This is the third bake for The Home Bakers (click on the link to find out more about us!), started by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours. This time the cake is chosen by Chaya from Bizzy Bakes and I absolutely love her blog because not only she shares mouth-watering recipes, she always has this linkie below her posts that allows other foodies to post their bakes / dishes. It's an awesome way to collect more recipes on my to-cook list and to know new foodies from all over the world. Do hop over to her blog and she what Chaya's baking! 😉
The chosen cake this round is a Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake from Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas. It doesn't have coffee in it, but I certainly wouldn't mind adding a teaspoon of instant coffee in mine! It's a deliciously moist, light and soft cake with nuggets of blueberries in it, with a sweet and spicey (not chili spicy!) brown sugar-cinnamon-pistachios topping.
I love the cake itself - it was really easy to make (no electric mixer required) and really tasty. The brown sugar in the cake gives the cake a lovely golden brown colour and the juicy blueberries burst in the mouth.
As for the streusel, I swapped out the walnuts as I had none left. I substituted with pistachios (leftover from our previous bake!) I find the streusel a bit too sweet for my liking, but it's still acceptable when eaten with the cake, as there's not a lot of streusel on top.
Some of the changes I've made as additional notes:
[1] I've reduced the amount of sugar in the cake, and it's just the right sweetness for me.
[2] The recipe calls for buttermilk, but I had none at home (not even milk!), so I used soured cream - that is, ½ teaspoon vinegar / lemon juice mixed with ½ cup of cream. You can definitely use sour cream, yogurt or ½ teaspoon vinegar / lemon juice mixed with ½ cup of fresh milk. I'm not sure how it really affect the texture of the cake, but I've seen fellow home bakers using different substitutions and the cake turned out fine.
[3] I substituted the walnuts with equal amount of pistachios. Pistachios are not as fragrant as walnuts, so if you like the cake to have a stronger nutty taste, do use walnuts instead.
[4] I used frozen blueberries - I bought a huge bunch of them previously during a supermarket sale and freeze them. To freeze fresh blueberries, first rinse them under water and get rid of any dirt and stems. Dry them in between sheets of paper towel and spread them in a single layer on a baking tray. Stick the tray into the freezer for a couple of hours until they are frozen solid. Transfer the blueberries to an airtight container and they can be stored up to 6 months. This method should work for all other berries except strawberries (tried and tested on strawberries, just doesn't work!)
[5] I made ½ of the original recipe and divided them among 4 ½-cup ramekins and 1 1-cup ramekin (I ran out of small ramekins so I had to use a bigger one. They look über mini and kinda cute when I served them in little wedges.)
[6] Given Singapore's humid and warm climate, I was worried the cakes would spoil easily as there are fruits in them. So I refrigerated all of them (kept them in a container) and warm them up in the oven in a microwave before serving.
And that's all! On to step-by-step photos!
For the full recipe, please visit Chaya's blog!
Start off with 15 grams (⅛ cup) of plain flour, 30 grams (⅙ cup) brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
Add in 1 tablespoon of butter and mix it until they form coarse crumbs.
Instead of using walnuts, I chopped up 55 grams (½ cup) of pistachios.
Add the nuts and mix to form the streusel and set aside.
Next mix 125 grams (1 cup) plain flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ⅛ teaspoon salt in a small bowl and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, measure 50 grams (¼ cup, firmly packed) brown sugar and 55 grams (¼ cup) caster sugar.
Add in 60 ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil and an egg.
Whisk the mixture with a wire whisk until fully incorporated.
Dump in ⅓ of the flour mixture and fold the mixture in.
Add in 60 ml (¼ cup) of sour cream / buttermilk and mix it in.
Add in ½ of the remaining flour mixture and fold it in.
Add in another 60 ml (¼ cup) of sour cream / buttermilk and mix it in.
Fold in the rest of the flour mixture, reserving 2 tablespoons of flour mixture.
The batter would look something like this, very, very thick!
Coat 140 grams (1 cup) blueberries with the reserved 2 tablespoons of flour mixture.
Dump the berries into the cake batter and mix it in gently.
Divide the cake batter into ramekins...
...And top with some delicious streusel and bake for 25 - 30 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius until golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Something like this - golden-brown with a strong hint of cinnamon.
This cake is from the large ramekin, I unmould it onto a serving plate.
Dig in into the individual ramekin while it's warm or at room temperature! YUM!
Once again, for the full recipe, please visit Chaya's blog!
For previous bakes, check out the Cheese-Swirled Chocolate Cake and the Apricot-Pistachio-Lemon Coffee Cake!
Anonymous says
I followed the same recipe and faced with 2 problems
1. The batter is not very thick.
2. All blueberries have gone down to the bottom of ramekins (I think this is because the batter is not thick)
So, I tried second time with just 60 ml buttermilk (that is only once instead of 2 times). Still the batter is not very thick.
Any suggestions?
I like your recipes and your chocolate Swiss roll recipe is a huge hit for me. All my friends like it 🙂
Jasline N. says
Hi there! I'm glad you like the recipes!
If the batter is not thick enough, maybe you can try replacing the oil with butter (1/3 cup butter for 1/4 cup oil) and cream the mixture instead and use sour cream / yogurt instead of buttermilk. Instead of folding the blueberries in, first spread the batter onto your cake tin, then tip the floured blueberries on top, pressing them in gently so some of them are still peeking out. Hopefully this will help solve the thin batter and sinking blueberries issue! Do let me know if it works!
Joli says
yumyum jas i think i want to try baking this! 😀 got nuts hehehe
Mich - Piece of Cake says
Making them in individual ramekins is a great idea 🙂 lovely photos you have!
