An Inspired Cook

Joe and I recently took a few days to visit family in the Florida Keys.  We loved the warm sunshine and tropical weather.  The ocean is beautiful, the food is great and family time was the icing on the cake.  However, traveling included early wake up calls and long flights which was tiresome.  I needed caffeine and sugar to keep me alert when I couldn’t get moving on those early mornings.  After we went through TSA security I treated myself to a pastry and coffee.  It’s one of those things I only have occasionally because I’m so addicted to it, hence the coffeecake.  I’m still trying to reign in my indulgence, but until then I’m going to eat cake!  What goes better with coffee than a sweet slice of coffeecake.  I tell myself the blueberries are to make it healthier although I doubt anyone would believe me.  It has such a moist texture and the warm blueberries just melt into the cake.  Lemons are notoriously tasty with anything blueberry so I drizzled a lemony glaze over top.  It’s like a little slice of heaven on a plate!

Prep an angel food pan or bundt pan with butter and a dusting of flour.  Assemble the dry ingredients of cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon.

You’ll need some vanilla, sugar and butter.  Let the butter sit at room temperature to soften slightly.

Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand or hand mixer and beat on low.

Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat until all the ingredients are combined and appear fluffy.

Time to add some eggs, 4 will do.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

After all 4 eggs have been mixed in the batter will appear thin.

Mix approximately 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the batter and mix well, scraping down the bowl when needed.

Here is what keeps this cake moist, creamy sour cream.  Add about 1/2 of the sour cream into the batter and beat alternately with the flour mix until well combined.

Here’s the first round of sour cream.  You can see that the batter is already beginning to thicken.

To assemble the cake, begin by pouring about one third of the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Combine the brown sugar mix and blueberries together.

Sprinkle about half of the mixture on top of the first layer of batter.

Add another third of the batter to spread over the blueberry and brown sugar mix.

Sprinkle the remaining mix with berries over this layer.

Now finish up with the last bit of batter to spread over top.  Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, make the lemon glaze.  First sift 1 cup of powdered sugar into a medium bowl.

Whisk in 2 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice to the powdered sugar.

I wanted a thin glaze that can be drizzled easily over the cake.   If you like it thicker, use less lemon juice.

Let the cake cool in the pan for approximately 20 minutes, then slide a knife around the edges and remove cake from the pan.  Drizzle lemon glaze over the cake and sprinkle fresh blueberries around the cake.

Have a slice of cake and enjoy!!




Blueberry Coffeecake with a Lemon Glaze (Inspired by “Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen”)

3 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons Cake Flour (I used Swan’s Down Cake Flour)
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1 1/2 cups Sugar
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
4 large Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
12 ounces Blueberries plus more for sprinkling over top of cake
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an Angel Food Pan or Bundt Pan with butter and flour.  Set aside.

Mix the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.  In a small bowl, combine brown sugar with 1 tablespoon of flour and cinnamon.  Mix together with a fork.

Combine softened butter, with sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl when needed.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.  The batter will appear quite thin.

Add about one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until well combined.  Alternately add half of the sour cream,  then flour again beating after each addition until all have been incorporated.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds until all the flour and sour cream have been mixed in well.

Take one third of the batter and spread evenly into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle half of the blueberry and brown sugar mix over the batter.  Repeat another layer of batter and blueberry brown sugar mix with the last third of batter spread evenly over top.

Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for approximately 20 minutes.  Run a knife around the edges of the cake and gently remove from pan.

Sift the powdered sugar and add lemon juice, one tablespoon at a time until you have the desired consistency.  (I used 2 1/2 tablespoons of juice to make a nice thin drizzle).

Drizzle lemon glaze over cake and sprinkle a few blueberries to decorate the cake.