A Very Berry Blackheart Coffee Cake

Things have been super crazy around my house in the past month. Last night I finally had the mental breakdown that had been looming for weeks. Tears were shed, words were had, and BlueBell's Red Velvet Cake was consumed. Then miraculously I woke in an amazing mood. Does anyone see this bi-polar behaviour besides me? Anyhow, I am in my best form today and I have been busy!

Last weekend Blackheart and I had a whole evening to ourselves. We planned going out to a bar, hanging out with all our old friends who didn't have kids, and staying up as late as possible. So of course we got coffee to keep us awake past 8:30. Since then, we've both been a little obsessed. I missed having someone give me dirty looks while I was ordering a very expensive coffee, and having them send  me their negative views of who I am as a person determined by what I just ordered. Blackheart just missed tasty coffee. So the other day, we both get coffee separately, but from the same place. And he gets our lovely little ones the very berry coffee cake to hold them through the 5 minute round trip from our house to the coffee shop. BIG MISTAKE! I haven't stopped hearing about coffee cake since. I mean seriously, anything that could get Rose to stop talking about her birthday for almost two days was welcomed, but now I realize it was just a replacement. So what's a mom to do. Google a Very Berry Coffee Cake Recipe! So I got this from Chef In You. Now Chef in you generally has substitutions to make it vegetarian or vegan. Stuff that I appreciate, but don't actually follow. So I'm going to change it all to use butter, milk, eggs, and all that. Now take note, I had to increase my bake time by 15 minutes. I'm not sure if her oven is off, but others commented that they had the same problem.

Alright, alright, enough of my chit chat. Let's make coffee cake. Yummy!

This takes about an hour and a half total to cook, so give yourself some time.

What you'll need:

Ingredients:

Coffee Cake
1 1/2 Cups of sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest
3 tbsp low fat sour cream
1/2 cup milk (whatever you have)
Total of a 1 1/2 of berries, (I used 1/2 cup of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries

Crumb Topping
3 tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1tsp ground cinnamon

Items you'll need:

A mixer
2 large bowls (3 if you don't like to wash)
a fork
a spatula
an  8x8 baking pan
strainer
metal whisk

Instructions, or what I like to call guidelines:

Preheat oven to 350

Grease the bottom of the baking pan. (I used an olive oil spritzer I have made instead of PAM

Sift the flour and mix with the baking powder and salt.

Whisk the dry ingredients

Beat the butter and the sugar until they are fluffy.

 My little helpers

Add the eggs until thoroughly mixed (It looks like grits to me at this point.)

Add the vanilla, lemon zest and the sour cream. Mix well.

Add 1/2 of the flour mixture, add the milk, add the remaining flour mixture



 Mix well

It almost looks like icing. Yum.

Put half the batter into the baking pan.

Rinse your berries

Lay the berries into the batter

Add the remainder of the batter on top of the berries

Make the topping. Here's the ingredients, just so we don't have to scroll up.

Crumb Topping
3 tbsp cold butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1tsp ground cinnamon

Mix all dry ingredients then use a fork to work butter into the sugar mixture.

My topping failed miserably because the butter was too warm, but it all worked out in the end.

Bake for 40 minutes, check for browning and if it's browning too much cover with aluminum foil.

Bake an additional 10 minutes. Add 5 minutes of bake time if it's not done.

The Very Berry Coffee cake came out awesome!, but I did have some difficulty getting the bake time correct. The girls really did help with this one, and they were so proud when they got to eat their coffee cake. Their smiles and yums were worth every mintue. Hope yours turns out as good for you!

Roasted Banana Blueberry Muffins

Happy Saturday Morning!!! We've got a awesome day planned. I have work, we have a three year old monster party, and to Nana's for the girls and night out for the adults! Yay! It's going to be a busy busy day. And Rose has been telling my she's hungry since she woke up. So I decided to make some banana blueberry muffins to get started. This is a first try for this recipe and I didn't have any ripe bananas. So I stole a banana roasting recipe from A Cozy Kitchen. Hope this works out. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Things you'll need:

Ingredients

Roasted Banana recipe

2 large bananas
2 tsp of brown sugar
2 tsp cold butter cubed

Roasted Banana Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup quick bake oatmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed roasted banana and juice 

1/2 cup milk

1 large egg

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries or 1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries, unthawed (6 to 7 ounces)

What else you'll need:

A knife

Cookie sheet ( Lined with Al, optional)

2 Large bowls

whisk

spoon

fork

muffin pan

muffin liners (optional)

Instructions:

Roast the bananas first.

