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Zoë François is the author of Zoë Bakes Cakes and even though her name is French, she’s an American cake baker. Known for a series of books on making Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, as well as books that continue that theme for making pizza, flatbread, holidays breads, and gluten-free breads, Zoë has finally turned her talents as a pastry chef to cakes. After growing up in a commune where the closest she got to sugar was a raisin, Zoë discovered Twinkies, which awakened her to the wonderful world of sweets and started selling homemade cookies from a cart in college, which eventually led to a job decorating cakes at Ben & Jerry’s, since she admitted to me on an Instagram Live video I did with her, that she didn’t excel at scooping ice cream.

I had a similar job scooping ice cream at a very busy shop while in college. Challenges included a persistent stressed muscle near my upper arm, which didn’t get better the more ice cream I scooped. There were customers who’d order one scoop, but ask me to make it “one really big scoop” because they didn’t want to pay the extra 50¢ for two scoops. And people paying for a $1.30 cone of ice cream with a hundred and thirty pennies, maybe with a few very thin dimes tossed in, which they’d line up on the stainless steel counter between us, which were nearly impossible to pick up with wet, sticky hands.

(You tell me if I was a brat by holding their ice cream cone in the other hand, while they cooled their heels waiting for me to pick up each individual coin, one-by-one, with the other – finally handing their cone over only after the last coin was pried off the counter and put in the register, which the owner monitored like a hawk. Another employee, if people were rude to her, would carefully balance – but not pack – the ice cream scoop delicately on top of the cone, so when they went outside to lick it, it would topple off. The moral of the story, as I often advise, is to be nice to people serving you food.)

Zoë is a lot nicer than me, and because of that, has her own tv show (which is why you’re still stuck with me here), but is completely down-to-earth and her book reflects that. It starts off with Basic Cakes, which anyone can master, like a chocolate/vanilla Marble Cake and Lemon Curd Pound Cake with tangy lemon curd swirled in, and festooned with homemade candied lemon slices. Other chapters include Soaked Cakes, which help keeps cakes like Semolina-Walnut Cake with orange blossom and Cinco Leches cake, a riff on the Tres Leches Cake, moist and tasty.

Chapters continue on to layered and rolled cakes when you want to get a little fancier, and I have my eye squarely on the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with a rich layer of Devil’s Food Cake covered with peanut buttercream and dark chocolate ganache. There’s also a swanky (but not difficult) Bûche de Noël that celebrates the season with tahini and halvah, and the cover recipe, a Hot Chocolate Layer Cake with toasted marshmallows piled on top. You can probably understand why I want to make them all!

Having been a baking instructor, Zoë includes a number of step-by-step photos in Zoë Bakes Cakes, but you don’t need much guidance to make the Blueberry Muffin Cake, which is where I started. It’s a simple butter-almond cake topped with a lot of blueberries and crowned with a streusel-ish topping, that sounded like something anyone would want to wake up to in the morning, or snack on in the afternoon.

Fresh blueberries aren’t very common in France, and when you do find them, they are small clamshell packages from somewhere else, with about a dozen berries lolling sadly around in them. However last summer when we were in the Languedoc, we went to a wonderful market in Olonzac that was mostly producteurs; people who grow their own fruits and vegetables, and make their own cheeses, press their own olive oils, cultivate honey from their hives, etc., where I spied a few baskets of fresh, local blueberries and bought them.

As someone who grew up in New England, I’ve had a lot of blueberries but those were the best blueberries I’ve ever had in my life. Unfortunately, the next week when we went back to get more, of course, the fellow had taken off on his own summer vacation. That said, if you live somewhere where blueberries are scarce and you’re unsure if you can get them, you can use frozen here.

One thing that is for sure, however, is regarding the age-old question of whether something is a muffin or cake. With this muffin cake, you don’t have to decide. You can have both!