Jasline says
No problem! I made buttermilk pancakes before too, and they're really damn good. I think I should feature them soon....
suts says
yeap it's runnier than yoghurt. buttermilk pancake is nice:D haha make your own buttermilk?? ok teach me next time so i can make pancakes in sg:P
peasepudding says
I love streusel cakes, takes me back to when I was living in Germany.
Luv What You Do says
I love that you made the cakes individual. So cute!!!
Jasline says
Thank you Yvette! The pistachios did not impart a very strong nutty taste to the cake, but gave the cake a slight crunch!
Catalina @ Cake with Love says
I love blueberries!! This looks like one great cake, and your step by step photos are beautiful!
Villy says
Cake perfection!
Jasline says
Thank you Abbygail!
Jasline says
Mmmm I can't wait to bake this cake again and try adding coffee, if only I have two stomachs to eat more cake..
Jasline says
Thank you for the compliments!
Jasline says
Aww I'm sure the addition of raspberries makes it delicious too! It's a pity raspberries are insanely priced here in Singapore, otherwise I would have added both blueberries and raspberries in the cake!
Jasline says
Thank you Sibella! Have a great week ahead!
Jasline says
Aww I'm sure little loafs will look super adorable too! I love the cake too, so soft and fluffy with so many delicious blueberries inside! Have a great week ahead!
Jasline says
Thank you Eileen! It also helps to prevent me from over-eating haha! :p
Jasline says
Thank you very much Shira! And thanks for dropping by, have a great week ahead!
Jasline says
Thank you John! I guess it's time for you to buy some ramekins and bake little cakes too! 😉
Jasline says
Definitely! Just that the taste of pistachios ain't very strong, but still gives off a yummy crunch 🙂
Jasline says
You're welcome Alice, I'm sure you had fun baking and even more fun eating them 😉 take care!
Jasline says
I'm sure yours will turn out delicious, Chris! 🙂
Jasline says
Thank you very much! I enjoyed myself thoroughly while eating these cakes... 🙂 Have a great week ahead!
Jasline says
How about a piece of this cake to go with the coffee, Angeline? 🙂
Jasline says
Thank you Smidge! The ramekins are great as they serve as a form of portion control too! 😉
Jasline says
Thank you Joyce! I ate them for breakfast for several days... Didn't get sick of it at all!
Jasline says
Aww thank you Leslie, you flatter me! Have a great week ahead!
Jasline says
Than you very much Uru! Have a great week ahead!
Yvette MWCAdventure says
The small cakes you made look verry pretty. Most of all you made me curious of how this cake would tatste with pistachios on top.
Abbygail's Kitchen says
beautiful... I simply love your cake 😉
Jasline says
Hi Suts!! Yup but I think the consistency is more runny than yogurt... NTUC Xtra do stock up buttermilk, though there's only one brand available! I like to make my own buttermilk because it's really easy and cheap. 😉
Jasline says
That time when I froze strawberries, I froze them whole - they turned from a bright red colour to an unsightly pale pink colour... so I didn't try to freeze them ever again. I've read somewhere that you can freeze them after chopping them (using the same way as the blueberries), so that they'll be small enough to be added directly into the cake batter when you need them, haven't tried it out though...
Janine says
really helpful notes as usual! just wondering about the freezing strawberries bit - how do you freeze them if the blueberry method doesn't work? I'm thinking of freezing them soon!
rsmacaalay says
I certainly would add coffee on mine as I never mixed coffee with blueberries yet. Very intriguing taste to me
suts says
buttermilk!it's like sour yoghurt...quite hard to get them in sg right?
yummychunklet says
Love the pistachios. And great photos!
Kit says
Love these mini cakes & what a great idea using pistachio! Will try this recipe with pistachio the next time I'll bake it! It's really a delicious moist & flavor-able cake! I've added some raspberries in mine & tasted really good too! Great with coffee or tea time treat! Certainly a keeper! Have a lovely weekend! 🙂
Sibella says
Beautiful cakes and photos! 🙂
lena says
actually i was thinking to bake them in ramekins too earlier cos i wanted to make half a recipe too, then i saw i have another small loaf tin so ended up i used that tin instead. looks cute and pretty seeing you baking them in ramekins! I really love the texture of the cake . Happy weekend!
eileen@hundred eighty degrees says
It's a good idea to bake them in ramekins, so nice!
Shira says
Looks fabulous and I'm with John above - love the ramekins! Just too very cute!! 🙂
ChgoJohn says
This sounds delicious and and I really like your idea of baking them in ramekins. It's instant portion control for the likes of me. 🙂
Anuja says
yum yum. Love the idea of baking in ramekins. Subbing with pistachios definitely works 😀
Alice says
thks for the conversion of the ingredients 🙂
your cake is lovely!
will be baking mine tomorrow...
Chris says
I love streusel cake. I havent bake mine - I love yours in ramkins.
apuginthekitchen says
Beautiful, the photo's are amazing, the little cakes temptingly delicious!
angeline says
I can smeel the coffe aroma from here...
Just A Smidgen says
So many pretty photos today! I love your little cakelets.. Perfect presentation for company I think!
kitchen flavours says
Your cake look cute baked in the little ramekin moulds! This is indeed a lovely cake to have for tea-time and breakfast. I made only half the cake and we finished it off by the next day! A keeper recipe! Have a lovely weekend!
Leslie Chapman says
Yum blueberry coffee cake - this looks better than most fancy coffee shops would serve!
Choc Chip Uru says
This coffee cake looks like magic - you have baked it perfectly and show it off with beautiful photography 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru