Friday, September 18, 2015

Blueberry Coffee Cake


Late Sunday night, Andrew and I were craving something sweet for dessert. Naturally, the good little Suzy-homemaker I am I jumped into action!
Actually I was pretty lazy that night and had some blueberries in the fridge I needed to use up. So I concocted this little blueberry coffee cake loosely based on an old Pinterest pound cake recipe I have had in my Pinterest cooking folder for a couple years.


It was quick, easy and super yummy! I felt really bad though because I had originally promised Andrew he could take it to work the next morning. When I still saw it in the fridge in the morning, I thought I would take it to work since he didn't. All the girls gobbled it up!
I got home to find out he was hoping to eat some later that night :-(    Oops!
Well I'll just have to make another!

Hope you find it yummy too!....

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Cake

1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk, whole
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups blueberries

Streusel

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 stick butter, melted

Glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 or 2 Tbsp millk, whole


-Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch cake pan.
-For Streusel, mix melted butter with flour, sugar and cinnamon with fork until mixed well; it will be mushy and clumpy, set aside.
-For Batter, combine flour and baking powder in separate bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in mixer for about 4 minutes until fluffy. Add sour cream, milk, vanilla and egg each indivually until incorporated well. Add flour mixture slowly, continuously mixing until smooth.
-Spread half of the batter in the cake pan, then top with half of the streusel by hand, sprinkling it to get an even layer.
-Top with half of the blueberries evenly.
-Spread remaining batter on top of blueberries, then top with remaining streusel.
-Top with remaining blueberries. (It doesn't have to be perfect)
-Bake for 35 minutes (ish) until toothpick inserted comes out pretty clean.
-Remove cake, let cool and transfer to wire rack for more cooling
                          ***I ran short on time so I drizzled glaze while still warm and yum!***
-For glaze, combine powedered sugar with milk and whisk until smooth and glossy. Add more milk or sugar if you want.
-Drizzle all over the cake and enjoy!


Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Tip for Best Cake Batter


















 One thing it took me a while to figure out is how to make the most perfect cake batter.

Believe it or not, there is a science to cake making. There's a science to just about everything!

My tip for the best cake batter is make sure to have....


ROOM TEMPERATURE INGREDIENTS


Yes that's right. All your ingredients should be at the same temperature when combining together to ensure they bind properly and have the proper emulsion. 
The science of it if you're interested is this:

To emulsify means to combine two liquids that normally do not combine easily, such as oil and vinegar. Many food products are emulsions. The most common natural example of an emulsifier is portrayed in milk, a complex mixture of fat suspended in an aqueous solution.
Fat and liquid by nature are unmixable, and the goal when mixing a recipe is to form a water-in-fat emulsion. A well emulsified cake batter, for example, should not be curdled or weeping liquid. This is because the butter and liquids are in a stable emersion. If not stable, the batter will loose air cells. This results in a baked cake that is grainy or flat in texture, dry and flavorless, look, uneven and may even sink.

Phew! Thats a lot to take in. Basically what this is saying is when you have a proper and well-mixed cake batter, it will create air bubbles getting you that perfectly airy and moist cake that will hold together well.

For those that use a boxed cake mix (that's ok!), the biggest mistake is throwing the eggs or liquid directly into the mix, cold and then they don't bind properly. Rule of thumb should be that the dry ingredients are mixed together, and the wet ingredients are mixed together separately at room temperature, then combined. 

How do you do this??

-- Eggs, butter, buttermilk, milk, oil, whatever you are mixing should be combined in your mixer at ROOM TEMPERATURE first then add in the dry ingredients, incorporating slowly. The mixing should be continuous as you are adding ingredients.





Give this a try the next time you bake. I bet you will have a lighter, fluffy, and more stable cake.

Happy baking! 


Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Kindergarten!


Connor decided to grow up on me and start Kindergarten. We're on week 3 and I think it's harder on me than him!

Connor has always been a social butterfly and I knew would make friends easy. His teacher sent home a class picture will each of their names and he knows everyone and says "he's my best friend" to all of them. lol


We've gotten our morning routine down, I think. Wake up, try and wake Connor, make his lunch, try and wake up Connor, make his breakfast, drag him out of bed, get him to eat, get myself ready in 10 minutes and out the door at 7:15 on the dot. Phew!

I love it though...

I love the community I'm in where I can walk him to school everyday. I feel like a grown up and seeing all the other kids and parents really motivates him to go.




















Here he is above in his classroom. He's so happy :-) 
Thursday is open house and I'll get to see everything he's been doing. 

I hope to share more and more during the school year of the fun he has.