Blueberry Muffin Cake

Adapted from Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoë François
The original recipe called for whole wheat flour but I used cornmeal as I love the sweet crunch of it with blueberries. If you wish to use whole wheat or all-purpose flour, use 1/4 cup (35g) in place of the cornmeal. I also used pecans in place of walnuts, but you can use either. For more info on almond flour, sometimes called almond meal, click here.
Zoë gave instructions for using a food processor but I didn't want to haul mine out so used my stand mixer. I've given instructions for both. If you don't have either appliance, you can mix the batter by hand in a large bowl with a spoon or spatula. Just expect to use a bit of vigor (or use a pastry blender) to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
If using frozen blueberries, don't defrost them before baking but use them frozen. Tossing them with 1 tablespoon of flour before strewing them over the top will help keep them from being overly generous with their juices, and also keeps them from sinking to the bottom.
I didn't try it in a square cake pan, but if you do, most square pans are a little larger than their round counterparts so the cake will be thinner and will likely bake in less time. You can read more about variations in cake pan sizes here, here and here. If you're good at math (which I'm not), you could increase the batter proportionally for other pan sizes using some of those guidelines.
Course Breakfast
Servings 8 servings

For the cake

  • 1 cup (130g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (200g) sugar
  • 1/2 cup (60g) almond flour
  • 1/4 cup (40g) cornmeal, or whole-wheat (or all-purpose)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 10 tablespoons (5 ounces, 140g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (125ml) whole milk, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • zest of one lemon
  • 2 cups (330g) fresh blueberries, (see headnote if using frozen)

For the topping

  • 1/2 cup (60g) chopped walnuts or pecans, (untoasted)
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • pinch kosher or sea salt
  • 2 tablespoons (1 ounce, 30g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
  • Butter an 8-inch (20cm) cake pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper about 16-inches (40cm) round. Smear it with softened butter, then line in the inside of the cake pan with it, buttered side up, so it covers the bottoms and up the sides of the pan, which you'll use later to help you lift out the cake. Press the paper up against the sides to flatten and smooth away any wrinkles.
  • To make the cake, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, almond flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix on medium speed until the butter is in small pieces, about the size of peas. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon zest, and mix just until the batter is smooth but avoid overmixing and overbeating it. (The batter can also be made in a food processor by mixing all the above ingredients together until smooth.)
  • Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Cover the top with blueberries and use a butter knife to swirl the batter and blueberries together very slightly, just enough to distribute the blueberries and embed them a bit in the batter. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes.
  • While the cake is baking, make the topping by mixing the chopped nuts, cinnamon, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle the topping over the cake, place the pieces of butter in various places over the top of the cake, and continuing baking the cake until the cake feels just set in the center. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes. (The original recipe said 25 minutes but I found it baked faster so the time will vary.)
  • Let the muffin cake cool completely in the pan, then remove it to serve.

Notes

Serving: Serve the cake on its own, or with plain or slightly sweetened yogurt, ice cream, or whipped cream.
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80 comments

    • Phyllis Keating

    The share for Pinterest on the blueberry cake isn’t working.

    • Emma

    This looks delicious! But in the notes, 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour should be closer to 30g, no?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It’s 35g (according to Zoë’s conversion) – fixed!

        • Anne

        Recipe still says 40g…

          • David
          David Lebovitz

          It’s 40g of cornmeal, but 35g of whole wheat flour (which is lighter). Either way, it’s a teaspoon difference and that won’t make a difference in the cake.

    • ann

    FYI: I tried to save this to my pinterest board but the recipe icon provided doesn’t work.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I just tried it and it worked for me. You may need to update your browser or something similar?

    • Stefanie

    This sounds delicious! I live in central Florida where a lot of blueberries are being grown now since the citrus trees are all getting sick and dying (citrus greening). I picked 6 pounds of blueberries last weekend and was trying to figure out what to do with them, now I know! Thanks!

    • Liz

    Sounds good. Allergic to nuts, could oatmeal be subbed in for the walnuts?
    Merci!

      • Sherry Tomasky

      I used granola in place of the nuts because it’s all I had and worked great!

    • CarinaZ

    This recipe sounds delicious. I love the combination of almond flour/cornmeal. I have a question about step 5. Does the topping go on roughly halfway through the full bake time?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      In step 4 you bake the cake for about 45 minutes. In step 5, which is after the cake is baked in step 4, you add the topping and bake 15-20 minutes more.

