Alpha Bakers: Blueberry Crumb Party Coffee Cake

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I have been a slacker-o of an Alpha Baker. I have no valid excuse, except that we have no AC and that makes me don't want to bake. It's currently 79 degrees in the house and I am hanging out in the kitchen typing this post. Yes we are surviving with a warm indoor weather. It is dry in CO so 79 degrees here is not the same as in more humid places like MN where Marie is or NY where Rose is or Singapore where Faithy is. Even so, I am not feeling like baking in this temperature.

But when I saw this cake in the post, I know I have to bake it. Marie said it well in her post that we all could agree that no one does sour cream cake as good as Rose. And it is blueberry season and they have been cheap and good ($3 for a 6 oz container of organic blueberries). So thanks to Marie for scheduling it in the summer!

I took a quick glance of all the ingredients before I went shopping for this cake. I know it will use sour cream and blueberries. I have the rest. When I got home, I saw that this cake feeds A WHOLE BUNCH of people - and it used 3 egggs, so naturally I am making 1/3. A quick google search of the volume of 13x9 pan indicates that I can use a 7 inch pan for a 1/3 volume.

I only have good things to say about this recipe. It is so easy to put together. It took a bit less than 2 hours in total from mise en place to taking the finished thing out of the oven. Definitely a great cake for the summer that is quick and yummy.

This reminds me of Pacman...

Step by step photos:

Mise en place for the filling and crumb. Melted butter, flour mixture, vanilla, walnuts, and brown sugar cinnamon.

I break the walnuts by hand. In hindsight I should chop them up to be even smaller.

Had to take a picture of the perfectly 50 grams egg!!!

Oh blueberries. You are so pretty and yummy.

Mise en place for the cake.

Flour, sour cream, and butter ready to rumble.

Rumbling.

I thought this looks a bit odd, too dense somehow.

And then I had the good sense to check the recipe and realized I forgot sugar in the cake!!!!

After adding the egg mixture, now this looks more like cake batter.

Half the batter and filling.

Ready for the oven.

Add blueberries...

...and crumb.

Voila!

It looked so good we want to dive in right away, but I waited until the 30 minute mark to flip the cake using Rose's awesome instruction of using the sprayed plastic wrap and kitchen towel. It worked like a charm. And then we waited another 45 minutes for the cake to cool before cutting. Since this is a a smaller cake we didn't have to wait 1 1/2 hour for the cake to cool. Hubby and I shared a small piece and he gave his thumbs up.

Alpha Bakers is a group of bakers who are baking through The Baking Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum's latest cookbook. Come check out the rest of the group at Rose's Alpha Bakers.