Blueberry Crumb Cake

The fruit stalls in the market near where I live have been selling blueberries from Chile recently. Fresh blueberries are hard to come by in Taiwan, so I took the opportunity to stock up a few packs and I keep them in the freezer for future use.

As I was looking for recipes to make use of my blueberries, this blueberry crumb cake recipe caught my eye because of the way the streusel is prepared. I've made cakes with streusel many times before and most recipes call for cold and hard butter. However, for this recipe, butter has to be melted first and so I was curious to see how it will turn out. Preparing the cake batter is rather straightforward and I made some slight changes along the way. I reduced the amount of sugar and I also used plain yogurt instead because sour cream is hard to find in Taiwan. However, the amount of streusel is actually more than what I would normally use for my cake. 1/3 of it is enough to cover the surface of the cake batter and I was contemplating whether I should throw the rest away. But in the end, I decided to use it all and when I had the first bite of the cake, I'm glad that I did! The streusel is very crunchy, almost cookies-like and it definitely complements the moist blueberry cake well.

Blueberry Crumb Cake Recipe
Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

For the streusel:
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups plain flour

For the cake:
3/4 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup castor sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup plain yogurt
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup fresh blueberries
Icing sugar for sprinkling

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg C. Line a 8X8-inch square cake pan with parchment paper.
2) Mix sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Add melted butter, follow by flour. Mix well with each addition. Set aside.
3) In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4) Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
5) Add eggs one at a time, with each addition, beat until just combined .
6) Add vanilla extract, lemon zest and sour cream. Mix until well combined.
7) Sift the flour mixture over the batter. With the mixer set on low speed, mix until combined. Stir in blueberries.
8) Pour into the cake pan. Use fingers to break up streusel into small pieces, and then sprinkle evenly on top of the batter.
9) Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake turns out clean.