        • Anne

        I thought this might be too long as I used a 9” springform pan so I did 20 for the first step and 22 for the second step. Was perfect!

    • Carren Stika

    This looks and sounds delicious! But what had me smiling and laughing out loud was the description of your ice cream scooping days. OMG! I’m laughing even now as I type this! Hilarious!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It’s was funny remembering all that. We were open really late into the night, in a college town, and all sorts of people came in (in all sorts of condition…), at all hours. There was another guy I worked with that would just sigh loudly when someone would order something big, like a triple cone, or if someone ordered a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream he’d say something along the lines of “Well, okay I guess…it’s your health…” before reluctantly (and glumly) making the sundae.

      We weren’t supposed to eat, and we were so busy we didn’t have time, but we would hide sandwiches in the walk-in refrigerator and wolf them down in there when we ran back there to grab something for restocking. We’d forget about them, and she’d come in a few days later and go on the warpath to find whose dried-out, half-eaten sandwich it was :-)

    • Joanne

    When I lived in La Celle St. Cloud in 2006-2008, there was a “Pick your own” farm not too far away. My kids loved to pick fresh blueberries in June/July as well as other fruits and veggies. I wonder if it is still there…it’s worth looking into!

    • Margot

    Any guidance for using an electric Hand Mixer by Kitchen Aid, with 7 speeds? It has a supposed paddle attachment, but I don’t know how good it would be. I’m a somewhat novice baker and have successfully made quite a few of your wonderful recipes without a stand mixer.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Just mix as you would with a stand mixer. The batter is quite versatile.

    • Joycelyn

    Save to Pinterest is not working.

    • JaxJayne

    Sounds terrific and will make this weekend. I have no doubt this will be another stellar recipe of yours! I so enjoy your stories from US and French perspectives – not only is knowledge expanded, so is my appreciation of another country and culture.

    I noticed this line on instruction #3: Add the flour and mix on medium speed until the butter is in small pieces, about the size of peas.
    Did you mean, “Add the butter and…?”

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      You may need to refresh the page in your browser as it should read the butter.

    • Iulia

    Thank you for the receipe, it looks delicious! Just one question, we bake it for 45 minutes, get it out, put the toping and bake it again for 15 – 20 minutes?
    Sorry if my question is silly but I am not a very good baker…

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      In step 4 you bake the cake for about 45 minutes. In step 5, which is after the cake is baked in step 4, you add the topping and bake 15-20 minutes more.

    • KBP

    Making this now. I’ve misread something — where does the 1/4 cup cornmeal go? Thanks, KBP

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Added!

    • Jennifer

    Dave, what do your think about adding a smidge of lemon zest, like a teaspoon to the batter? And I’m going to drizzle a bit of confectioners sugar glaze over the cake too. Oh yum. Making this Sunday morning!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It wasn’t in the original recipe but I did add some lemon zest to my batter. It’s listed in the ingredients :) Confectioner’s glaze would be nice too!

    • Rana

    Literally my 3 favorite words in one sentence: Blueberry. Muffin. Cake.
    Oh Yum! Will be making this very soon! Thanks David :)

    • PeterL

    Can’t imagine how these weight conversions to grams were made for this recipe but almost are all wrong. Using the Ingredient Weight Chart on the King Arthur website (and I’ll rely on the King Arthur folks to have these right),

    1 cup of All Purpose Flour = 120g (not 130)
    1 cup of Almond Flour = 98g; 1/2 cup = 48 (not 60)
    1 cup of cornmeal (whole) = 138g; 1/4 cup = 34 or 35g (not 40)
    1 cup of whole wheat flour = 113g; 1/4 cup = 28g (not 40)
    1 cup of milk = 227g; 1/2 cup = 113g (not 125)

    Even the recipe as written is not consistent, 1 tblsp of butter is either 14 or 15 grams. A small nit to be sure, but this, and all of the above, indicates something went wrong in the editing and/or testing process.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      When I test someone else’s recipe for the site, I reweight everything as I go, which is a considerable task, and make any adjustments based on my scale. As Alice Medrich notes, her weight of flour is different from King Arthur’s. (Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour is 136 grams per U.S. cup.) My conversions when I made the recipe hewed closely to Zoë’s but it sounds like it’d be best for you to use King Arthur recipes since as Alice noted, one should use what each recipe writer calls and the folks at King Arthur are really nice people, and great bakers.

