My recipes seem to come with lots of lessons learned recently (see Zucchini Cake for harsh example). This week’s lesson is: don’t start a recipe before you’ve had your coffee.  Your insufficiently-caffienated self might read “sugar” as “butter” and wonder why creaming shortening and butter doesn’t really work.  This was made more dramatic by having already added the last egg in the house, so it was either make another run to the corner store or scoop out what appeared to be the excess and hope for the best. After clearing my head with that much needed cup of joe, I opted for the latter, removing what I hoped was around 3/4 cup of butter and replacing it with the appropriate 3/4 cup of sugar.

Mix together the wet ingredients (PLUS SUGAR), add the dry ingredients, and fold in blueberries.  Then mix together the crumb topping until it is combined into a fine crumb, and spread it over the cake.  It bakes up in about 45 minutes.  I found it hard to test doneness with a toothpick, because I always hit a blueberry.  So much for the toothpick “coming out clean”; it always came out purple! After a few tries, you may have to trust your baking instincts.

The buckle turned out fine, even if it didn’t buckle, and made a nice breakfast treat with last week’s blueberries.

In addition to items that can stand on their own as snacks or simple sides, these mid-summer items also store better for longer periods.  You’ll notice in the next few weeks that I’m still using ingredients from previous week’s baskets.  It’s also because I can’t eat it all fast enough to keep up!

Blueberry Buckle, via The New Inglenook Cookbook

INGREDIENTS:

Cake:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups blueberries

Crumble:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter

DIRECTIONS:
1. Cream together shortening and sugar.
2. Mix in milk and egg.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to wet ingredients.
4. Gently fold in blueberries.
5. Spread into a greased and floured 9×9 square pan.
6. Cut together crumble ingredients and spread over cake.
7. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.