Blueberry..

..buckle

Although this recipe is named Coffee Cake it is actually a Buckle.  What is a buckle you ask?

A Buckle is a single layer berry cake with a streusel topping.  In fact there is a whole language that describes some of the most delicious fruit desserts ever.  If you want a history lesson with your cake, check out this website.

If you just want the recipe, check here: Betty Crocker Blueberry Best Coffee Cake.

This is a very simple, but very impressive recipe, my favorite kind!  First things first, you need a spring form pan and you need to grease it well.  Actually you need to butter it well, I also floured mine because I didn't want any sticking.

9 inch spring form pan, ready for duty

Next up, dump in all the coffee cake ingredients, yep no dry mix, wet mix, etc, etc.  Just dump and mix.  I told you this was easy.

Cake batter, just missing the blueberries and some mixing

Mush the struesel ingredients together in a small bowl.  This does not go into the cake, but gets sprinkled on the top.

Struesel mix

 Finally, its time for the blueberries.  I used fresh here, but you could easily use frozen ones.

Gently fold in the blueberries

 Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth out.

Almost ready..

 Add the struesel with your fingers, yes its messy but what are you going to do?

Unbaked struesel topping, the secret ingredient

Mmmm, out of the oven and cooling off.  Smells delish.  It's just missing one thing..

Ready for the glaze

Some glaze or frosting or icing.. what's the difference?  I guess that is a lesson for another day :)

Ready for tea!

Enjoy!

Apple..

Cake.

This is an absolutely easy and delicious way to use up 4 apples.  You know, for those times when the kids are begging for apple pie, but you are feeling to lazy to make it?  Anyone, anyone?  Is it just me who gets begged for apple pie year round? :)

Here is the recipe:

Cinnamon Apple Cake

3/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

4 apples (1 apple each of 4 different varieties work best)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 T rum
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 T melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Butter an 8 inch spring form pan and place on a lined cookie sheet
3. Peel, core and cut the apples into 1/2 - 1 inch chunks
4. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl
5. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl until they are foamy
6. Add the sugar, rum and vanilla to the eggs and continue mixing
7. Add half the flour into the egg mixture until incorporated, then add half the melted butter, mixing again
8. Repeat with the rest of the flour and butter and blend until smooth
9. Fold in the apples
10. Pour batter into the spring form pan and level top
11. Bake cake for 50-55 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let cake cool and serve warm or cold.

Let's get to work!  First thing I do is prepare the apples.  I prefer slightly smaller chunks of apples in 1/2 - 1 inch chunks but you can cut them bigger if you want.

I don't have a picture here, but the next thing to do is to mix your dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

Now is the time for the wet ingredients.  One of the most important parts of this recipe is to whisk the eggs until they are foaming, don't get impatient.  See how the eggs should look?

Foamy eggs

 Now we add in some good stuff.. like rum and vanilla.  In the pic I show some Vanilla I purchased from Trader Joes and it is God Awful.  I much, much prefer the Whole Foods brand of organic vanilla, but I think even regular old McCormick's vanilla is better than the Trader Joes swill.

Yum, looking nice and smooth, ready to add the dry flour mixture.  Blend it in carefully, overmixing will give you a tough apple cake and this one should melt in your mouth

Ready to fold in the apples, almost done now..

 Voila!  Ready to bake.  Yes, there are really alot of apples in the cake, don't worry everything will turn out ok :)  Just gently press down the batter to even out the top and make sure that there aren't any air bubbles underneath.

Out of the oven!  The beauty of a spring form pan is that after letting the cake cool for about 10 minutes you can gently run your knife around the edge and pop the sides off.  I should mention here that house smells wonderful with the apple, cinnamon and rum smell wafting about.

Snack time at the Kurani house, you know it is going to be a hit when as soon as the kids walk in the door they say "MOM, what is that smell and can I have some?"  The answer is, "yes!"

 Enjoy!