After living in  South Florida for more years than I care to remember, I’ve gotten used to the subtle clues that signify the  change in seasons.  They’re hard to define, but over time one gets better at identifying them.  Some years, however, it seems like Mother Nature is downright schizophrenic.   Take this winter, for instance.   For a few days at a time, the temperature would dip down into the forties and for the next  week or two, it would spike back up to  seventy-five.    I’d leave my house in the morning wearing a cozy sweater, and by noon I’d be sweating bullets!  And, the plants and trees were confused too.   I had azalea bushes blooming in January, that were nothing more than a mass of barren, brown twigs by mid-February.

We had no real springtime this year either.   By the time St. Patrick’s Day rolled around, my weather thermometer hit eighty and never looked back.    I really missed that transition period!   But apparently, Summer was in a hurry to get here and  would not be delayed.  So, while the calendar tells us that we still have another six weeks for it to officially be summer, the weather says otherwise.

There are few things I like about summertime in Florida.  It’s miserably hot and impossibly humid.  Even abundant sunshine becomes unpleasant under those conditions.  And, you can forget about  growing beautiful, lush  fruits and vegetables in your garden unless you plan to stand outside all day long spritzing them with a hose.   It’s just too damn hot!   But, there are a few nice things that make the heat tolerable, not the least of which is air conditioning.  By the first of May, most of the tourists have evacuated, and I can once again get into any restaurant I want without an hour and a half wait.   Another thing that I like about this time of year, is that those ripe and juicy California strawberries start lining the produce aisles in our supermarkets.

You may have heard that Florida is considered the winter strawberry capitol of the world. From December to April, we are lucky enough to have fresh strawberries coming out of our ears. Then, for a month or two after the winter crop dries up, we’re stuck with sad little tasteless berries from Godknowswhere. That is, until those ruby-red California beauties arrive.

One of my favorite ways to use fresh strawberries is in a good old-fashioned, Southern-style strawberry shortcake.   Another thing I love to do is bake them into things like muffins and scones.  So, when I came across this recipe for a strawberry cake, I was intrigued.

This strawberry cake is pretty simple stuff.  It’s a basic, vanilla-scented yellow cake studded with a mass of fresh berries – a full pound to be exact.   From just looking at the recipe, you probably wouldn’t  guess it would be anything very special.  But, after baking one for myself, I am here to tell you that it most definitely is – although you might not realize it right away.

While baking, the cake kind of puffs up and envelops the strawberries, which go all melty and jammy and lusciously sweet.  They remind me a little of my roasted strawberries in that regard.   The cake itself has a soft and tender crumb, which manages to get the slightest crunch around the edges.  It’s sweet, but not cloyingly so, making it a perfect backdrop for the berries ensconced inside.   And, the cake really takes no time at all to whip up. The hardest part for me was sniffing around my oven as I waited for it to finish baking.   Then, as it sat cooling on my counter, that cake really began to draw me in.   I found myself slicing off a tiny sliver every time I walked through my kitchen.  I baked the cake early in the morning, and by mid-day it was almost half gone!   Try explaining that to hungry loved ones as you present a half-eaten cake at dinner time!

I can see this cake being made with various other fruits as well.  I suspect that blackberries, peaches, nectarines or plums would all be wonderful.

So, while I’m sweating out the next several weeks of almost-summer, it’s nice to know that I can have this strawberry cake to give me comfort.  That, and lots and lots of ice cream!

You know, I wasn’t even planning to write about these cupcakes. They were just a quickie Valentine’s Day treat I whipped up at the last minute when my original plans went awry.  But, they turned out so well, that I just had to share them with you.  Isn’t it funny how these things happen?   I had originally planned to make a much fussier chocolate cake.  Unfortunately, it was a big, fat fail.  I didn’t have enough ingredients to remake it, so I then found myself scrambling around my kitchen to find something else that I could do instead.   My salvation came to me in a box of Devil’s Food cake mix.  Thank you, Duncan Hines!

Ordinarily, I would have never used a boxed cake mix. The crumb is usually too flimsy, and the chocolate ones are never chocolatey enough. But, I was desperate!

To bump up the chocolate factor, I added a few tablespoons of my richest cocoa powder to the mix. I also swapped out a cup of water for the same amount of strong brewed coffee. It worked like a charm! My cupcakes were moist, dense and full of deep, dark chocolate flavor.

