An old friend (love ya Lor!) emailed me the other day and commented (in a friendly way) that I sound like an ‘old fart’ with the whole pickling thing. You know what? She was absolutely right! I am enjoying alot of ‘old fart’ things these days. I knit, I sew, I like to talk about baking and cooking and pickling and gardening. In fact, I was excited that other day about getting a new iron for crying out loud! Who ever would have imagined? The thing is, I think I always enjoyed these things, I just didn’t know it when I was younger, or was too ashamed to tell my teenage friends about it. That’s the great thing about surpassing the age of 30 – you do what you want and don’t care what other people think.
With that all said, today is my honey’s birthday – he is turning the big 39 so he is technically more of an ‘old fart’ than I am! So there!
I found a great cake recipe on the Chatelaine Magazine website that I know he’s going to love and this ‘old fart’ is going to share it with you!
Blueberry Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients:
· 2 tbsp butter
· 2 tbsp brown sugar
· 2 cups blueberries
· 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2-1/2 tsp baking powder
· ½ tsp cinnamon
· ½ tsp salt
· ½ cup butter at room temperature
· ¾ cup granulated sugar
· 2 eggs
· ¼ tsp almond extract
· ¼ tsp vanilla
· 1/3 cup milk
1) Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place 2 tsp butter in 9 inch round cake pan. Place pan in oven until butter is melted, from 1 to 2 minutes. Place on heat proof countertop. Brush bottom & sides of pan with melted butter. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of brown sugar into bottom of pan. Stir brown sugar to evenly distribute. Evenly scatter blueberries over brown sugar. They will form a thick layer. I also added some slivered almonds on top of the blueberries because the birthday boy loves nuts.
2) In medium size bowl stir flour with baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In large bowl beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar until mixture is pale and whipped looking. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in almond oil and vanilla.
Gradually beat in 1/3 of flour mixture and half of milk. Repeat additions ending with flour mixture. Batter will be thick. Pour and spread evenly over blueberries.
3) Now lick your spatula.
4) Bake at 350F (180C) oven until cake edge begins to pull away from pan and cake springs back when touched lightly. Remove from oven & let stand for in pan for 5 minutes. Then run knife around outside edge of cake. Invert onto a large cake plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. If making a day ahead of time cover with tent of foil & refrigerate. Warm in microwave or bring to room temperature before serving.
"Blooming Buttons" jacket with flower buttons that light up as the jacket is buttoned
Hoodie
