Look, I know. You’re confused. Did you accidentally stumble upon the archives of my website? Inadvertently hit a link from last July? Have I decamped from the chill of New York City to some verdant oasis in South America, where fat, juicy berries are growing feverishly through February?
No. I have not. I am here, and I am cold, and I am making blueberry cake if I want it, gosh darn it! Let me explain. I do believe in eating seasonally, for the most part. I’m not wildly obsessive about it, but I’m lucky to live in a place with truly exceptional farmers’ markets, so tailoring my produce consumption to actual growing seasons is pretty easy to do. But does that mean I won't touch a blueberry until June? It does not. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I ate a handful this morning alongside a few spoonfuls of creamy ginger sheep’s milk yogurt.
And as I ate them, I thought, “damn! I should have saved these for cake”, because truly, there are few better ways to make the most of fresh blueberries than today’s cake, which comes from Deb at Smitten Kitchen (or as I think of her, Deb who can do no wrong in the kitchen realm).
I did say few better, because I can think of some blueberry experiences that top this cake. And why not talk about them? Why not indulge ourselves in the thought of warmer days? Today is beautifully sunny but still quite cold—it’s a teasingly gentle reminder that there is more to life than dreary weeks of winter.
If you ever find wild blueberries growing—seize the day! I’m not talking about pick-your-own berries on a berry farm (though those are certainly preferable to store-bought). I’m talking about the tiny wild ones that grow in tangled bushes up in New Hampshire and Maine. They’re a deep, fierce blue that stains your fingertips and lips with a purplish hue. They taste like a blueberry, but more concentrated than any other you’ve tried.
When I lived in New Hampshire one summer, I worked on a lake and would sometimes have to spend the night out at a remote campsite, helping chop firewood and keep tent platforms swept and do some light maintenance on the floating docks that ran parallel to the marshy shore. I liked to walk on the docks in bare feet, jumping up and down on the sun-warmed wooden planks, letting the cool water splash up around my ankles. In between stops to hammer at loose nails or note a sinking section, I’d pause to peer into the foliage that grew thickly along both sides. At the end of July, the branches were heavy with blueberries. I’d fill a colander, if I remembered to carry one, or hold my t-shirt out as a makeshift basket. For every three I picked, I’d eat two.
At night, my roommates and I would make blueberry pie. A simple all-butter crust went into our pie plate, followed by a mound of wild berries tossed with lemon zest and sometimes cardamom and a bit of flour or cornstarch. I preferred the filling with no sugar, so you really taste the berries.
We’d pile slices onto our plates while the pie was still steaming hot—the berry filling slumping out of the crust—and we’d douse the top with a stream of cold heavy cream. (Ideally, this would be loosely whipped cream with a bit of mascarpone but we weren’t fancy…and we were hungry.)
We’d sit out on Adirondack chairs overlooking the quiet surface of the lake at night, listening to loons hoot their eerie refrain back and forth across the water. We’d balance the plates on our laps so we could sip from mismatched Mason jars filled with limey gin & tonics or slim bottles of Long Trail Ale’s Blackbeary Wheat, clinking glasses in contented silence.
And that, kids, is a very nice way to eat blueberries.
But here we are in winter! Fresh berries are possible to find, but not as good as the wild ones. So you have two choices if you’re faced with a serious fruit craving as I have lately. You can easily use fresh fruit, knowing the won’t be as flavorful as it will be in the peak of summer, or you can find the best-quality frozen fruit possible. (Wyman’s of Maine sells very good frozen wild blueberries, which would be nice here.)
I stick somewhat faithfully to Deb’s original recipe, but I do like to add more berries and I triple the zest.
A nice thing to know here? You can easily vary the fruit and flavorings. For example, I’ve made this with blackberries and lime zest as well as raspberries and orange zest. I think that you could probably do strawberries and fresh basil in place of the zest, or even stone fruit if you diced it nice and small.
Here are some other ideas (cut the cinnamon if you use a combination with other spices):
-Blueberries + blackberries + thyme
-Strawberries + rosemary
-Blackberry + ginger in batter/hazelnut in crumble
-Peach + sage
-Apple + cardamom
-Pear + ginger + dark chocolate
Anyway, on to the cake!
Blueberry Crumb Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen; makes one 8” round cake
Crumb Topping
5 tablespoons (40 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
Batter
2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
2 tablespoons lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
About 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 8” or 9” round pan with parchment and grease the parchment (I like to use a smaller pan so the cake is thicker).
Make the topping: Whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Rub the butter in using your fingertips until the mixture is sandy—don’t worry about the butter being in uniform pieces/flakes. You just don’t want it to be too chunky, and you also don’t want to turn it into a paste. Set aside.
Make the batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
Put the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the lemon zest. Using your fingers, rub the zest into the sugar until it’s well-distributed and smells delicious. Add the butter and beat until pale and fluffy (about 3 to 5 minutes on medium speed).
Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and the milk in two additions, alternating between both. Mix the batter until smooth, then gently fold in the berries using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Scrape the batter (it will be thick) into your prepared pan and sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top.
Bake for about 40 minutes—start checking around 35. Remove it from the oven when the edges are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Run a knife around the edges of the pan, then let cool before slicing.