Blueberry Tea Cake

There was a time in my life when leaving home for a few days was no big deal. Anybody remember what it was like to throw some clothes in a bag, lock the door, and leave? These days, I spend the day before departure cooking.  My kitchen looks like a hurricane went through. I'm always exhausted by the time I'm done cooking meals for a few days -- and I haven't even left home!

I thought I'd bake a bundt cake with streusel in the middle for everyone to nibble on while I'm gone. But as these things happen, I stumbled upon a blueberry cake with streusel topping on Boston.com that they tested against other similar recipes and proclaimed to be the best. Of course I had to try it.  Who could resist that? It seems the recipe has been around for awhile, so I'm not sure to whom it should be attributed. Jane Connolly submitted the recipe to Boston.com. She received it from her mother, who got it from her sister-in-law, and well, we know how recipes travel.


Was it the best blueberry streusel cake ever? Pretty close. I loved refrigerating the streusel while making the batter.  When I took out the buttery streusel it had firmed up enough to crumble nicely across the batter.  I'll be using that trick with streusel from now on.

It's not blueberry season, so I relied on frozen wild blueberries which are smaller than the fresh blueberries that we see in the market.  Because they were frozen, I didn't mix them with the flour until just before folding them into the batter so they wouldn't start to thaw and turn it blue.

The cake has a nice light texture. Probably the best thing is that it's not overpoweringly sweet. The amount of sugar is dead on. It would be hard to imagine how it could be improved upon!

Blueberry Tea Cake

one eight-inch square baking pan

Topping

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter

Cut the butter into 16 pieces. Place in a bowl with sugar, flour, and cinnamon and work with your fingers until blended.  Refrigerate.

Cake

butter for the pan
flour for the pan
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375.  Butter and flour the pan.  Toss the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the flour. (Note: if using frozen blueberries, set the 1 tablespoon of flour aside and leave the blueberries in the freezer for now.) In another bowl, mix the rest of the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add vanilla and beat. Alternate slowly adding the flour mixture and the milk until completely blended. (Note: if using frozen blueberries, toss them with the flour now.) Add the blueberries to the batter and fold gently to distribute.

Pour batter into the pan. Crumble the streusel on top.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is brown.