I had just enough eggs left to attempt a silky Swiss buttercream to frost the cupcakes with.   I also had some of my wonderful slow roasted strawberries in the fridge, so I decided to use them to flavor the buttercream.   The strawberries are roasted in a mixture of sugar and balsamic vinegar, so they are slightly caramelized and intensely flavorful – a perfect addition to the buttercream.

The final flourish to my cupcakes was a super rich bittersweet chocolate glaze drizzled over their tops.

My inspiration for the cupcakes, as well as the glaze recipe, came from one of my new favorite blogs, Sweetapolita.  It is filled to the brim with the most magnificent cakes I’ve ever seen.  Honestly, it’s absolutely stunning!  If you haven’t ever visited Rosie’s beautiful blog, you must do it now.   Go ahead, I’ll wait.

See!  Didn’t I tell you it was fabulous?

And, don’t these cupcakes look impossibly indulgent?  They are sinfully good!  Would you have ever guessed that they got their start in a cardboard box?   Neither did all of the people I gave them to.  And, don’t you dare tell them, either.  I have a reputation to maintain!

As a teen, I remember having lots of conversations with my mother about dating and relationships.  Of her many “isms”, the one I heard most was “Looks aren’t everything.  It’s what’s on the inside that matters.”    Of course, she was right, but my superficial 16 year old brain didn’t always agree.  Before I settled down with Mr. SGCC, I dated a wide variety of boys.  Some were blindingly beautiful, and some had other, less obvious attributes.  More often than not, the pretty boys turned out to be a disappointment.   They were usually too busy flexing their muscles and  gazing at their own reflections in the mirror to worry about such mundane things as developing  a personality or perfecting the art of conversation.  Though I hate to admit it, it was almost always the slightly rumpled, kind of quirky guys that I had the best times with.  They were the ones that made me laugh and feel special.  They had substance.

Oddly enough, I’ve found the same thing to be true when it comes to desserts.  I can’t count the times I’ve drooled over a display of stunningly perfect pastries or cakes, only to be disappointed when I took that first bite.  Sadly, they don’t often taste as good as they look.   I guess looks aren’t everything in the world of sweets either.  This Chocolate Pavlova Torte with Raspberry Dream Cream is a good example.  On the outside, it looks kind of craggy, drippy and messy.  It wears its flaws for the world to see.  But on the inside, it is crunchy, creamy and chewy all at the same time.  It has personality up the wazoo.  And, it is truly sublime! 

A pavlova is a meringue-based dessert with a crisp, crackly outer shell and a lovely, soft, pillowy center.  It is said to have been created in honor of the famed 20th century Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova.  It’s a light and ethereal dessert that is often served covered with fresh fruit and whipped cream.  In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’ve taken it a step further, studding mine with bits of rich dark chocolate and smothering it with an incredible silky and luxurious raspberry cream.

My Raspberry Dream Cream is inspired by Pierre Herme’s Extraordinary Lemon Cream found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home To Yours. I am absolutely mad about that lemon cream! So, when it came to finding a filling for my chocolate pavlova, I decided to adapt Dorie’s recipe using raspberries instead.   The method for making the cream is similar to that for making a fruit curd.  The difference is that the butter isn’t cooked with the other curd ingredients.  Rather, it is added in after cooking and cooling them, creating an emulsion.  Dorie says that because the butter doesn’t melt and re-firm, as it does with curd, the resulting cream is lighter, richer and well… creamier.   I can’t vouch for the science involved, but I can say that the cream definitely lives up to its name.  It is extraordinary, and it tastes like a dream!

To make the pavlova shells, I used my favorite recipe by Nigella Lawson.  They aren’t really difficult at all to make, but baking them can be a little tricky.  It is important to cool them completely inside the oven after baking to avoid having them collapse.  They are still delicious even if they do fall.  But, why not avoid that if you can.

You can see from the photos that my pavlova shells did not turn out perfectly.  Honestly, I didn’t dare cut it before I photographed it for fear of it falling apart!   Unfortunately, when dealing with large hunks of baked meringue, some cracks and dings are inevitable.  I like to think that these are part of their charm.   That said, it is amazing what copious amounts of cream and fruit can hide.  Don’t ask me how I know this.  Just take my word for it.

So, there you have it – an imperfect dessert that is just perfect as it is, flaws and all.  With this much personality, looks really aren’t everything.

On New Year’s Eve we celebrated Mini SGCC’s 18th birthday.  That’s right.  My baby is now legally an adult.

Of course, that means nothing to me. In my mind, she will always be my little curly-haired cherub.