    • Chris

    I know it is selfish but I guess I’m glad that you don’t have a tv show if it means that you would spend less time on your lovely instagram stories and inspirational blogs. You (and Romain) are such sweet treats!

    • Nancy Scheeler

    Could one replace the almond flour with corn flour?

    • Gavrielle

    Were you a brat? I’d say they were lucky you didn’t spit in it.

    • rainey

    OMG! This is a Must Try!

    I grow my own blueberries but, as LA isn’t the ideal climate for them, getting 2 cups at a time probably won’t happen in this lifetime.

    I have a personaL rule about baking with frozen blueberries: won’t do it because of all the purple that happens. But your technique sounds interesting and I’m gonna try it at least once.

    • Rochelle E

    Ah! The long ago time when I worked in an ice cream store too! I used to wonder when my fingers would drop off from freezing. The worst customers (for me) were the ones who wanted HAND PACKED pints of ice cream. As to scoops, the boss taught us how to make bigger looking scoops by retaining a more hollow center, if you can imagine how to scoop that. My final observation was that some flavors had a harder texture than others. Coffee was the hardest! I hated scooping coffee ice cream. OTOH, we lowly workers did get to eat ice cream whenever we had a break. Concocting sundaes or banana splits were great. My favorite was a hot fudge sundae with peach ice cream and roasted pecans.

    • Julie Hock

    I would call this a cake, and will definitely be making it as Blueberries are abundant at the moment in Melbourne, Australia. Thank you for this recipe, and I feel that anyone who bakes on a regular basis wouldnt be too fared about swapping nuts around. Thank you David

    • Saurs

    Great call on the cornmeal. Something about the warm sweetness + crunchiness improves berry flavor dramatically.

    • Laurie

    I agree, King Arthur Flour is a wonderful supplier and site but I’ve found at times differences in their gram measurements and mine. I always wondered what was up with that, thanks for “weighing in” David. :)

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I think because their flour is higher in protein than other all-purpose flours, their conversions are a little different. It’s well-documented that their flour has more protein so I advised the other reader to only use their recipes, and their flour, if they would like results to align with their conversions. The advent of “premium” ingredients, like high-percentage chocolate, heirloom wheat, “European style” butter, etc, mean that unless recipe-writers specify specific brands in all recipes, there will be variations. The upside is that recipes aren’t that persnicketly and home cooks for years have been baking with different measuring cups, flours, butters, etc, and the world continues to turn around ;)

      People constantly write (and challenge) me on conversions and I think the answer is to present all recipes in one system of measurement, which would be easier for everyone, including those of us who write recipes. (The upside to metrics is that’s it’s easier to scale up a recipe, say, if you need to increase it by 20% to fit into another size pan, it’s easier to scale up 20% of 100 grams than 3/4 cup.)

    • Sharon Wichmann

    Hi David, I’ve wanted to ask this question for some time: baking recipes in German always call for “Ober- und Unterhitze” which means the heating elements in the top and bottom of the oven are on for the whole baking time. Usually that works out fine (the heating elements are not exposed) but sometimes it seems the cooking times are just way off for me. This cake for instance was simply not done after the recommended time. There is an option for only the lower element to be on, but no one ever calls for that. Any ideas? Thanks for all your recipes! I am a huge fan.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      As mentioned, the baking time in the book (which I posted) was what Zoë recommended, which was different in my oven, so I mentioned both. Everyone’s oven is different which is why I always say to rely on visual or tactile clues (i.e.; a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean) rather than a strict adherance to specific minutes, which give you an idea of when to start checking for doneness. I don’t know much about German ovens or baking but suggest Luisa Weiss‘ book Classic German Baking. She is an American (with German and Italian lineage) in Berlin and may offer some clues on how to adapt recipes for German ovens.

