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.

Alpha Bakers: BlueRhu Pie

Rose is slowly converting me to be a lover of all pies now. Before we started this bake-a-long, the only pie I make is her apple pies from The Pie & Pastry Bible. Now I see all kinds of pies in my future repertoire, including this one.

This is a fantastic pie. I can't taste the rhubarb in it, only blueberries so it is a bit strange why we use rhubarb. I wonder why Rose add rhubarb in this pie. Is it maybe to cut the sweetness down? I can imagine if it's all 100% blueberries it will be too sweet and perhaps I'd have to cut the sugar if I don't use rhubarb. It doesn't really matter I think because it tasted really good. When I make it next time I will use rhubarb again if it's the season. I also love that I can use frozen blueberries, since I happen to have a stash of them in my freezer for some reason.

This is kinda a short post with a lot of photos and not a lot of words. But I don't have much to say about this pie. It's awesome. Enjoy the step by step photos :).

Alpha Bakers: Black and Blueberry Pie

For Christmas, my husband surprised me with several things from Anthropologie home/kitchen section. One of them was the rolling pin in the above photo. When I opened the nicely wrapped rolling pin on Christmas morning, I hold the handle on each hand and made the motion in the air as if I'm rolling a dough. He looked at me and said in a serious tone "I didn't intend for you to use it for baking. I thought you can use it for pictures." Well, he is right, the pin is made from ceramic so I suppose pressing on it is probably not a good idea, :).

I am not very excited about pie but I love Rose's cream cheese pie crust. I think it's the best pie crust. I have made other pie crust (Rose's flaky pie crust and also recipes from other authors). The cream cheese pie crust wins every time. So even though I am not a huge pie fan, I am looking forward to this because of the pie crust. Also, I get to use my new 4 inch ruffled pie pan and take photos of the new for-photography-only rolling pin.

I made 1/4 recipe of this pie. This time I remembered to measure in volume my 9 inch pie pan vs. the 4 inch pie pan. By volume the 4 inch pie pan is 1/4 the 9 inch. So all set to divide everything by 4.

Fruit-filled Jam Thumbprint

This is fruit-filled jam thumbprint from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day. I made 1/3 recipe.

PPB: Designer Cherry Blueberry Pie

Last week my husband decided to surprised me with a new camera: Nikon D7000!!!

I can't even tell you how happy I was (jumping up and down and bouncing off the wall in excitement).

I have been coveting a new camera for a while, but thought I should wait.

Needless to say I was so surprised to come home one day to find a box in the room, with a bouquet of red roses, and a card.

To celebrate the occasion, I made pie, :)). It is, after all, his favorite type of dessert.

After much consideration, it was going to be either the nectarine raspberry pie or the cherry pie. When I got to the grocery store, the cherries were on sale. So cherry pie it is. For kicks, I thought I added blueberries to the mix too. I've seen such pie in a bakery so why not.

This pie is supposed to use sour cherries, but I've never seen such cherries in my life, so I got sweet cherries instead. I cut the sugar in the filling by 1/2 to compensate for the sweetness.

HCB: Red Fruit Shortcake

This is Red, Blue, and Purple Shortcake. So named because in addition to strawberries, I used blueberries and frozen marionberries.

I didn't use raspberries, as the recipe prescribed.

I planned to do so. Last Thursday I went to the grocery store and bought strawberries and raspberries, 2 pounds each. They were on sale, so I thought why not!

I went home and told hubby that 1 pint of raspberry is for me and 1 pint for him. I also warned him that some of the strawberries will be for dessert. So don't eat it all, I said.

On Saturday morning, I wanted about to start on the cake. First order of business, macerating the berries. I opened the fridge and found strawberries but no raspberries. Asked husband and apparently he had eaten all of the raspberries.

They were that good! :)

HCB: Plum & Blueberry Upside Down Torte

This is one of those easy cakes that is bound to impress. It is very similar to the Apple Upside Down cake - except yummier! As I read the ingredients, I know I am going to like this cake. It's a no-brainer. Plum - YUM! Blueberries - more YUM. Caramel!!! Super YUM.

The recipe is super easy to put together. The hardest part is waiting for the sugar syrup to become caramel. Even if you put your stove on to high it can take 10 minutes.

Once the sugar caramelized, pour it into the baking pan that's been sprayed with non-stick baking oil.

Next, place the plum and blueberries on top of the caramel in a somewhat decorative pattern.



Then combine all the dry ingredients in the food processor. I hesitated when I read this, because sometimes, depending on what Rose said, I skipped the food processor step. Upon reading further, I discovered that this recipe only tells you to use food processor. No KA mixer. No mixing bowl. No extra tools required.

WOHOO! *Jenn is jumping up and down in the kitchen *

This recipe is officially downgraded to be super duper easy :))!



Once the dry ingredients are well mixed, mix in the butter, then the eggs and vanilla.



Finally, dump it into the pan and bake. Mine finished in 40 minutes.



Tasting impression:
This cake is so awesomely good. I love the slight tartness of the blueberries and it's well balanced with the sweetness of plum and the caramel taste. I love cakes with any fruit and this one definitely met my expectation :).