One would think that Mr. SGCC and I can now sit back, relax and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.  But, I have a feeling that our headaches aren’t over yet!  Mini SGCC is a good kid, but she is fiercely independent and knows her own mind.  That is how we raised her to be.  Hopefully it won’t come back to bite us in the butt, now that we can’t really tell her what to do anymore.

I find it ironic that we parents spend all those years worrying and fretting over our kids, only to worry and fret even more when they grow up!  I now understand what my parents were talking about all those times they said that “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for all of her life.”

In honor of the occasion, I decided to bake Mini SGCC’s favorite cake: a Black Forest Cake. I’d never baked a Black Forest cake before, and frankly, the prospect made me a little nervous. It’s a fancy schmancy German confection consisting of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and brandied cherries between each layer. Originally called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, the entire cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, maraschino cherries, and chocolate shavings. When made well, it is a masterpiece. When made by me – I wasn’t so sure!  

The base of a Black Forest cake is a rich chocolate cake. Most of the recipes I found used a Devil’s food cake, so that is what I decided to do.  I used the Devil’s food cake recipe from Baked Explorations, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Everything I’ve ever made from that book has turned out great, so I was confident that this cake would as well.

Although traditional Black Forest cakes are made with sour cherries, I went with sweet Bings.  The canned sour cherries I found in the market were just sad, little grayish blobs that tasted like crap.  Very unappetizing!  Besides, we like big, fat Bing cherries better.  Plus, they are easier to find around here.

Since I would be serving the cake to children, I soaked the cake in a syrup that I made by reducing the cherry liquid and Kirschwasser, a cherry liqueur, instead of just using the liqueur alone.  I think it tasted better that way.

A Black Forest cake usually has several layers.  However, in the interest of time (and my sanity), I opted to only make a two layer cake.  It was fine, though.  This cake was plenty rich just as it was.

I frosted the whole cake with freshly whipped cream and decorated it with some Maraschino cherries and shaved dark chocolate.  I think it turned out very pretty, if I do say so myself.

Mini SGCC’s boyfriend’s birthday is just a few days after hers, so the cake was kinda for him too.  Here are Mini SGCC and The Boy blowing out their candles, as Mr. SGCC looks on with a grumpy look on his face.  All together now:  AWWW!

I have to say, I don’t know what I was so worried about with this cake.  It was really quite easy to make, and it was amazing.   The cake layers were wonderfully dense and moist, and the cherry filling was absolutely to die for!  Everyone who tried it was wowed.

If you’re looking for a fancy cake for a special occasion, I highly recommend this Black Forest cake.  While it looks like it took all day to make, it actually can be pulled off in just a few hours.

My father wasn’t much of a dessert kind of guy, but there were certain sweets that he really enjoyed, like Carvel ice cream cones, sfogiatelle, and crumb cake.  Not any old kind of crumb cake, mind you. It had to be New York crumb cake – the kind with big, giant globs of cinnamon-spiced, buttery, streuselly  crumbs on top.    And, it couldn’t be the kind that came out of a box, either.  No, no, no!  Only a freshly baked crumb cake would do.  Luckily, we actually lived in New York when I was little, and there was a bakery on almost every corner in our old neighborhood.  Some specialized in Italian pastries and some in various kinds of breads and Danish,  while others sold fancy cakes and pies.  We even had a little German bake shop nearby that churned out the most amazing tortes and strudels.   But on Sunday mornings, they all had one thing in common – crumb cake.   Hmmm.  I wonder if that’s why they call it New York crumb cake? 

There were two main churches that anchored each end of the neighborhood.  On one side there was St. Francis Xavier, and on the other was St. Clare’s, which was where we went.  Early each Sunday,  just about everyone, would head off to mass at one church or the other.  Those were the days when people really believed that “the family that prays together, stays together”.  Afterward, lines would form out the doors of each bakery with people waiting to buy their Sunday allotment of pastries, cookies and cakes to take with them when they went visiting .   In every display case of every shop, there would also be some tempting variation of crumb cake to tide everyone over until Sunday dinner.

Sometimes, my dad would get up extra early and run out to the bakery to beat the crowds while the rest of us got ready for church.  Even though we weren’t supposed to eat anything for at least an hour before mass, he would let my brother and me sneak a few bites of crumb cake before we left the house.  Trust me, that was almost a religious experience in itself!

