This is the Blueberry Breakfast Cake I made this morning! It was delicious! The recipe I used is posted below..I found it on Pinterest (of course) via www.alexandracooks.com.. so thank you Alexandra..it was great. I made a few adjustments to the recipe to avoid having to get out in the torrential downpour outside. In my opinion, the absolute worst part of living in the city is trying to grocery shop.
Literally my whole life my Mom has done 80% of our family's grocery shopping at Walmart. Walmart in St. Louis is an absolute joke. You can drive 20 minutes to Brentwood to go to the nearest Walmart...but you might as well go ahead and count on the fact that there will be no parking within 3 miles, every grocery shelf will be bare, and no matter how long you wait or how nice you ask no one is going to help you find anything. Super Target is a few steps up above the Walmart situation...but their brands and selection are incredibly limited and they have no meat and only a small selection of produce.
Luckily for me, I live just catty corner from the Culinaria downtown. I looovvve the Culinaria. It has the most amazing deli, bakery, and butcher selections ever. It carries tons of healthy specialty brands I have never found anywhere else except maybe Whole Foods, and I dont know who supplies their fruit but it is amazing all year long! Unfortunately, Culinaria is well aware of all these awesome benefits I just listed, and have the advantage of being the ONLY downtown grocer...so you better believe that their prices reflect it!
Every week I say I won't succomb to buying my whole list there, only the most essential items....and then I buy everything there anyway and let my checking take the hit. Even with the culinaria being directly across the street from my apartment its a HUGE hassle to lug all my groceries down the block to my apartment's entrance and then get all the way to the 7th floor, down two hallways to my place, arms barred with groceries and bags splitting everywhere.
I don't know how people raise babies in the city. My building is full of new parents so I know it must be possbile but I cannot imagine trying to handle 2 or 3 times my amt. of groceries with a baby, diaper bag, purse, etc all in tow as well.
So needless to say, I didn't feel like heading out into the torrential downpour this morning for all the ingredients the recipe called for. I subsituted the lemon juice with orange juice and used entirely light brown sugar instead of normal sugar and it turned out great! I highly recommend it ! :)
Buttermilk-Blueberry Breakfast Cake
Serves 6-8
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. lemon zest or more — zest from 1 large lemon
7/8 cup* + 1 tablespoon sugar**
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup buttermilk
* 7/8 cup = 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons** This 1 tablespoon is for sprinkling on top
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cream butter with lemon zest and 7/8 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Meanwhile, toss the blueberries with ¼ cup of flour, then whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the flour mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating with the buttermilk. Fold in the blueberries.4. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or something similar) with butter or coat with non-stick spray. Spread batter into pan. Sprinkle batter with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 35 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. If necessary, return pan to oven for a couple of more minutes. (Note: Baking for as long as 10 minutes more might be necessary.) Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
