Happy New Year, friends! I hope were ringing it 2013 with the ones you love the most. As for me, I fell asleep at 11 PM and didn’t quite make it to midnight. I told you I was a grandma. My body is just not made for staying up past 10 PM.
It’s okay, though. I never really cared for New Years. For some reason, I’ve never had a good one so my expectations are very low. I’d much rather be sleeping than waiting up for a ball to drop. I don’t even get the significance of that, anyway. How does a ball touching the floor indicate the start of a new year? Why couldn’t you get fake snow to fall or an elaborate display of fireworks?
Oh wait, a quick wikipedia search answered my question. Apparently the British Royal Observatory used to drop a lighted ball everyday so that the Captains could synchronize their timepieces. Well, that was boring. Heck, I don’t even know if that’s true, but we’ll just go with that for now.
Do you have any New Years resolution or are you sick and tired of hearing about them? I’ve got a couple:
- Blog more often. I have been doing this every year since the blog started, so I’m hoping to carry on that tradition.
- Become more personal on my blog. I have a crazy amount of stories and I need to write them down before I forget them all. I just need the time to write them!
- Update A Pile of Style. I know, I totally suck.
- Be more adventurous in cooking. 2012 was the year for the crockpot for me. I may have started cooking, but it was all mostly in the crockpot. Time to take it to the stovetop.
- Get my DB to eat vegetables. Alright, that one may be a little bit of a reach, but I think I can do it. Slowly and surely, he’ll be eating greens in no time. It’s just a matter of tricking the mind…
I guess I can also throw in all the stereotypical “eat healthier, lose weight, drink more water, eat smaller portions more frequently…. ” yada yada yada. But for now, I’ll just say not to eat this coffee cake in one sitting.
This cake may seem like it’s a lot of work because the ingredient and direction list continue on endlessly, but I promise it’s not difficult. It’s just a matter of making each part and putting the pieces together.
You end up with a magazine worthy looking cake that can feed a dinner party. This is probably on my list for the top 5 prettiest looking baked goods. Not only does it look good, but it tastes like heaven. It’s really dense (carrying this thing out of the oven was a workout for me!) and a little goes a long way. The lemon flavor is strong, but not overwhelming. The blueberries sunk a little bit for me, but coat them in a bit of flour and you’ve solved that problem.
From Kitchen Runway
Ingredients
- 1¾ C all purpose flour
- ¾ C light brown sugar, packed
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 1½ sticks of cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 C all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 C sugar
- ¾ C regular butter, melted and cooled
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1 lemon
- 12 oz. fresh blueberries
- 1 C powdered sugar
- 2½ Tbs fresh lemon juice
- ½ Tbs. milk
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 300° F. Grease 9" spring form pan with butter.
- Make the crumb topping: Mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Add butter pieces and use your hands to combine mixture until clumps form. Place in the refrigerator.
- Now, get started on the cake. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
- In your mixer bowl, beat eggs and sugar on medium high speed for about 5 minutes until mixture is lighter in color and has increased in volume.
- Turn mixer to low and slowly add butter. Then beat on medium speed for an additional 2 minutes.
- Stir in the vanilla, zest, and lemon juice. Slowly fold ½ C of the flour mixture at a time into the egg and sugar mixture. Add blueberries and stir gently until just incorporated.
- Pour into pan and top with crumb topping. Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool cake in pan until completely cooled.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, make the glaze: whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice and milk until smooth. Drizzle the glaze over the cake, letting it drip over the sides of the cake. Let the glaze harden before cutting and serving.