Sundays aren’t like that anymore – at least not where I live now.  First of all, there are very few true bakeries around here, and almost none of them are open on Sundays.  If you want cake on a Sunday, your only options are Starbucks or a local supermarket.  Or, you can bake one yourself.

This recipe yields a cake with a light and fluffy vanilla-scented crumb.  Some other crumb cake recipes I’ve tried have turned out a cake that was kind of dry and dense, but this one was quite moist.  I know that the star of this show is the crumb topping, but still, who wants to eat a dry cake?   You might as well just skip the cake and eat a bowl of crumbs instead.

The first thing you need to do to make this cake is mix up the crumb topping.  Just add all of the ingredients together in a bowl and smoosh them around until they form big clumps.  I think that clean fingers make the best utensils for this.

Then, mix up your cake batter and spread it into a pan.

Finally, toss those big, beautiful crumbs all over the top and slide it into the oven.  Just make sure you don’t get all woozy from the heavenly smells that will start wafting throughout your house.   And, you also might want to close the windows, unless you don’t mind having every hungry neighbor on your street knocking on the door looking for cake.

My father’s birthday was a few days ago.  It’s always a bittersweet day for me. I’d been remembering all of those simple, yet wonderful Sunday mornings my family shared when I was a child.   I decided to bake this crumb cake because it was one of my dad’s favorites.   Somehow, it gave me a little comfort.  I only wish that he was still here to share it with me.

]]> http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/11/09/new-york-crumb-cake-recipe/feed/ 34 http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/10/27/pumpkin-whoopie-pies-with-caramel-cream-cheese-filling-recipe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pumpkin-whoopie-pies-with-caramel-cream-cheese-filling-recipe http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2011/10/27/pumpkin-whoopie-pies-with-caramel-cream-cheese-filling-recipe/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:56:55 +0000 Susan http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/?p=3965 While cupcakes will always hold a special place in my heart, the newest trend in sweet treats these days is whoopee pies.  Yessiree folks, whoopie pies are hot, hot, hot!  And, it’s no surprise either.  What’s not to love about a creamy, cloud-like filling sandwiched between two moist and …]]>

While cupcakes will always hold a special place in my heart, the newest trend in sweet treats these days is whoopee pies.  Yessiree folks, whoopie pies are hot, hot, hot!  And, it’s no surprise either.  What’s not to love about a creamy, cloud-like filling sandwiched between two moist and tender disks of cake?

The origin of the whoopie pie is a subject for debate. It is claimed to have been invented in both New England and Pennsylvania Dutch country, depending upon whom you ask.  The most likely scenario is that Amish groups migrating to Maine in the early 20th century brought the whoopie pie to the area with them.  According to some food historians, Amish housewives would bake these desserts out of leftover cake batter and slip them in their husbands’ lunch pails.  When the men would find the treats in their lunch, they would shout “Whoopie!”.  Wherever they came from, whoopee pies have become a very popular and much loved snack food all over the country. 

The traditional whoopee pie consists of two round slabs of chocolate cake filled with a fluffy vanilla frosting.  Since Halloween is just around the corner,  I’m sharing this more seasonal version.  The pumpkin cakes are lightly spiced with cinnamon, ginger and clove, and the filling is made with cream cheese and jarred caramel sauce.  Trust me.  The combination is divine!

These whoopee pies are great little self-contained treats that would be perfect for hungry trick-or-treaters or just about anyone at all.

Remember the joys of early air travel?  You know, those days where they showed you a movie that you could hear without having to pay for ear buds,  stowed your luggage without a fee and actually fed you a free meal on any flight that was longer than two hours?   I’ll admit, the food wasn’t exactly fine dining, but depending on the airline, it wasn’t bad.  I remember flying to Rome on Alitalia many years ago and being served a pretty darn tasty veal cannelloni and a nice Pinot Grigio to wash it down with too.  Oh, yeah. Those were the days…

Now, all you get for free is a plastic cup filled with watered down soda or juice, and a choice of peanuts or cookies.  Seriously!  Have you seen those tiny packets of peanuts?  They’re miniscule!  The cookies are a much better bet.  At least you get two full-sized cookies.  And, they’re really, really good cookies too.  In fact, those cookies have become so popular, that the company that makes them now imports them all over the world – including my very own local supermarket. 

Biscoff Cookies are made by  Belgium-based Lotus Bakeries.  They are crispy, crunchy little spiced cookies, very similar to gingersnaps.   And, I’m telling you people, they are addictive.  They also make a very nice piecrust, which is where I was going with this story.