    • patty

    I will be making this delight this weekend! I not much of a cake eater, but this seems to be more like a coffee cake which I cannot resist!

    • Joycelyn

    Believe it or not, KAF has been called out more than once with their incorrect metric conversion amounts that have resulted in baking projects not turning out, myself included. I do not live in the United States and have learned the hard way KAF conversions are their conversions only, they do not always coincide with other countries conversions, a fact which when you think of it makes perfect sense since the US is the only country with the exception of Liberia and Myanmar that does not use the metric system.
    As for your chart.
    Where I live, 1/2 cup of milk = 120g not the 113g you insist it should be according to your “this is the only conversion chart that’s correct so all the rest of you are wrong,” silliness. That is only one example.

    That aside, I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever read such a rude comment directed at David, a lovely man who has always been so generous in sharing his recipes, his news of the latest cookbooks he likes, and his life in Paris.

    You should be ashamed but I highly doubt you’d ever be.

    • PeterL

    David, you make a great argument for why all baking recipes should be written in weights instead of volumetric measures. If I use KA flour and it is 120g per cup, and you use Bob’s and it is 135g a cup, and the recipe is written to use one cup, your result will be different than my result.

    If the recipe is written using grams, my 125g of flour is going to be exactly the same as your 125g of flour, no matter who makes the flour, and the end products should be the same.

    • Bernadette

    I laughed when I read the part about dipping ice cream. My first job was dipping ice cream at a Howrd Johnson’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The container were very deep and I am only 5’2″. One night I fell into the ice cream trying to retrieve the last scoop. Anyway, I live in New Jersey now and as soon as our lovely blueberries come in this summer I am making this dessert.

    • Querino de FreitasQQ

    BLUEBERRIES ARE MY FAVOURITE FRUIT
    WHENEVER I MAKE CORNBREAD, I ALWAYS STIR A CUP OF BLUEBERRIES IN THE CORNBREAD BEFORE IT GOES IN THE OVEN..IT ADDS A SPECIAL TANG TO THE LOAF….THANKS QUERINO

    • Donna

    Trying to save to Pinterest. Definitely not working

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Can you let me know if you’re using the long red button at the top of the post, or another way? Thanks.

    • Joycelyn

    Hello David
    Wanted to add even though the longer red save button at the top of the post and on the recipe itself would not work for me no matter how many times I tried, when I clicked on the small red P box that’s in the line of icons for your Pinterest page, Twitter, Facebook etc., it did work leaving me able to save the Blueberry muffin cake recipe via the photos you have on your Pinterest page.
    Stay safe

    • Nick

    I made this last night, and we found it delicious. The only change I made was to bake it in a 8×8 square metal pan (followed the same baking temp and time). It was also done at the one hour mark (45 minutes initial bake, then 15 minutes after topping with nut, cinnamon, sugar, and salt mixture).

    Frozen blueberries tossed with the tbsp of flour as recommended worked great to keep the berries from sinking. I initially thought the quantity was excessive, but I was wrong.

    This and the moelleux aux fruits d’ete from last year are definitely keepers that we will make again and again. Thank you!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Thanks for letting us know how it worked out, and the baking time for a square pan!

    • Jeffrey C

    David, if you make this for me, I will happily scoop vanilla ice cream to put on top of your serving.

    I spent two years working in a high-volume ice cream parlor/restaurant in a college town.

    Despite the challenges of some customers which you aptly note, even as a teen I always found a little inspiration in one of my manager’s mantras: just look at how happy they are when you give them their ice cream.

