I’ve made no secret about the picky eaters in my family. It’s been a little easier to get my son to try new foods as he’s grown older, but my husband…I’m still working on him. In his defense, he’s getting a whole lot better. It’s not totally his fault really, it’s just how he grew up. He eats what I call “Man Food.” He is not a foodie – at all. If there are are any words on the menu like “Truffle” or “Confit”, he is outta there faster than a fly on poop. Seriously. The man is basic in his food. He is meat and taters all the way. And I love him, so I make a lot of meat and taters – God Bless!
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Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t judgin’. I’ve got my own pickiness issues. I am not really a foodie either. I like to eat but I’ve never been to a craft beer joint and if the menu is too hipster and gourmet (i.e. expensive), I’m usually just not into it. Like a fish out of water. Give me a whole-in-the-wall diner, BBQ, or dive joint any day. Those are my people. And seafood? Fugettaboutit! And I grew up in Southeast Virginia by the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay and Elizabeth River. I know, crazy right?
But I continue to try seafood hoping against hope that I’ll love it this time. So far, not yet. But it’s kind of fun with my friends because they sometimes enjoy trying out new seafood recipes on me. Hey, if anyone is cooking for me, I’m coming over. I have one girlfriend that loves to tell me about her seafood meals at a local restaurant. Apparently she has a food crush on the chef there. I’m pretty sure she thinks her detailed descriptions will make my mouth water one of these days. Um nope, that tilapia and shrimp ain’t doin’ nuthin for me but go on with your happy self!
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So, my long, round about way with this introduction is to say, I think I have converted my hubby to blueberries y’all. We have a breakthrough. We’ve been married for 18 years and he has never touched a single blueberry. And as much as I like to make foods I know he’ll enjoy, I like to make foods that I love too. And sometimes that means making a cake just for me and maybe share it with friends. It depends if I’m PMS’ing or not – then I could probably plow through a cake in a matter of days. Keepin’ it real.
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This cake was AMAZING. You need this in your life! It turned out so moist and the flavor was just over the top. The light lemon combined with the blueberries is magical. And don’t skip on the buttermilk. You need the fatty buttermilk for this to give it the right denseness and moistness. Usually when I share any recipe with buttermilk, folks will ask for a substitute. I know you can add a bit of lemon or vinegar to milk but it’s not the same. Buttermilk is fatty and thick. So just tanging up some 2% milk is not the same. You want the fat. You need the fat. The closest comparison would be to add a bit of lemon juice to heavy cream since that has a similar fat content as buttermilk. And heck, it’s pretty! We can always appreciate pretty.
Ingredients:
For the cake
1 cup (or 2 sticks) unsalted real butter, softened to room temp.
2 cups sugar
3 large Eggland’s Best eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp. lemon extract*
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour*
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 pound fresh blueberries
For the crumble topping:
2 tbsp. real butter, slightly softened
2 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. oats (quick-cooking is fine)
For the glaze:
For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
2 tbsp. milk
*Cook’s Notes: I like the concentrated lemon flavor in lemon extract but you can use lemon juice or lemon zest as well. We just want that hint of lemon flavor in this cake. Also, I love to use White Lily all-purpose flour. Because White Lily is so fine, I actually use 3 cups for this recipe. Make sure when measuring flour that you do not pack your measuring cup. Just dip your cup into flour and scoop off the excess with your hand or a butter knife. Packing the cup will give you too much flour and make a dense, dry cake.
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 325F degrees. Spray your bundt pan with nonstick baking spray (the kind with flour added.)
See in my ingredient picture above to see the spray can. There are several different brands and all of them work fine for me. Basically it is a nonstick spray that has flour added. Spray the heck out of your pan with this stuff. Get it into all of the nooks and crannies. Don’t be afraid that you’re overdoing it. Some folks complain that their bundt cakes always stick. That’s usually because the pan hasn’t been properly oiled and floured or the pan hasn’t cooled all the way before flipping the cake out.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Now, I always forget to leave my butter out on the counter for it to soften. I have an awesome option on my microwave to soften butter and cream cheese. I love it! But what I did before was just put the butter sticks in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke it for about 15 seconds at a time. You don’t want it melted but just softened a bit. Your electric mixer will help do the rest. It should look nice and fluffy when combined.
Then beat in eggs, vanilla extract and lemon extract into the sugar/butter mixture. Next, in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with a fork until combined.
At this point, you are going to alternately add in the flour mixture and buttermilk. Add a little flour, then a little buttermilk, a little more flour and a little more buttermilk…until it’s all incorporated. Don’t overmix it. You want to stir just until it’s all come together.
If you have a stand mixer, be sure to occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Gently stir in HALF of the blueberries. Be very careful when stirring so you don’t bust open all the berries. Just gently fold them in.
Now add the batter into the bundt pan.
Then add the rest of the blueberries on top.
Bake for about 65-75 minutes. Oven times do often vary for baked goods. So be sure to test for doneness by using a toothpick. It should come out clean when you insert it into the cake. Cake should be golden brown and shouldn’t be jiggly. Don’t turn off oven after you take out cake. And don’t even think about releasing the cake yet. It has to cool COMPLETELY. This could take an hour and a half or more.
