TWD: Blueberry Crumb Cake

OK, yes, I know this was last week's "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipe. Sorry, lots of late posts this month. But I promise the next one will be on time. (I can do that because it's already finished and waiting to post!)

For March 24, our challenge was to bake the "Blueberry Crumb Cake," chosen by Sihan of "Walking in the Rain." (Her blog has previously been known as "Befuddlement" and "Fundamentally Flawed" -- I like the movement towards a more positive name. Hope that reflects a good trend in your life, Sihan!)


This recipe made a really thick cake batter -- it was like a cross between a batter and a dough. I used two cups of frozen wild blueberries (8 ounces by weight) which did turn the batter a little bit purple. (No problem as far as I'm concerned.) The cake rose beautifully in the oven and came out tall and fluffy. Some folks said theirs was dry, but mine wasn't. It took a bit longer to bake than the book said, and I got a couple of small pools of butter on top when the topping melted. They ended up making two sunken, somewhat mushy spots underneath.

See the sunken spot in the center?

Overall, this was good, but too sweet for our tastes. Jim and I are both way on the "not sweet" side of the bell curve of taste preferences. I mostly end up reducing the sugar in recipes, but I was nervous about doing it for a cake recipe. They can be tricky. Also, the blueberries had been in the freezer too long and weren't all that flavorful anymore. My bad. I also thought I would have liked more of them.

I'd like to play around with this recipe -- reducing the sugar in the cake, adding more berries, and maybe adjusting the amount of butter in the topping. I liked the way the heavy batter turned into a light and tender cake! And we have lots of frozen home-grown black raspberries -- I bet they'd be great in this cake. (Yes, that will mean more purple batter. Purple is good!)