Pipe Dream #137: To Help A Girl Out – Blueberry Boy Bait

Be you single, taken or seeking, if you need to bait you some boys, this recipe suggests itself. And also suggest it. It’s pretty yummy.

May I also suggest this caramel praline bread pudding? How about some white chocolate vanilla bean cheesecake? Or potentially these chocolate chip cookies?

I guarantee their effect.

 

 

Just trying to help a girl out,

L

Blueberry Boy Bait

Adapted from Cook’s Country via smittenkitchen

Serves 12

For the cake:

2 cups plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost)

For the topping:

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (do not defrost)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine two cups of flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. With electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated and scraping down bowl after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to medium and beat in one-third of flour mixture until incorporated, followed by half of the milk. Beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour mixture. Toss the blueberries with remaining one teaspoon flour, and gently fold them into the batter. Spread the batter into prepared pan.

For the topping:
Sprinkle the blueberries over top of batter. Combine the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and sprinkle that over the batter as well. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then turn out and place on serving platter. Serve warm or at room temperature. The cake will keep for 3 days stored in an airtight container.

Pipe Dream #11: To Be A Good Steward – Clementine Cake

I’m not as eco-conscious as I would like to believe. I live in America, for one thing. And I don’t flip out if I forget to recycle my egg cartons, for another. But I do try, sometimes. Like with this cake, for example. It is my concession to the “green trend.”

This cake is super interesting because it uses whole clementines. You boil ’em for a couple hours before pureeing them mixing them with ground almonds as a base. Please forgive the following over-saturated picture from my old camera…

Making this cake made me feel like I was a Native American using ev-er-y part of the mammoth I had just killed. Except I didn’t kill a mammoth. And I didn’t build a house out of the cake I made. I ate it for breakfast.

Clementines are not in season anymore, I don’t think. But! blueberries are. And they are part of this recipe in a small way. Hope that’s all right. You can save this up ’til next Christmas. It’s permalinked.

Happy breakfasting,

L

P.S. It’s Easter in a few days. I didn’t make anything in advance like all the cool bloggers who have themed or traditional recipes for you to make before holidays. Ummm sorry.

Good Steward Clementine Cake

Adapted from Nigella Lawson

4 to 5 clementines (slightly less than 1 pound total weight)
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/3 cups ground almonds
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain. When cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor or by hand (I processed them.)

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper. (I used two 9 inch cake pans instead. It worked fine. I think I used more than five clementines, which is probably why I had so much batter.)

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 50 minutes (keep checking, it depends on your pan), when a skewer will come out clean; you might have to cover the cake with foil after about 20 to 30 minutes to stop the top from over-browning.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the pan and dust it with powdered sugar or make a glaze. Top with whatever fruit you have on hand. Or not. Or maybe whipped cream? Do what you like.