While the cake is cooling, make crumble topping. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl using a fork or your fingers. Mix until crumbly.
Then spread mixture into a small baking pan and bake in 325F degree oven for about 8 minutes. Then take it out of oven and allow it to cool completely. And now it’s safe to turn off the oven.
Once cake has been allowed to cool completely, you can release the cake from the bundt pan. This is the key to getting the cake to come out clean. The pan needs to be totally cooled, then it should release easily.
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Start making the glaze. Combine powdered sugar, lemon extract and milk. Stir well. I like my glaze a little on the thicker side but if you need to thin it out, just add a tad more milk until you reach desired thickness. Whisk together until smooth.
Drizzle glaze over cake.
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Then immediately sprinkle on crumble topping so that it sticks to the glaze.
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Oh my gracious, it is such a pretty cake!
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Then slice and serve!
Enjoy!
Blueberry Muffin Cake
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 1 Bundt
Ingredients
- For the cake
- 1 cup unsalted real butter softened to room temp., or 2 sticks
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tbsp . vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp . lemon extract*
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp . baking powder
- 1/2 tsp . baking soda
- 1/2 tsp . salt
- 1 1/4 cup whole buttermilk
- 1 pound fresh blueberries
- For the crumble topping:
- 2 tbsp . real butter slightly softened
- 2 tbsp . brown sugar
- 3 tbsp . flour
- 2 tbsp . oats quick-cooking is fine
- For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp . lemon extract
- 2 tbsp . milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F degrees.
- Spray your bundt pan (REALLY WELL) with nonstick baking spray (the kind with flour added.)
- Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. It should look nice and fluffy when combined.
- Then beat in eggs, vanilla extract and lemon extract into the sugar/butter mixture.
- Next, in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Stir together with a fork until combined.
- At this point, you are going to alternately add in the flour mixture and buttermilk to the sugar/butter mixture.
- Add a little flour, then a little buttermilk, a little more flour and a little more buttermilk...until it's all incorporated.
- Don't overmix it. You want to stir just until it's all come together.
- If you have a stand mixer, be sure to occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Gently stir in HALF of the blueberries.
- Be very careful when stirring so you don't bust open all the berries.
- Just gently fold them in.
- Now add the batter into the bundt pan.
- Then add the rest of the blueberries on top.
- Bake for about 65-75 minutes.
- Oven times do often vary for baked goods. So be sure to test for doneness by using a toothpick. It should come out clean when you insert it into the cake. Cake should be golden brown and shouldn't be jiggly. Don't turn off oven after you take out cake. Don't even think about releasing the cake yet. It has to cool COMPLETELY. This could take an hour and a half or more.
- While the cake is cooling, make crumble topping.
- Combine all ingredients in a small bowl using a fork or your fingers.
- Mix until crumbly.
- Then spread mixture into a small baking pan and bake in 325F degree oven for about 8 minutes. Then take it out of oven and allow it to cool completely.
- Now you can turn off the oven.
- Once cake has been allowed to cool completely, you can release the cake from the bundt pan.
- This is the key to getting the cake to come out clean.
- The pan needs to be totally cooled, then it should release easily.
- Start making the glaze.
- Combine powdered sugar, lemon extract and milk.
- Stir well.
- I like my glaze a little on the thicker side but if you need to thin it out, just add a tad more milk until you reach desired thickness.
- Whisk together until smooth.
- Drizzle glaze over cake.
- Immediately sprinkle on crumble topping so that it sticks to the glaze.
Recipe Notes
I like the concentrated lemon flavor in lemon extract but you can use lemon juice or lemon zest as well. We just want that hint of lemon flavor in this cake. Make sure when measuring flour that you do not pack your measuring cup. Just dip your cup into flour and scoop off the excess with your hand or a butter knife. Packing the cup will give you too much flour and make a dense, dry cake.This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Eggland’s Best eggs. The opinions and text are all mine. Recipe adapted from A Spicy Perspective
Melissa, the struggle is real! LOL. And yes, that would be a total blast!!!
oh my goodness Brandie! I loved reading about your picky husband. I have one of those too. This cake looks so good. I can almost smell it. My mouth is watering and would go so well with my coffee this morning. I like seafood but I can't eat a lot of it at a time AND I am on the coast! Everyone raves about sushi but I am like eww..its raw! We should go on a trip around VA to all the diners and dives and eat…wouldn't that be a blast!
This cake looks so good, I will try it for sure. Love the story about picky eaters, I have those too. Country food is the best, not that I don't eat other kinds of food. I live in Tennessee and grew up on country food. Love your blog. Take care!
I'm thinking we could start a picky eater support group. Hee hee. I hope y'all love this one as much as we did!
Both of these look wonderful…..and I agree with you, NO SHRIMP or TILAPIA for me either……but I do like cod, perch, salmon, lobster & crab tho…. looking forward to making both these cakes, thanks for posting these great recipes……
This cake looks mouthwatering! Blueberry and lemon combo is AHHHmazing!