Now that we’re firmly entrenched in Autumn, I was looking to make something with pumpkin – maybe a pie or a cheesecake.  Since I had several boxes of cookies lying around, I figured that I could use some of them to make the crust.   I ended up deciding on Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with a Biscoff cookie crust.

The recipe for these bars is super easy and virtually foolproof.   I essentially took a basic pumpkin pie recipe and tweaked it by adding cream cheese and maple syrup to the filling, and of course, by using my Biscoff cookies for the crust.  I also saved a little time and minimized the clean up by mixing up both the crust and filling in my food processor.  Who wants to wash a bunch of extra dirty bowls?

I loved, loved, loved these!  The bar format worked out great.  I could cut them into any sized squares I wanted and decorate each square individually.  They were also neater and easier to eat than a pie or cheesecake because you didn’t really need a fork.  And, the taste?  My, oh my, did these taste amazing!  They were like a silky, smooth pumpkin cheesecake laced with spice and a hint of maple.  Topped with a splotch of whipped cream and candy corn, these bars are a perfect little Halloween treat!

When I was a little girl, my mother had two sets of dishes: the “everyday” dishes” and the “good” ones.  The everyday dishes were, of course, the ones we used for meals every day.  The “good” set only came out for holidays and special occasions. She had a set of “good” glassware too.  They only made an appearance when the “good” dishes were being used.  I never understood why that was.  The  good dishes were much prettier and nicer than the “everyday” ones.  Why didn’t we use them all the time?  What were we saving them for?  Didn’t we deserve to eat off of the good stuff?

My mother had special guest soaps in the bathroom too.  They were shaped like little flowers and they smelled wonderful.   But, we weren’t allowed to use them either.  Mom said they were “just for show”.  We used bars of Ivory or Camay.   I didn’t get that either.  Why shouldn’t we use those pretty and yummy smelling soaps for “everyday”?

Our house was full of things that were only for company or “just for show”.  I remember telling myself then that, when I grew up and had a home of my own, I’d always use the good china and fancy soaps – every day.  But,  I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, because I often find myself doing the same darn thing!   I have to constantly remind myself that my family is the most important thing in the world. They deserve the good stuff – every day! 

Likewise, there are cakes I bake just for company, and cakes I bake for “everyday”.  The “everyday” cakes are usually very plain and uncomplicated little numbers to enjoy with our morning coffee, or nibble on for an afternoon pick-me-up.  Rarely does an “everyday” cake cross over into the more elite “company” category.  With their swooshy, swirly mounds of buttercream, and layers of assorted ooey, gooey fillings, “company” cakes are meant to impress.  Those cakes are the showstoppers.   This Peachy Keen Buttermilk Cake is different.   It isn’t fancy, but it is special.   It’s simple, elegant, and appropriate for almost any occasion.  It’s the little black dress of cakes.

I first saw this unassuming little cake flitting around the blogosphere more than a year ago, only then it was sporting raspberries.  I just knew I would love it,  and I bookmarked it.  Then, distracted by other, flashier showoff cakes, I forgot about it.  The other day I found myself with a container of buttermilk about to expire and a few peaches that were past their prime.  I was trying to think of a way to save them both, when I remembered “the cake”.  Ah yes, the cake!  It was the perfect thing!

With only a handful of basic ingredients, this cake is incredibly quick and easy to make.  Aside from the time it takes for the butter to soften, the batter can be whipped up less than ten minutes – and that includes peeling and chopping the peaches.  Plus, you get the added benefit of having your whole house filled with the most delightful aroma as it bakes.   It has a lovely, light, fluffy crumb, enveloped in a firm, slightly crackly crust.  When cooled to room temperature, it slices beautifully.  The bits of peaches throughout add a little bright pop of flavor to every bite.

This cake was such a huge hit at my house, that I’m already getting hounded to bake another one.  Why not?  I still have some buttermilk and another peach in the fridge.  This time, I think I’ll dig out the good china.   And, maybe even the sterling silver.  Just for us, because we’re worth it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and wash my hands with some fancy, schmancy scented guest soaps.

It seems like we have zucchini coming out of the woodwork these days!  Everyone has it growing like mad in their gardens and no one can use it up fast enough.  I happen to adore zucchini, but even I’ve been feeling a bit challenged trying to find some different and interesting ways to use it.   And then, I found the recipe for this cake – Zucchini Olive Oil Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze.   The moment I saw it, I knew I had to make it.

