Insanely Delicious Blueberry Crumb Cake

I loved Gwyneth Paltrow's Blueberry Muffins as you probably saw here. But I had LOADS of berries and wanted to try something new. In particular, I wanted something which would give a bigger yield because as much as I love cupcakes and muffins sometimes there can be a lot of waste from transferring between bowl->case and case->mouth. 

Ree Drummond, AKA The Pioneer Woman had the answer- a traybake cake! Even better, apart from the cereal bowl used to prepare the topping,it pretty much only took the mixing bowl... If you like washing dishes this may not be the recipe for you :P

I've adapted the recipe a tiny bit, to suit what I had in the cupboard and it was ridiculously tasty.

Rolling the blueberries in flour is a good way to give them some friction in the batter and stop them from sinking to the batter. Since this isn't a very thick cake it doesn't make too much of a difference, but it's a handy tip nonetheless!

Warning: This makes a gigantic cake, embarrassingly big. 9x13 inches is HUGE! Even more embarrassing, I ate about a third of it myself. No judgement here folks, only happiness- and blueberries = sheer bliss.

I think the cake looks really pretty in the transparent glass rather than in a baking tin too.

You will need:

Batter

• 1/4 Cup plus 1 Tbsp of butter (at room temperature)
• 3/4 Cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Cups self-raising flour (sieved)
• 3/4 Cup of milk 
• 2 Cups blueberries (washed, dried and gently rolled in flour)

Topping

• 1/3 Cup butter (at room temperature)
• 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 Tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 Cup flour (I used cream but I'm sure self-raising will be fine!)

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a baking tin.
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add egg, mix until combined.
5. Add vanilla and mix.
6. Add flour and milk alternately (I did it by 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup milk).
7. Mix until totally incorporated but do not over beat.
8. Gently stir in your blueberries using a spoon.
9. Pour batter into tin.
10. Combine topping mixture in a separate bowl, if you have a pastry cutter by all means use it but I just mashed it up with my fingers. Don't worry about having big chunks of crumb because you'll have loads of batter left and they taste PHENOMENAL!
11. Sprinkle the crumbs all over the batter, covering every inch!
12. Sprinkle with a little sugar, if you wish!
13. Bake for 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Confession: My family literally picked at dinner just waiting for the cake to be ready. The aroma coming from the oven was heady!

If you have any sense, MAKE THIS!! It's a life changer, no lie.

Take it easy guys, stay sweet! x