The Vanilla Blueberry Butter Cake

Were you looking for a picture of the Vanilla Blueberry Butter Cake that I posted this weekend?  Here it is!

This cake is super moist.  So much so, it crumbles when you cut it.

Enjoy!

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Vanilla Blueberry Butter Cake

I made some cupcakes last week but they really weren’t anything to write home about.  Since I didn’t particularly like them, I deemed them un-worthy of sharing.  And that is why there hasn’t been a baking post in a some time.

I do have a recipe to share that will make you forget how long it’s been between baking posts.  This cake doesn’t require icing.  That’ s one things I like about it.  I am one of those weird people that likes the cake better than the icing. 

This cake tastes best with a dollop of whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or some powdered sugar sprinkled on top. 

Vanilla Blueberry Butter Cake

1 c. of butter, softened

1 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 c. sour cream

1/2 c. milk

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I used Mike and Molly’s Homemade Vanilla)

1 c. blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heavily grease a 9” Bunt pan.

In a large bowl, add butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and milk; beat with electric mixer until well blended. 

Add flour and baking powder; mix thoroughly.  Stir in vanilla extract.

Pour half of the batter into the bottom of the pan and sprinkle blueberries on top.  Pour remaining batter over the berries.

Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Remove from oven and cool completely before removing from pan.

Are you a cake, or frosting fanatic?

Double Berry Oat Muffins

I like having muffins on hand for breakfast.  Typically, I’ll make a batch and we will eat some fresh.  The rest go into the freezer for days that we’ve tired of the usual breakfast fare. 

Muffins freeze well, thaw fairly quickly, and are easy to grab on the go.  Hearty muffins like bran or oatmeal top my list of favorites.  When I realized it was time to restock our freezer I started thinking about my options.

Last year, I froze a bunch of blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries to use throughout the winter months.  I guard them pretty closely because I don’t relish the thought of paying outrageous prices for berries that never seem to taste nearly as good as those you get locally when they are in season.

A peek in the freezer confirmed my suspicions, my stock of raspberries was nearly gone, but there were still a lot of blueberries stock piled in there.  This is what led me to come up with today’s recipe.

Double Berry Oat Muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  (This recipe made 15 muffins)  Heavily spray muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

1/3 c. butter, softened

1 egg, room temperature

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1 c. heavy cream

1 c. oatmeal, quick cook

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 c. red raspberries

11/2 c. blueberries

Double Berry Oat Muffin Topping

1/4 c. oatmeal, quick cook

1/4 c. light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

In a large bowl, add butter, egg, brown sugar; mix thoroughly.  Pour in heavy cream, oatmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; mix well.  Fold in berries.

In a separate bowl, mix oat topping ingredients.

Fill each muffin tin about 2/3 full and sprinkle with prepared topping.  Bake for about 18-20 minutes.

Remove pans from the oven.  Take a sharp knife and run it around the edge of each muffin.  Allow the muffins to cool completely before removing from pans. 

These muffin are sweet, yet they have a hint of tart flavor that comes from using the raspberries.  I like how the berries compliment each other.   *Note – these muffins are not your best choice for a grab and go option because although they are very tasty, they are also very tender and crumble easily.

Even breakfast skippers will be tempted by these muffins.

Homemade Blueberry Waffles for Two

Since it is the first day of a brand new year I felt like we should welcome it with something special.   This recipe makes 3 large waffles; a perfect batch for two.

Homemade Blueberry Waffles

2 eggs, beaten

1 c. sour milk

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

4 tbsp. margarine, melted

1/4 c. blueberries (fresh or frozen)

In a large bowl add all ingredients and mix with an electric mixer until batter is smooth and air bubbles form.  Prepare your waffle maker.  Pour batter into waffle maker and sprinkle blueberries on top of the batter.  Cook until done and remove from waffle maker.

What is your favorite waffle topping?  We love ours covered in our homemade maple syrup – yum!

Guilt Free Mini Pies

I use to get Kraft Food & Family magazines (when they were free).  I loved them.  They were loaded with great recipes and enticing photo’s.  The recipes were simple too.  Somewhere along the way Kraft started charging for these magazines and it (sadly) disappoints me.   Fortunately, I still have all of my original issues so I can refer to them.

Last night I was looking for low-fat, low-calorie recipe.  For inspiration I dug out my old issues from Kraft.   I didn’t need to search beyond the issue that was on the top of the pile (Summer 2007). 

Although a lot of recipes jumped out at me, the one that I decided on was called “Flat Bottom Fruit Pie”.  It looked so fresh and inviting.  Just what my diet ordered.

Of course, I can’t leave well enough alone so I adapted this recipe to actually make a healthier version.  Once you read the recipe you will see how easy it is to interchange ingredients to satisfy just about any taste.

Here is my adaptation.  I must warn you this is a fast and easy one.  If you are looking to spend hours in your kitchen this one isn’t for you. 🙂

You will need:

1 refrigerated ready to use pie crust

1 tsp. of cinnamon & sugar (3/4 tsp. sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon) I used King Arthur Vietnamese cinnamon – my absolute favorite! 

1 package of Jell-O Sugar Free Cheesecake Pudding (and 2 cups of non-fat milk)

Fresh Blueberries

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Unroll pie crust, take a round cookie cutter and make cut outs.  (Hint – once I made the initial cutouts I rolled out the remaining dough and made several more to prevent wasting the dough.) 

Lay the cutouts on a baking stone.  Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar mixture.  I didn’t use the entire teaspoon but feel free.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

While the crusts are baking mix up your pudding. 

Let the crusts cool, and put the pudding in the refrigerator to thicken for 1 hour.

Once the crusts are cool and the pudding is thick put your mini pies together.  Top with fruit and low-fat whipped cream.

These are so versatile.  If you don’t want to use sugar-free pudding you can use regular pudding.  You could also sprinkle the dough with a cocoa and sugar mixture. Can you image these made with chocolate pudding, and topped with fresh raspberries?  Vanilla pudding and fresh peaches?  Or,  how about white chocolate pudding with cherries and chocolate drizzled on top?  The list of possibilities is endless, and these are guilt free. 

More modified Kraft recipes to come!

A reflection of some of the fresh fruits of summer

A simple photo essay of some of the fresh fruits of summer.  What’s your favorite fruit?

Finally found time to bake – lucious lemon blueberry bread

What a combination

 

The batter

 

Bottom side of bread fresh out of the pan

 

Life is good, and busy.  This time of year the nice weather calls me outside.  Because of this I  put baking on the back burner, so to speak.    

This week we planted our garden which now has a variety of fruits & veggies and herbs packed into it.  Today was more or less, a day of rest, and I finally found time to bake.    

I found some nice looking blueberries at the grocery store and they help inspire me.  I had been wanting to make something on the lemon side so with that in mind I dug through my (not quite organized yet) recipe box and found a great recipe I’ve made many a time.  Lemon Blueberry Bread   

The recipe is as follows:  3 tbls shortening, 3 tbls margarine, 1 c sugar, 1 tbls lemon juice (I used real lemon extract), 2 eggs, 1 1/2 c flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 c milk (I used skim), 1 cup fresh blueberries.  Mix in order.  I used  3 mini bread pans and baked for 37 mins in a 325 degree oven.  You know the routine.  Whatever you bake it in, make sure the toothpick comes out clean in the center.  Enjoy!   

We are enjoying it as I type….. Moist and tasty – not overly sweet.