This is not your typical, dense, leaden loaf of zucchini bread, people.   No, no, no!  It is cake. Real, honest-to-goodness cake, with a moist, light and delicate crumb drenched in a lovely sweet-tart lemon glaze.  And, it is heavenly! 

It all starts with the usual cast of cake ingredients, like flour, sugar and eggs.   There are also a few special guest stars, like coarsely grated, fresh from the garden zucchini…

And, some fragrant, fruity extra-virgin olive oil.  Yes, olive oil.  In cake!

Let’s not forget the crunchy, yummy toasted pecans.  How could anything not be wonderful with toasted pecans?

I’ll admit it doesn’t look like much before being baked, but just wait until it comes out of the oven…

And it gets a nice slathering of that delightful lemon glaze.

WOWZA!

Seriously folks, this was one of the tastiest cakes I’ve ever baked – and there was no chocolate ganache or Swiss buttercream in sight.  Even Mr. “I Don’t Eat Sweets” SGCC indulged in two slices – and that’s saying something!

I have to say, I was a little leery about using extra virgin olive oil  in a cake.  I was afraid that flavor would be too assertive, but it wasn’t.  In fact, if I hadn’t known it was in there, I wouldn’t have ever guessed.   On its own, the cake has a slightly earthy, mellow quality to it, and is not overly sweet.  The lemony glaze, however, is what really gives this cake its va va voom.   A mixture of granulated and confectioner’s sugars is what supposedly gives the glaze its crunch.  Although I thought the glaze was really delicious, I have to say I didn’t find it to be particularly “crunchy”.  But, I didn’t care.  It is a luscious glaze adorning a fabulous cake.  Who could ask for more?

I was doing a little “housekeeping” in my photo library recently, and I came across a few shots of this amazing little cake that were taken almost a year ago.  I didn’t remember ever sharing it with you before, and after doing some checking, I realized that I never had.  Unbelievable! How could I have missed this one?  Blueberry Boy Bait is one of my most favorite cakes ever.   And, I make it often – especially during Florida’s blueberry season, which happens to be now.  It’s the perfect time to spread around some Blueberry Boy Bait love.

So, why is it called Blueberry Boy Bait?  Well, they say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Apparently, that applies to teenaged boys as well.  At least, that’s what Renny Powell was thinking when she developed her award winning Blueberry Boy Bait recipe for the 1954 Pillsbury Bake-Off. The 15 year-old amateur baker from Chicago took second place in the youth division of the contest that year with her creation. When asked why she named her cake Blueberry Boy Bait, Powell explained that it was named after the effect it had on teenaged boys – “one bite and they were hooked”!

Having indulged in this luscious, golden treat many times before, I can attest to its powers of seduction – and I’m not even a teenaged boy!   Loaded with plump, fresh blueberries and topped with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar, Blueberry Boy Bait  is wonderfully buttery, moist and tender, without being cloyingly sweet – exactly what a great cake should be.  

The cake is also fairly easy to make, and doesn’t require any special equipment other than an electric mixer.  Plus, except for the blueberries, you probably already have all of the ingredients stocked in your kitchen.  For not a whole lot of effort, you’ll be rewarded with an incredibly delicious treat that will make your nearest and dearest worship at your feet!

When shopping for blueberries, look for those that are firm and smooth-skinned.  The berries should be deep purple to blue-black in color. Avoid containers with juice stains, which could mean that the berries are overripe and possibly moldy.  (Yuck!)  Also steer clear of dehydrated, wrinkled fruit. This usually means that the blueberries are past their prime.

You can use frozen blueberries in this recipe, but with fresh ones available, why would you want to?  If you do go with frozen berries, don’t thaw them before using or else your cake batter may turn green.

There are quite a few recipes floating around the web for Blueberry Boy Bait.  (Apparently, I’m not the only one who loves it.)    The one I like best is from Cook’s Country Magazine, which I originally found on Smitten Kitchen.  This version uses a mix of both white and brown sugar, which gives the cake just a hint of molasses flavor.  It also has almost twice the amount of blueberries in it, to which I added even more.   And let’s not forget the butter – all  sixteen tablespoons of it.  That’s two whole sticks, people!  I defy you to find anything containing that much butter, which isn’t outrageously good.

So, whether or not you’re looking to reel in a teenaged boy or two, you really must give this Blueberry Boy Bait a try.  I taught Mini SGCC how to make it and you can see for yourself how that turned out!

Enjoy!