Blueberry Crumb Cake

Hello, and welcome to the solution of what to do when you buy a 2.75 lb tub of blueberries at Costco! Not only do you make blueberry muffins, but you also follow that up by making this awesome blueberry crumb cake. It's really easy and other than the blueberries, all of the ingredients are really standard.

So here's what you need. As you can see, you need flour and sugar two separate times. A total of 1 2/3 cups flour (1/3 cup initially and 1 1/3 cups later) and 1 1/4 cups sugar (1/2 cup initially and 3/4 cup later), 2 cups fresh blueberries , three eggs, 1/4 cup cold butter, 3/4 cup softened butter, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. That about covers it!

Start by cutting up your 1/4 cup cold butter into little squares. The size isn't too important.

Now toss that butter in a medium-ish bowl.

Go ahead and add 1/2 cup sugar. Yum, butter and sugar. A good start.

Now add in 1/3 cup flour. You get to use your 1/3 measuring cup. Rejoice!

Now for 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. This really makes the flavor unbelievably good.

Now time to start mashing this together with a fork.

I'm not going to lie, this process takes awhile. Try to refrain from eating the globs of butter on the fork.

Now start feeling smug because it's starting to look edible.

There we go! Mix it until it's nice and crumbly and everything is combined well. Now put this heavenly mixture in the fridge so you don't eat it all while you make the rest.

Add your 3/4 cup butter (softened...in a microwave in my case) to 3/4 cup sugar in a large bowl. Trust me on that part.

This would be a good time to own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. But alas, pick up your hand mixer and that do the trick (but it won't stop you from complaining about your lack of stand mixer). Cream together the butter and sugar.

This is what it looks like when done.

Now add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. The pure stuff if you can. Ours cost something like $12 when we bought it in Manhattan. Ugh.

In another bowl (this one can be pretty small) whisk together 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. You don't really need to whisk this, but I just like an excuse to use a whisk.

Now crack your three eggs in a bowl and next time try not to get a blurry picture.

Now add some of the flour mixture and start up the hand mixer again. Then add one of the eggs by pouring it from the bowl and keep alternating in this way while mixing.

Look at that mixer go!

Near the end I turned off the mixer and finished the job with my handy bright green silicon spatula that I think my mom bought me from the dollar store.

Now pour in some of the blueberries into the dough.

Now fold the dough over the blueberries so they are essentially covered.

Now add some more blueberries and repeat the procress until all the blueberries have been added.

Now pour your delicious batter into a greased pan. I used an 8x8 pan because that's really all I had available. A larger pan would have worked better, such as a 9x9 or a 10x10 cake pan.

Smooth it out on top with your dollar store spatula.

Now grab that crumb mixture from your fridge and add it onto the batter.

Now put this sucker in the oven at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes (it will likely depend on the size of your pan - the smaller your pan the longer it will take to cook) until a toothpick (or knife in my case) can be inserted and taken out without any globs of batter on there for you to lick off.

Now look - in those 45 minutes you will have plenty of dish washing to do. Hooray!

But, it was all worth it! This cake smells amazing too. Even your husband who doesn't like blueberries will come home and ask for a bite because it smells so great.

Scoop out a big plateful even though you are making dinner at the same time.


And eat the whole thing. Because everyone deserves dessert first every once in awhile. Right? Right?! Good, because it's too late.

Here is the recipe in full without all my annoying comments and pictures!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Crumb topping:
¼ cup cold butter, cut into pieces
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Batter:
¾ cup softened butter
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ⅓ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
2 cups blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To make the crumb topping:
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together 1/4 cup cold butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with a fork until mixture is combined and crumbly. Refrigerate the topping.

To make the batter:
In a large bowl, cream together 3/4 cup softened butter and 3/4 cup sugar with an electric mixer. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and mix together. In a small bowl, mix together 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. To the creamed butter mixture alternately add in some of the flour mixture and and one egg at a time until all ingredients are added and combined well. Fold in the blueberries with a spatula.

Pour batter into a well greased pan (8x8, 9x9, or 10x10). Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the batter and bake 45-55 minutes (at 350 degrees) until a knife comes out clean. Topping will be crisp and golden brown.

Enjoy!