    • KBP

    Another keeper! Once I reread the recipe, giving it the attention it deserved, everything came together beautifully. Funnily, I’m not usually a “coffee cake” person, but will now have to rethink that. As you have done so many times before, thank you for brightening our lives during these still-troubled times. KBP

    • JanetM

    I was really excited to make this cake as I love blueberries. Except…I only had about a cup of them. Then I remembered I had stashed some cranberries in the freezer after Thanksgiving. Hey there’s such a thing as cranberry muffins as well. So I subbed them in. If this pandemic has taught me anything, it has taught me to make due with what you have. After I put the cake in the oven, I looked and saw the almond flour sitting on the counter…SIGH! I was worried what would happen. Well I’m happy to report that it did bake up as a cake – not exactly the muffin cake that you and Zoe had envisioned but it was delicious. I still have some additional cranberries in the freezer. I will remake the cake with the almond flour the next time and see how it goes!

    • Susan

    Well,it’s happened again. David,I am a fan and lover of your site and ,I might add, your wit. However, I have once again read this and ordered the book dammit!! I do not need to buy another cookbook yet your descriptions of recipes and their books have enticed me far too often over the last year. And, yes, it falls to me to show restraint. I will keep trying!! And, as a fellow New Englander, I was lucky to have a Mum who made outstanding blueberry pies and cakes.

    • Rachel

    I would give a LOT to go back in time and watch you grimly holding on to the ice cream until you’d picked up every sticky coin. Hahahaha! And hats off to your colleague for delicately placing the ice cream on the cone. It’s not really that hard to be polite is it? Thanks (as always) for a wonderful post.

    • Caroline

    Beautiful recipe. Read it this morning, made it today, ate it this evening. Thank you David and Zoe. Can’t wait to finish it so we can make it again. Lovely crumb, perfect in every way. Thank you.

    • Ben

    Wonderful cake with so many tasty elements: the almond flour, lemon zest (good call on adding that) and a bit of whole wheat. All of these flavors came through, and the crunchy topping is almost like pralines. My pint of fresh blueberries came up a bit short on weight, so I mixed in frozen chopped peaches (which worked so well that I think this would also work as a peach cake).

    It is funny how ubiquitous blueberries are in the U.S. North (they’re native North American) vs. how scarce they are in France. Glad you found some! Coincidentally, I purchased a just released wild blueberry beer (Urban Artifact’s Hobnail) along with the fresh blueberries. New England wild blueberries are some of the best and tastiest fruit in existence, IMO, although those in the beer come from Quebec.

    • Joan P Sherman

    This was the most delicious cake and I have baked many many cakes in my lifetime. The pecans in the topping which i order from Georgia are a perfect complement for this cake. I grew up in NH USA during the 40’s and we had our secret places in the woods where we picked low bush blueberries and wild strawberries which grew in the fields nearby Those were the days!!

    • JJ

    I baked it this Sunday and it was simply delicious. Perfect slightly warm with tea yesterday afternoon, but also cold from the fridge for breakfast this morning (the cold gave it a denser texture and concentrated the flavours). I used frozen blueberries from Picard because it’s too early for fresh blueberries in France, but they released a bit too much water despite coating them with flour…this didn’t ruin the cake at all, but made it very moist at the center (I don’t know why but the frozen organic blueberries from Picard tend to be more watery than the non-organic version – this is not the first time this happens to my bakes). I’ll bake it again once fresh blueberries start appearing on market stalls, so I can have “la version originale” as well!

    • MR in NJ

    I still have lots of last summer’s blueberries in the freezer and would love to make this cake, but I don’t want it to be wet. Would it make sense to drain the berries into a bowl first? I have done that with other recipes and it worked well. Last time, I kept the drained berry juice in a glass jar in the fridge and poured it over yogurt, pancakes, French toast, ice cream, etc. I started to think of it as a kitchen staple until it ran out and I missed it!

    What think, David? Something tells me I’m not the only reader who will make this with frozen berries. Thanks!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Don’t thaw the berries first as they’ll be too wet. In the headnote, I (and Zoe) recommend tossing the frozen berries in some flour, then using them that way.

    • Richard Clingerman

    Yep. Great call David. Great recipe and it turned out perfectly. I didn’t bother flouring my frozen blueberries and there wasn’t any blue-bleeding or uneven sinking to the bottom. The cornmeal really does make a difference. :-D I wasn’t surprised though, just pleased. You never disappoint.

