKE THE CAKE: Bake 25-30 minutes OR until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean or nearly so. (Try to insert the toothpick into the cake, not into the drizzled butter!) Let cool 15 minutes before cutting and serving warm.STORAGE: While I like this cake freshly baked, some might enjoy it more after it’s sat a day or two and become moister. You can cover it tightly with plastic wrap or foil and store at room temperature for two days, in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, or in the freezer for 2 months. If the weather is quite warm or you live in a humid climate, store in the refrigerator immediately after cooling and serving.
Notes
CHANGE IT UP: 1. See the apple-pecan version below in IF YOU LIKED THIS section. 2. Leave out the blueberries. 3. Skip the walnuts or swap in pecans. 4. Use diced strawberries or raspberries or peaches in place of the blueberries. 5. Use vegan butter and soy milk for a non-dairy version. 6. Go with almond extract rather than vanilla and use almonds, too. In that case, I’d be tempted to use cherries! 7. For a really cinnamon-y version, use 2 teaspoons cinnamon rather than the combo of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in the recipe.
TIPS: 1. Using volume measurements instead of weights? If you have them, use a set of measuring cups (1-c – 8 -c) to make this cake. That simplifies a lot and enables you to more closely measure how much 1/2 of the batter is for the bottom layer. If you’re measuring with weights, it’s helpful to weigh the cake batter, dividing it to use half at the bottom and half at the top. 2. Use the microwave to melt the 4 oz of butter in a 2-cup measuring cup with the butter wrapper on top to keep things tidy. 3. Mix this cake by hand to insure a tender crumb and to keep the berries whole. No mixer needed. I like a rubber or silicone spatula such as those made by Pampered Chef or Rubbermaid so you can easily scrape every last teaspoon out of the bowl. but a large wooden spoon works well, too. 4. Dollop the top layer of batter evenly over the middle layer of streusel and then spread it –evenly as you can — with a small offset spatula, small rubber spatula, or table knife. Keep the spatula on top of the batter as you spread it to avoid digging up the middle layer of streusel.
IF YOU LIKED THIS, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE MY:
LIFE GOES ON:
After a month’s travel including 10 days over Easter with family on a Florida beach, a 2-week transatlantic cruise, and 3 days in glorious, chilly-willy Amsterdam, we returned home happy to make coffee in our own kitchen and toss the ball for our labradoodle, Miss Rosie.
Here we are with London-based niece, Gina Gottardo and fiancé, Phil Carruthers, in Dover. Looking forward to the wedding next March in Edinburgh!
I brought home, along with only a few small souvenirs (mostly chocolate), a nasty head and chest cold — seems like I keep doing this silly stuff. With that and the ever-present jet lag, I’ve been MIA around the blog. Well, that and the fact that….someone hijacked it (the blog, I mean) while we traveled. I was unable to read, write, edit, or post until the fine folks at WordPress straightened it out for me after 24-hours of messaging. Unending thanks to my precious husband and best sous, Dave Morgan, for helping me figure it all out. (Did I say the washing machine died, too? Rolling eyes here.)
Whoever stole the site only wanted one thing and that was to sell my domain name for I don’t know how much cash. Whatever someone would pay, maybe. It was not only scary, it was depressing. To say I have a new ironclad password goes without saying. Perhaps I should feel flattered my blog name is held in such esteem but I’m unsure at best. So happy to be back with you!
A few days into our return, we had a freak spring snowstorm.
Not feeling like doing much at all except drinking tea, begging for sympathy, and blowing my rose-red nose, I –with Rosie keeping me steady company–read far into Doris Kearns Goodwin’s newest wonderful book, AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE 1960’s , definitely worth the time if you’re a recent history fan. DKG is a prominent presidential scholar, historian, and author. She was married for 42 years to American writer Richard (Dick) Goodwin (1931-2018), who was, among many other things in his long illustrious life, an aide and speechwriter to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, and to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Here, she shares the story of finally searching through and digesting the information from an immense multitude of boxes of papers he saved throughout his long, varied career. Along with THAT story, we also enjoy much of the tale of their beautiful relationship and marriage. Put it on your reading or listening list now.
Because the sea has, for a long while, been our home away from home in landlocked Colorado, I leave you here with a photo of our most recent cruise ship, Holland America’s ms Nieuw Statendam, at anchor in harbor at Guernsey — which may have been our favorite port. We spent 14 days on board her on this cruise, 8 of which were sea days. We never tired of it. Think days of great food, breakfast in bed, naps, line dance classes, hours of reading and watching the sea, chatting up other passengers, walking the promenade or treadmill, lifting weights, attending lectures/concerts, and generally being bar rats. We even watched “Barbie,” though I’ll skip doing that again.
Our next trip — a 28-day cruise round-trip Seattle to the Aleutians and Hawaii — is booked and marked firmly on the 2025 calendar. I hope your own adventures draw you in hook, line, and sinker. We all need something to which we can look forward with bated breath.
And, in the meantime… You know someone’s coming, so bake a cake, why don’t you?
Alyce
