saturday's cake

So this is Saturday's cake.

Mother bird and I stopped by Safeway on the way home from paying her bills at Sears so that we could pick up some blueberries - I also bought bread flour, on Averie Sunshine's recommendation, and now I am so keen to try those bread recipes I've been compiling into a heap of what once was wasted space in my foodgawker favourites file. (In actuality, though, it remains wasted space until I find yeast...)


As soon as I decided the cake was cooled, I drizzled on the lovely glaze and I cut myself a slice and had a bite and scalded my tastebuds and had to sit and rest and watch mother bird cut herself a slice and have herself a bite, but she liked it, and that's enough to please me.

I was worried about this cake, to be honest. I thought it might be dry, like some coffee cakes, but I had no reason to doubt it, because there was a fair amount of sour cream in this cake, and most avid bakers are aware that anything like sour cream or yogurt will moisten a cake a fair amount.




In all honesty this isn't what I would tout as a world-class achievement. It tasted much better the morning after when the blueberries had cooled and the cake had firmed and the glaze had kind of melted into the crumb. I liked it a great deal the morning after, but not so much right out of the oven, which is probably a peculiarity for baking.
One thing this cake does have going for it, though, is its texture: it's very soft. My favourite bit of the cake is the streusel drizzled with honey - it really lends a sweet taste to the tart blueberries. (Should blueberries even be tart? I think it might just be because they're out of season, but breakfast cake should never be out of season.)

 

 
The texture of the cake was a nice surprise, being very moist and so soft. It wasn't quite like sponge cake, but it was a nice chew to combat the crunch of the crumb and the tartness of the blueberries was balanced well by their warmth and the vanilla honey glaze. Ever since I discovered a blueberry vanilla muffin at Phil & Sebastian's, I've been thinking that blueberry and vanilla are flavours that ought to go together naturally. (And the proof is in the cake.)

Blueberries, vanilla, butter crumb and honey is a delightful combination and I'm glad I found it. The cake might not be the prettiest thing to grace this blog, but I reckon further down the line I might try another swing at these flavours, or maybe I'll just redux this entire recipe.