    • BelleD

    I totally snorted when you described hanging onto the ice cream cone while counting the pennies. I worked for Baskin Robbins when I was 15. It was my first job. Hated scooping sherbert or the sugar-free stuff since it was like digging into a block of ice.

    I have a fond and petty memory of flat out saying “No” when this twit wanted a flavor that was out and it was the end of the evening.

    She got snotty with me when I told her that we were out. “I use to work for an ice cream shop. I KNOW you have a full container below”.

    The devil was in me that moment and I retorted “Then you know it’s frozen solid right now since you saw me get it from the freezer 5 minutes ago. So No, you can’t have the Jamoca Almond Fudge.” Not one of my best moments, but you don’t ever want to mess with food service folks.

    • rainey

    I finally did this for an occasion last night. It went over like gangbusters. Not a crumb remained!

    I order my parchment circles precut so I only had ones that fit the pan. I was concerned about removing it but the fully cooled cake was firm and intact enough to turn out and reverse onto a serving plate in the conventional manner.

    I had confusion over the timing of applying the streusel. I didn’t understand baking the batter and berries and then adding the topping and continuing to bake. Seems like a excellent opportunity to get burned but I did it anyway. I managed but is the intent to put the streusel on the assembled pan before it goes in the oven? I don’t see what’s accomplished by this two-step process.

    • Connie

    I think it should read “once the cake has baked for 45 minutes (it’s not done yet) add the streusel and butter to the top and return it to the oven to bake for 15-20 minutes”.

    Just my thoughts for clarity. I made this cake and was very confused about adding the topping. But did it about 35 minutes into the baking. It was delicious.

    • Eileen Thai

    I made this yesterday and shared it with some friends. Everyone loved it!

    I baked it in an 8″ square pan for 45 mins and 10 after adding the streusel. Did not have wheat flour or cornmeal so I used all purpose. I was worried my frozen blueberries might dilute the batter, but it didn’t.

    Love your stories and delicious recipes! Thank you.

    • Tracy

    I just made this to enjoy with the Sunday paper tomorrow morning. What is the best way to store this?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      At room temperature under a cake dome. If you don’t have one you can either invert a bowl over the cake or cover it (not-too-tightly) with plastic.

    • rainey

    This made awesome waffles too.

    I hadn’t had enough of that interesting batter with 3 flours so I made another half batch, poured it into the waffle iron and sprinkled on the berries and pecan pieces before I closed the lid.

    A little brown sugar and cinnamon tossed on top of the finished waffles to mimic the streusel. YUM!

    • Nici

    I also had question on the baking time, I put the cake in, made the topping, adding the topping and the cake was done at 55 min total … would of been way over baked at 45 + 20. Anyway it worked for me and it was OFF THE HOOK GOOD!! Husband said best ever and I bake a lot .. thanks!

    • Terry Sauer

    Hi, made it this past weekend! It was delicious! Thanks for sharing,

    • Jann

    Just made the cake this morning. Added the cornmeal and loved that special crunch. Moist and delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

    • Kinhawaii

    I made this the other week in a 8 by 3 inch deep pan…it was absolutely delicious! Will definitely make this again! Thank you!

    • Yusra

    I just made this with some leftover roasted strawberry rhubarb (and omitted the nut topping cos I was a little lazy) and it’s delicious! been looking out for recipes to use up my cornmeal, thank you :D

    • Industrial painting

    Looks delicious! Must try this with friends. Thank you for sharing this.

    • Mary Solero

    Amazing! I wanna try this recipe. Thanks.

    • Christine H

    This was excellent! Moist, crumby in the best way, and full of flavor. I didn’t have cornmeal but can see where that would work well in the recipe. Will definitely make this again!

    • Margie

    I baked the cake for 55 minutes, not the 60 total minutes suggested, but the cake bottom and sides are too brown. The cake bottom and sides in your photo are too brown, as well. My suggestion is to bake the cake at 350, not 375. Similar recipes use 350 so this may be the better choice for most ovens. BTW, the cake is still yummy. Blueberries going strong here in Western PA.

    • post

    Thanks for the valuable video for the blog commenting tips Thanks for a heplful post,

A

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