Blueberry Buckle

As with the rest of Good to the Grain, and I'm sure you're sick of hearing (reading?) me say this, I have wanted to try this recipe since my first flip through the book.  I finally had my chance when some friends joined us down the shore.  I do not make a habit of making delicious, carby, sugary breakfast cakes just for myself, so I was glad to have a bigger crowd (7 people) to serve this to.

I wanted to bake this down the shore, but knew I didn't have a stand mixer available there.  Luckily, I read the recipe notes, which suggested that you could make the batter the night before.  I mixed up the batter and tossed it in a cooler along with a pint of blueberries and a sandwich bag full of the dry ingredients for the streusel topping.  In the morning (after a 7am spinning class... fun!) I made the streusel, washed the berries and assembled the cake.

The only bad thing was that it took so long to bake.  I had hoped someone would wake up and get cracking on it before I got back from spinning, but no one was up when we got back.  We were very hungry and ready to go to the beach by the time the cake came out of the oven, but I made everyone wait - and for good reason - it was delicious!  The copious amounts of blueberries make it a bit sloppy, especially when warm, but it was soooo good.  I totally messed up the streusel topping - I overworked it and the warmth from my hands melted the butter, so it really just made a sweet, buttery layer on top, but this did not take away from the taste at all.

I have a bad habit of remembering things when I'm out shopping instead of making a list before I go.  I saw the blueberries and thought, oh right!  I wanted to make that buckle.  So I got two pints of blueberries.  Then when I looked at the recipe I saw it called for two cups (one pint) of blueberries.  I thought maybe I could add more, but that definitely would not have worked out.  So since I prefer cooked blueberries, I just left them in the fridge and waited for something to come to me.  Nothing did, and I decided to make the buckle again.  I had a few raspberries in the fridge as well - a little soft, but still in decent shape - so I added those in with the pint of blueberries.  I cut the butter into the streusel topping with a fork instead of my fingers, so it came out right this time.