Croydon Sofa cleaning
This looks delicious! Even though I don't like fresh blueberries (yeah, I'm strange!), I love baked things that have blueberries in them. Can't wait to try this!
I love your introduction. The only difference between us is that I tried seafood, more than once or twice, and I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that we will never have a promising relationship so I am done trying. As for this cake, WOW. It is a cold rainy day here in Tx, I have ALOT of blueberries, so it looks like it's time to turn the oven on.
This is piece of heaven! I love it! It looks so delicious! Thanks for sharing! I am definitely making this tomorrow!
It looks delicious! !! But, can I used freeze cranberries? Thank you
I have made this twice and loved it each time! Once I topped it with powdered sugar and once with icing. Delicious cake!
You are a gal after my own heart ~ I don't like seafood either, but I've tried many times over the yrs.
Love all of your recipes and have tried quite a few. In fact, I keep a notebook full w/printed out pages of mostly yours and a few others.
Can't wait to try this one!
Thanks so much!
Tanya
I have died and gone to cake heaven. So glad I found your site. I am enjoying so much your recepies, so many to try in my little heaven. Will follow.
Thank you again
This cake looks so good! I'm making it this weekend. My girls and I will love it.
This was so good! My daughter and I made it with Alaskan Huckleberries.
I am so glad you put the recipe first!! I hope to try this for Memorial day gathering. Thank you!
Just came home from picking blueberries and ready to try this. Any guess as to how many cups are in a "pound of blueberries"? Thanks.
Hi Brandie… I'm a huge fan of yours, I've made a few of your recipes. You are my go-to for recipe blog now. 🙂 (Love your link parties too.) The pulled pork bbq and the honeybun cake are my 2 faves so far, thank you for your great recipes! I'm baking the blueberry muffin cake right now, I'm not sure if I messed up though… I used 3 cups of flour, instead of 2 3/4. The Wilton bundt pan I bought yesterday to use for this recipe looked a lot more full with the batter than the pan in your picture in the recipe. The batter came out soooo fluffy, but then I've never made a bundt cake before so I'm super nervous anyway, lol… What do you think?
Brandi, This cake looks absolutely delicious. Thank you. I am definetely going to make this.
This cake is absolutely delicious!!! I split the batter between 8" bundt pans. Doubled the icing and crumb topping. Baked for about 50 minutes. Took them to 2 different places and everyone loved them! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!!
I am kind of in a bind… I really want to make this but I only have frozen blueberries!! The cost of fresh berries where I live is outrageous! What do you think?? Can it be done??
Amy, you sure can! Just let them defrost for about an hour before using them. I would just pop them in a colander over the sink and let them defrost there. 🙂 Hope that helps!
The cake looks delicious especially with that glaze all over it.
Can this be done the night before?
Yes, you can bake this the night before.
I made this cake and it tasted so good. only issue is it fell apart. Like it broke apart. Any recommendations or advise on what I could do? I am going to make it again tomorrow
Pascal- Did it fall apart while you were trying to remove it from pan?
I am going to make this cake, but I would like to know if it is possible to have the " Nutritional Facts " ?? These days there are more and more people on sodium restricted diets. The reason I am asking is because my husband, only 59 years old, is having heart problems which is not from smoking, drinking, binge eating, etc. They haven't yet figured it out as of yet, but I am trying to cook/bake foods that are less in sodium for him. I do not want to deprive him from sweets, but there has been so much sodium in almost everything you eat. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
MaryLynn
You sure can Michelle, just make sure they are thawed and you should be good to go.
Def need to try out this recipe!!
Do you think I could substitute frozen blueberries for fresh??
Wow! This is a great recipe. I don't like it when people post about a recipe when they've made so many substitutions and changes that it doesn't even resemble the original; however, I wanted to make this for Father's Day today and I had everything except buttermilk. I did substitute 3/4 C Greek Yogurt plus 1/4 C whole milk for the buttermilk and it turned out great! I served this as dessert to a couple of food "snobs" and they couldn't get enough. Thanks for sharing!!
What a great substitution. Glad it was a hit!
Is it possible to not use a bundt pan? I live overseas and would love to use what I have instead of going to find one of those pans.
You could make this in a 9 x 13 pan or loaf pans.
This cake is delicious and moist. However, even though I followed directions exactly all of the blueberries fell to the bottom…which was the top when complete. Any thoughts? Plus almost overflows my 9.75 inch bundt pan. Maybe that's the problem?? Pan too small?!
Absolutely amazing cake! What else I can use, instead of blueberries (my bf doesn't like them… )?
my website ^_^
This may be a dumb question but will this cake keep on the counter or does it have to be refrigerated? I’m needing delicious cake recipes for a cake walk – thus no refrigeration required.
Gina, you do not have to keep this refrigerated and should be fine for that cake walk.
Can you tell me the brand and style of your bundt pan? There are so many out there, different styles and surface colors. Thanks!
Can you use frozen blueberries?
Hi , I just made the cake and was wondering if I could put the glaze on the next day , as I’m having a gathering the next day or would I be ok to do it the same day
Now that’s a good looking cake