Preheat to 400F 

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil

Cut a silt in the banana skin. Open the skin and sprinkle 1 tsp of brown sugar on each banana

Cube 2 tsp of stick butter, split and place on top of the bananas

Roast the bananas for 15 minutes

Leave the oven at 400F

In the meantime, mix the dry ingredients on a large bowl.

Aerate with a whisk

Mash the roasted bananas with the juice in a large bowl

Add the 1/2 cup of milk ( I used whole milk, but you could use skim or soy)

Add large egg.

Add the lemon juice. If you're using a lemon for the lemon juice make sure not to get any seeds into the batter.



Mix in the dry ingredients

Make sure it is completely mixed.

Was the blueberries

Fold in the blueberries

Separate the better into the muffin pan

Bake for 20  minutes or until the muffins are done in the middle (Use a toothpick to check)

Remove from oven

Remove from muffin pan using a fork

Let the muffins cool 10 minutes on a cooling rack.

And done!

Note for next time, I think I will use an egg wash to brown the tops a little more.

They were pretty delicious.

Blueberry Cornbread

This week has been crazy busy and we've been trying our best to keep our meals simple so we won't be tempted by easy fast food. This week has included meals of chicken spaghetti, homemade corn dogs and fries, catfish poboys, and bison steak and grilled corn. All of these recipes have been pretty easy, taken less than 30 minutes (minus the time it took to bake the poboy bread,) and most of the veggies were from the farmer's market or our garden. :)

So it's Sunday morning and we have a ton of stuff to do before my Dad, Kim, and Maya come to visit next weekend. So I tried to do another "easy" recipe for breakfast this morning. And blueberry cornbread was the winner this morning.

What you'll need:

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1cup buttermilk
1/4 cup melted butter

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt

1 cup blueberries
1 tbsp honey

olive oil

Items needed:

2 large bowls
whisk
12" cast iron pan
spatula

And if you're lucky, two eager kiddos to help. (Explains the lack of pictures, sorry.)

Preheat oven to 375F

Whisk the wet ingredients together (milk, butter, and eggs)

Mix the dry ingredients together(flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking soda, salt.)

Add the dry mix and wet mix together.

Once the mixture is consistent, fold in the honey and the blueberries

Meanwhile, put enough olive oil in the cast iron to coat the bottom and sides.

Heat on the stove top on medium heat for 1-2 minutes

Add the cornbread to the pan

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Let it cool for 10 minutes

It looked like it was underdone, but it was perfect.

Yum!Yum!Yum!!!

A bonus in all this, very few dishes, and you don't wash the cast iron! Yeah for me! Now to the laundry. Ugh.

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Berries and Cream

This morning, Ms. Rose started slamming doors at 5am. Now Chef Blackheart got up and somehow got her to go back to sleep until 7:30am!!! Unheard of in our house. However, Ms. Ryan was up and ready to wine. Well who could blame her, I was in a pretty bad mood from being woken early Sunday morning with the loud crack of a slamming door. So, Ryan and I creep downstairs and I try to throw together a cup of milk for her and a pot of coffee for me. Next on the list, breakfast! What to make? Muffins? Pancakes? Eggs in toast? Berries and Cream!!! This is so easy, you can even do it half asleep and it's very hard to mess up.

What you'll need:

3-4 cups of berries (I used a pint of strawberries, 1/2 pkg of blackberries, 1/2 pkg of raspberries, and a hand full of blueberries) Cut the strawberries into bite size.

1 pint Heavy Whipping Cream
2 tsp of Vanilla extract
2 tbsp of table sugar

Utensils:

a knife and cutting board
a whisk, preferably attached to a mixer for lazy people
a medium sized mixing bowl
a couple of small bowls or cups for serving


At first, I tried whisking the cream myself, but it was too early. I broke out the mixer with the whisk attachment. I placed the mixer on the lowest speed and let it thicken up. Once the cream got to be about sour cream consistency, I added the vanilla and sugar. Then I put the mixer on medium and let it go until the the cream made peaks that stayed when I quit stirring. This made it as thick as Cool Whip. I prefer cream that is about the thickness of yogurt, but whatever thickness you like best is fine. I just happen to let it get away from me. The girls loved it though. Just place cream and berries in container alternatively until the cup/ bowl is full. You can make this as pretty or as messy as you like. I made a pretty one to take a picture, but Chef Blackheart finished it off before I could take a picture. Dang...

Anyhow, Ryan had two bowls!. One bowl when I made it and another when her sister finally woke 2 hours later. I'll admit that Ryan liked the cream better than berries, but it's a little early for berries to be delicious. 

Here's Ryan enjoying her Berries and Cream.