SUNDAY'S CAKE

today's cake was a blueberry cornmeal butter cake from the smitten kitchen cookbook. it was pretty good. a definite change of pace from the ultra sweet cakes that normally come to life in our kitchen. this one has a streusel topping, my favorite, and is kind of a cross between coffee cake, corn bread and blueberry muffins. it did not disappoint and was the perfect end to our sunday brunch this afternoon. we followed the recipe exactly, except we substituted orange zest in place of the lemon since we didn't have any on hand. can you guess who made it?... it was aubrey, again. i think he is turning into a woman. no, not really, but he is starting to fall in love with baking. i think it's cute and i think that if he keeps this up, i am going to have to buy him his own manly apron. maybe this one? it's manly enough for a baking man with a beard and a motorcycle right?

update: some of you were offended by my woman comment above. i apologize if i ruffled some feathers, but it was totally sarcastic and meant to be humorous. nothing more. aubrey is actually the one who made the joke in the first place and we had a good laugh about it. we have a sense of humor, we make jokes, and sometimes those jokes can be in poor taste or not be everyones cup of tea. #weevenswear

blueberry cornmeal butter cake by deb perelman.

you will need:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (we used orange zest)
1/3 cup sour cream
2 cups blueberries, rinsed and patted dry

streusel:
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon pinch of table salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

preheat your oven to 350 degrees. coat the bottom of an 8-inch square pan with a nonstick spray.

whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl, and set aside. with an electric mixer, beat the butter with sugar in large bowl until pale and fluffy, for at least 2 minutes. beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl in between additions, then add the vanilla and zest. add a third of the flour mixture, all of the sour cream, and another third of the flour, beating until just blended after each addition. scrape down sides of bowl. mix the remaining third of the flour mixture with the blueberries. fold the blueberry-flour mixture gently into the cake batter.

spread the cake batter in the prepared cake pan. use your original dry-ingredients bowl to combine the dry topping ingredients with a fork. mash in the butter with your fork, fingertips or a pastry blender. scatter the topping over the batter.

bake the cake until the top is golden brown and the tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes. run the spatula around the edges of the cake to loosen it, then flip out onto the cooling rack.