a lovely living

I’ve had this recipe on my radar for a while now. I finally got around to making it for a Staff Appreciation lunch at my son’s school a few week’s ago and I barely got a bite of it before it had disappeared! It always makes me nervous serving something before I get a chance to try it, but apparently I had nothing to worry about with this one. I decided to make it again to take to my parents for Easter dessert. I finally had a full piece to myself (with the exception of bites my daughter stole) and it really is wonderful. Dense, moist and full of amazing flavor. Perfect with coffee for breakfast, an afternoon treat with tea or dessert with a glass of milk :) This one’s a keeper.

Recipe via A Spicy Perspective:

Ingredients:

For the Blueberry Cake:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose Gold Medal Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons
1 pound fresh blueberries

For the Buttermilk Glaze:

3 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup powdered sugar

For the Oat Crumble Topping:

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Directions:

For the blueberry cake: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle lightly with flour. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add the flour and buttermilk, alternating each, until all incorporated. Finally beat in the lemon zest before turning the mixer off. Use a spoon the stir in half the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top. Bake for 60-80 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before flipping out onto a cooling rack. DO NOT try flipping the cake any earlier than 20 minutes, or the cake will stick. Promise! Waiting 30+ minutes is safer.

Once the cake is cooling on the rack, mix the oat crumble. Add all the ingredients to a small bowl and pinch with your fingers to blend the ingredients and break into small pieces. Sprinkle the mixture over a baking sheet and bake in the heated oven for 5-10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet before proceeding.

For the glaze, whisk the buttermilk and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and immediately sprinkle the oat crumble over the top of the cake before the glaze dries.

On every major holiday I’m fortunate to not be the one in charge of the family meals. Talk about pressure! I’m thankful for my mother, grandmother and mother in law who always graciously take the reigns and prepare delicious meals for our family. My role typically comes into play for dessert which I’m always more than happy to tackle. This Easter I wanted something festive and fun. Last year I enjoyed making these sugar cookies which were great but very time consuming. This year I also went the cookie route, but chose to try a carrot cake cookie with a cream cheese frosting and a simple carrot decoration. Don’t give me credit for any of the creativity, all thanks goes to Cooking Classy for this recipe. I’m just here to prove that your average baker can tackle this with ease. Oh, and they’re delicious in case I forgot to mention that ;)

Carrot Cake Cookies via Cooking Classy:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (213g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (106g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (55g) packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (118g) finely grated carrots
Chopped pecans or cinnamon, for decoration (optional)

Frosting
5 oz cream cheese, softened (don’t over-soften it)
6 Tbsp (3 oz) butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (220g) powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg for 20 seconds, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until creamy. Blend in egg and vanilla extract. With mixer set on low speed, add half of the flour mixture and mix just until combined, then mix in carrots, then mix in remaining 1/2 of the flour mixture just until combined. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is properly incorporated.

Scoop dough out with a medium 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop and drop onto baking sheets lined with silicone liners, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven until set (they should still be soft to the touch though), about 11 – 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. After 5 – 10 minutes of cooling on rack finish cooling completely in an airtight container so they don’t dry. Once cool, frost with cream cheese frosting and top with pecans if desired.

For the frosting:
In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar and whip again until light and fluffy (if slightly runny chill in freezer about 5 minutes then mix one last time). If doing the carrot decoration set aside about 2 Tbsp to ting green and 2 Tbsp to tint orange.