Welcome to Baking Shoulder Season!

“What is that?”, you may ask. It’s the term I coined this weekend when trying to find a recipe. It’s when it’s too late in the summer to get enough flavor from the stone fruit and berries, so you don’t really want to use them in your baking. But it’s still too early for all the “fall bakes:” things like pumpkin, apple, cinnamon, and ginger. These things are inching their way towards the spotlight, but not quite yet. Plus I can’t bring myself to bake something pumpkin-related until at least after Labor Day.

What is one to do during this time?

Well you could make cookies. And I almost did, but then I decided I didn’t want to make cookies. I wanted something a bit more substantial, something more cake-like. So, I settled on a classic recipe from Ina Garten: Blueberry Crumb Cake.

This ended up being an excellent choice because it uses fruit that was still in-season in my part of the country. Even though at this point in August, you can still find strawberries and other berries in the grocery store, that doesn’t mean they actually taste like they should. Blueberries are different. These blueberries were still nice and ripe and full of flavor. Or perhaps I just got lucky with the container I put into my cart.

Making It

This crumb cake is baked in a 9-inch round pan, so I used one of my cake pans. This recipe is basically like making a blueberry muffin batter and baking it in a larger vessel. The recipe came together quickly. Though since I had a helper in the kitchen, I got a little flustered at times and almost forgot to add the sour cream.

But after double checking that I did everything and included all the ingredients, I poured the batter in the pan and made the crumb topping.

Baking It

This cake baked easily and in the time predicted in the recipe. In fact, it was done after only 40 minutes in the oven. During the baking, it smelled so wonderful and the hint of lemon in the batter really shined through the scent profile. After going weeks without having baked anything, it was nice to smell the wonderful scent of a baked good coming from the oven.

Tasting It

I let the cake cool completely. But I did skip Ina’s recommendation of dusting it with powered sugar. I didn’t want any extra sweetness or color on there. It baked up so beautifully; I thought it would be best all natural.

I sliced into the cake and somehow it seemed even more delicate than a muffin! Though the cake was light, it wasn’t crumbly. And it kept its shape nicely, even the first piece wasn’t a disaster upon removal. I love how the blueberries burst during the baking process and leave little gems of purple throughout the otherwise white crumb of the cake.

I snapped a couple pictures then took that highly anticipated first bite. The little pools of blueberry added flavor to the slightly lemony cake. The crumb is the real star of this one, though. I opted for larger crumb pieces to give the cake some texture. In fact, this reminded me a lot of a coffee cake, both in look and taste.

The lemon zest does a great job of providing an ever-so-slight hint of lemon flavor which helps to elevate the taste of the blueberries. Baking this in one of my 9-inch cake pans was the perfect choice and though there is a lot of it, I don’t see it lasting too long.

As usual with Ina’s baking recipes, this Blueberry Crumb Cake is a perfect recipe. It’s also super simple and can be whipped up in no time. It’s perfect for brunch on the weekends, or a snack after dinner while watching TV. The light and airiness of the cake will make you want to eat more than you probably should. In my opinion, that’s what makes a stellar recipe in the end.