Guest Blog Post: Blueberry Homecoming Cake

*This is my mom’s post, her recipe and her photography. Thanks for sharing, mom!

Well I knew you were coming so I baked a cake, baked a cake, baked a cake…

Baby Maeve was born on a Sunday and due to come home from hospital a few days later… what to do for such a great occasion? The baby wouldn’t notice much except maybe a different bed and quieter surroundings, but Mummy and Daddy would notice – as they were ever aware since Maeve’s birth – of the many changes in their lives. What could Nana do to make this a special homecoming?

In Ireland for just a bit better than a week before the baby came, I was still trying to familiarize myself with the many differences between living here and in Canada. Things like time zone changes, money, and driving on the left side of the road I found were not as worrisome as remembering to turn the switch to ‘on’ before my shower or figuring out how to use the oven and baking with metric temperatures. But I had been well taught by the lady of the house so all that really remained was for me to get up the nerve and make something.

At home in Cape Breton at this time of year most of the hay has been made and maybe put away, people are enjoying beach weather and the last few days of summer vacation, reaping the tasty benefits of their small outdoor garden’s crop of green and yellow beans and tomatoes, AND… the wild blueberries that grow there in abundance are ripe for the picking.

Blueberries… to think of them brings back many, many memories of the children growing up and picking them (not always willingly), and then Grandma baking with what was left of them (strangely, some buckets would arrive home empty) and creating such delights as blueberry pie (mmmm, that would be a good recipe to post), or muffins, or blueberry grunt, a traditional Nova Scotia dish that deserves  a dog-eared place in everyone’s recipe file. And it was then I knew what I would make …

Blueberry Cake! What better way to welcome a Cape Breton girl and her husband home to their new life with baby?

This cake is not the typical Cape Breton blueberry cake, but a type of coffee cake that was often baked at the Herring Choker Deli, a local bakery in Nyanza, CB. It’s delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, but just as yummy the next day (if you have any left) served with a cold glass of milk.

Nana’s Blueberry Homecoming Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cups blueberries

2 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp grated lemon or orange rind

For the topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

pinch of cinnamon

Directions:

• Blend flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Cream sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla; add milk and mix.
• Add dry ingredients all at once, stirring only until flour is moistened.
• Spread half of the batter in the bottom of greased and lined 9 inch spring form pan.
• Spoon blueberries over the top; sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sugar and orange or lemon rind.
• Spread remaining batter over, sprinkle topping.
• Bake 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.