hedge your bait

In an old Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbook that my mom has, of early 70's vintage, there is a recipe for Blueberry Boy Bait.  It's a very buttery and sweet, cinnamon-sugar-dusted one-bowl cake, but it almost doesn't matter what it tastes like, right?  The name does all the work.  We used to make batches and batches of it.  As near as I can recall, no boys were baited.  But it was a tasty cake.

I woke up thinking about Blueberry Boy Bait because someone left the freezer door open yesterday--not the Big Kahuna Freezer, thank goodness, because if that puppy defrosts, you will find me in the nut-house with all the nuts and the squirrels.  The mere notion of such an event gives me grey hairs.  This was just the little bottom-of-the-fridge freezer, where snacks are snatched hourly, and nothing much was lost besides a set of those yogurt & jam popsicles.  But a little bag of blueberries did thaw and then re-freeze, making me think that quickly dispatching them was best for all concerned.

When it came time to mix it all up, I found myself unwilling to use all the sugar called for.  Furthermore, I did not have, at room temperature, all the butter indicated.  Also, there is a cinnamon-resister in my house. I was planning to sub coconut oil for half the butter, and my little peanut brain, already excited by the alliterative "blueberry boy bait" thing crackling across its wires for hours, starting humming the song that any little peanut brain might hum under these circumstances:

and, with a few additional modifications, this was on the table not too long after. 

You could certainly make a case for using all butter if you had it, but the coconut was a nice accent.  I put almond meal in everything, but it is not a deal-breaker here; cornmeal would substitute comfortably, and so would an equivalent amount of regular flour.  If cinnamon has more curb appeal (or availability) than limes in your house, skip the lime zest and make the original topping.

blueberry cake with lime

uncertain, to a degree, of whom it might bait 

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c all purpose flour

1/3 c almond meal or cornmeal, or additional flour

3/4 c sugar

2t baking powder

3/4 t salt

5T butter, softened

5T coconut oil, room-temperature

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 cup milk

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

3 to 4 T sugar

zest of one lime, finely grated

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly butter a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a mixer and mix well.  Add the butter, coconut oil, eggs and vanilla and mix on low speed for about half a minute, until lightly combined.  Bump the speed up one notch and slowly add the milk.  When all the milk has been added, and the mixture looks pretty uniform, take the speed up to medium and beat for 2-3 minutes, until the batter is fluffy and light.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.  Scatter the berries across the top.  Combine the sugar and zest (or cinnamon), and sprinkle over the berries.

Bake 40-50 minutes, until golden and set.  Try to let it cool a little (it makes slicing it easier), or just make a mess of dishing it out and hasten the cooling process with ice cream.