Tuesday, 24 March 2009

I Found My Thrill . . .



What's soft in the middle,scrumdiddlyumptious, chock full of blueberries and covered all over with a deliciously scrummy brown sugar and nut streusal? Why, it's Blueberry Crumb Cake, this weeks Tuesday's With Dorie challenge as chosen by Sihan of Befuddlement! Yes, welcome Tuesdays With Dorie, that delicious baking group that bakes together once a week, one delicious recipe from that delightful baking book, "Baking, from my home to yours," by the equally as delicious Dorie Greenspan! This week's recipe, Blueberry Crumb Cake, can be found on pages 192 t0 193.



Oh Sihan, I have been wanting to try this recipe for a long time and I was absolutely thrilled when you picked it for the recipe this week!! I have a long standing love affair with blueberries . . . crumbles, pies, jams, cakes . . . in any way shape or form, I am there!



When I was a kid, I hated the idea of blueberries. I think it's because my parents always forced us into slave labour in the late summer, picking what seemed like gallons and gallons of them to put into the freezer for the winter ahead. The rural countryside of Nova Scotia is filled to the brim with wild blueberries, and we would fill up our freezer every year with at least half a dozen gallon sized ice cream buckets of them. This was back breaking labour, for wild blueberries do not grow on chest high bushes, they grow low to the ground in the scrub and the brush, and you have to squat and pick for hours and hours to fill up an ice cream bucket!!! Not only that, but you have to keep your ear open for bears in the brush while you are doing it, coz blueberries in late summer are like, one of their favouritest meals! Anyhoo . . . all of this didn't keep me from chowing down on one of my mother's blueberry pies when I was a kid, nor her pancakes, muffins, cakes . . . well . . . you get the picture! I was like that old grasshopper in Aesop's fable. I wanted all of the pleasure without experiencing any of the pain!! (I've changed, I promise!)



This cake is just wonderful, with a beautifully moist texture. It is filled to the brim with delicious, tart blueberries and the topping is to die for. I could just stand at the counter and pick it off in bits, all sweet and crunchy and buttery in the mouth . . . but I don't . . . coz that would be greedy indeed . . . ok, ok . . . so I am responsible for the bald patch in the corner, but I really couldn't help myself, it's just sooo good!



Easy to stir together, easy to bake and easy to eat. This cake wins on all three counts! It's enough to make Fat's Domino break into song . . . 'nuff said. Don't take my word for it. Hop on over to Sihan's page and grab the recipe for yourself. You'll see what I mean! I speak the truth.



If you want to see what everyone else did with this recipe take a gander at the Tuesdays With Dorie blog roll. You won't be sorry. There are some really creative people in this group, not to mention great photographers! Don't hold me responsible for any weight gained though . . . you may want to be running on the spot while you look just to combat that possibility!



Next week's recipe is the Coconut Butter Thins on page 145, as chosen by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch . . . hmmm . . . butter and thin in one sentence . . . this sounds intriguing!




29 comments:

  1. Marie, I loved this recipe too! I'm crazy about blueberries. In fact I still have about 2 cups of blueberries in my freezer, so if you have any suggestions on what to do with them (apart from baking this cake again): I'm open to suggestions!!!

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  2. I am sitting here with my mouth watering for a piece of that cake.
    Blue berries are soooo good. Have a great Tuesday! 'On Ya'-ma

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  3. I just adore blueberries...and anything with blueberries in it! This recipe is so wonderful...can almost taste it now! And hear Fats Domino singing about Blueberry Hill! ;o) Happy Day, dear friend--LOVE YOU! ((HUGS))

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  4. This looks incredible! My husband loves blueberries so I will be making this soon. Thanks for posting it and have a great day!

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  5. Looks great.

    I wish I had used fresh blueberries.

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  6. i LOVE blueberry ANYTHING!

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  7. I can just taste that crumble. Mmmmmmmm I'll be right over.

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  8. You did a beautiful job! Your cake looks yummy!

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  9. Oh Marie - that looks so yummy! I loved hearing about you picking blueberries. I have similar memories of picking blueberries in northern Michigan. I hated them then too. But now I love them.

    Mmmmm, looks so delicious!!! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

    XOOX
    Jen

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  10. ...on Blueberry Hill!!! I love Fats!

    You did a great looking job of this cake Marie, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! My family did too...

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  11. Your photos are making my mouth water!!! The crumb looks like absolute perfection!

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  12. That looks so good! I tried eating blueberries once on oatmeal and couldn't do it, but I love them in baked goods!

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  13. Why, Marie?! Whyyyyy.....LOL I'll be singing that song all day!

    Blueberry crumble. I'm saving this one FOR SURE! I love blueberries!

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  14. Blueberries, brown sugar, nuts, how could one go wrong? (except on the scale)
    Slave laboring over blueberries. I never saw it that way, but then any berry picking Dad & I did, we were eating them on the way ;-).
    ~Mary

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  15. This recipe was soo good! Yours look delicious. Great job!

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  16. Marie this is the best blueberry cake i ever seen, seriously its awesome!

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  17. Marie, this recipe look amazing!!!! huggs to you and Todd of course, xxGloria

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  18. Look yummy! I love blueberries baked in whatever, but I can't eat them raw. Something about the skins?

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  19. blurberry picking sounds great to me !!! your cake looks great, well done !!!

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  20. Yours looks so good! We loved this cake :)

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  21. Yep! Gained weight just looking at that beautiful cake. Perfect.

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  22. Marie, I loved the recounting of your blueberry picking. I have only picked blueberries once and it was from bushes that were chest high so I cannot imagine the rigor of the other way. I loved doing it though at a little blueberry farm on the Gulf in Mississippi. I was there with my two little grandsons and daughter and we had a ball. It is one of my heart prints from the area that was devastated by Katrina just a few months later. The little blueberry bushes are gone but the fond memory remains.

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  23. Oh my! That looks truly delicious!

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  24. You post reminded me of blueberry picking in Newfoundland which is chock-a-block with the things. We too picked from the low-bush variety, but we usually travelled so far in the barrens to get them that all you had to do was sit in one particular spot and pick around you; and before you knew it, the ice cream container was full. (As well as your belly!) And there was little fear of bears because we were a family of 5 noisy children & 2 adults; no bears ever came near.

    Hmmmm .... I believe I still have enough in the freezer to make a duff or a slump. Thanks Marie.

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  25. mmmmm. I could have stood and picked all of the topping off as well. it was that good! :)

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  26. Wasn't that topping fabulous? Totally theft-worthy. Beautiful job!

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  27. Your cake looks brilliant! Ahh, there are often bald patches on my crumbles as we wait for them to cool ;) It does look very moreish!

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  28. Thank you Lucy for owning up to the 'bald patches'. Same problem in this house!

    The local Asda were selling frzen blueberries at £1 for 2 x 250g boxes. So now I too can do the blueberry things. If I can keep my hands of the lumpy bits in the streusel!

    love, Angie, xx

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