Blueberry Crumb Cake

My friend Sheryl gave me this recipe for blueberry crumb cake and it's so so good! If you like crumb cake you should definitely try this recipe - it's fabulous, and the streusel topping (the best part of course) is perfect - mmmm I love crumb cake topping. Normally it's made in a 9" cake pan but I used my giant muffin pan instead and got 8 large muffins. I planned on making this for our new neighbors but as I was mixing up the batter I found out they are out of town right now so instead of having a whole cake that I was (a) either going to eat all by myself, (b) find someone else to give it to, or (3) eat it all by myself,  I decided to make giant muffins so I could satisfy my sweet tooth and eat ONE of them and then freeze the rest for when we have company coming in a couple weeks - yes I could have made the whole cake and froze it but I'm pretty sure my willpower isn't that strong today.

I didn't change anything, other than the size. I baked the giant muffins for approx 25 minutes, let them rest for 15 minutes before removing from the pan and cool the rest of the way on a wire rack. Click here for the recipe found at smitten kitchen. YUM!!

Serves 8 in big wedges or 16 in the 2×2-ish-inch grid I cut mine roughly into

Topping:
5 tablespoons (40 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup, 2 ounces or 55 grams) unsalted butter, cold is fine
Pinch of salt

Cake:
2 cups minus 1 tablespoon (i.e. 1 3/4 cups + 3 tablespoons or 240 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup, 2 ounces or 55 grams) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint (2 to 2 2/3 cups, 12 to 16 ounces, or 340 to 455 grams; see Note) fresh blueberries, clean and dry
1/2 cup milk, whole is ideal, any kind should work
1/2 cup (55 grams) walnuts, chopped medium fine (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

Heat oven to 375°F. Butter a 9-inch round baking pan (with at least 2″ sides) and dust it lightly with flour; line it with a round of parchment paper.

Prepare the topping by mixing the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt, then cutting the butter in with a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar and zest together until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture until just combined, followed by 1/2 the milk; repeat with remaining dry ingredients and milk, finishing with the dry mixture. The batter will be very stiff, but don’t fret. Fold blueberries into cake batter until evenly distributed.

Scoop cake batter into prepared pan and smooth so that it is flat. If using walnuts, scatter them on top. Sprinkle with prepared streusel. Bake in heated oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out batter-free. You can let the cake cool complete in the pan on a rack, or just cool it in the pan for 20 minutes before flipping it out onto a cooling rack, removing the parchment paper lining, and flipping it back onto a plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if using.

Do ahead: Cake keeps covered with plastic or foil at room temperature for three days. If longer, it might be best to keep it in the fridge. It gets more moist each day.

Kitchen File

This system of organizing all the manuals and instructions for household things works great for us - each category gets it's own folder and they are all hanging in a free standing file box that I keep in a kitchen cabinet so they are always handy. We pull these out all the time and it's nice to have them so conveniently located and in one place.

I have the folders broken down something like this:
-oven/stove
-fridge/freezer/ice maker
-washer/dryer
-outdoors (grill, furniture, etc.)
-small appliances (blender, food processor, etc.)
-tv/direct tv

I also keep take-out menus, pet instructions, trash/recycling info, etc. in hanging folders in another standing file box. Works great for corralling all the little miscellaneous info we need to keep and would otherwise just get piled up or shoved in a drawer!

Zipper Bracelet

I saw these bright colored zippers at the craft store and they screamed "bracelet" to me, so I bought the bright pink one and some little snaps and made this... look how cute it turned out!

All you need is a zipper that fits your wrist, 2 small snaps, a needle and thread. I used matching thread because even though I was very careful I can see the stitches from where I sewed on the snaps.

There are 2 parts to a snap - a top and bottom; you'll sew one part of the snap on each end of the zipper. Depending on how wide the zipper is decide if you want one or two snaps. I used two so it will lay flatter on my wrist.

(2025 note: I made this next part way too complicated. Jump to the bottom of the post for simplified instructions!). 

Sew the bottom part of the snap to the right side of the zipper at the bottom of the zipper where the stop thing is. Attach the top and bottom of snaps together - then put the zipper around your wrist and decide where you want to fasten the other part of the snap. I held the snap in place on my wrist and unsnapped it from the sewn on bottom snap. That way I knew exactly where I wanted the top of the snaps to be so the top and bottom would line up perfectly. Sew in place.

Attach the top part of the snap to the reverse side of the zipper. There will be the snap bottoms on one end of the right side of the zipper, and the snap tops will be on the other end and on the wrong side. This picture is of how it will look with all the snaps sewn in place. Make sense? You won't see the snaps when it's fastened on your wrist!

If you place the snaps correctly, the zipper will unzip so you can wear it zipped up like this picture, or unzipped (see below).

* 3/2025 UPDATE: oh my goodness this post has a lot of words and I'm not sure they make sense LOL!!! I wonder if anyone made a zipper bracelet, and while trying to figure out what I'm saying I bet you were totally rolling your eyes - I rolled them at myself when I came upon this post just now hahahah. Listen, this is super simple - loop a zipper around your wrist like a bracelet, figure out where the snaps need to be in order to fasten it around your wrist and be out of sight. Mark where you want them and then sew in place. In this picture the snaps are underneath the ends of the zipper marked with the blue arrows:

Easter Flower Ideas

Here's a couple last minute flower arrangements to take with you as a hostess gift today, or to decorate your Easter table.

The first one is a grocery store bundle of yellow flowers. My initial thought was to put them in a baggie of water, insert them in a mason jar, and then fill in around the baggie with jelly beans. (The correct way to do that would be to put the flowers in a jar and then set it into a larger jar, filling the space between the jars that stays dry with jelly beans or whatever. I don't have 2 jars that fit like that so I was winging it with the baggie idea...) So yeah, that didn't work - I was careful but water still got on the jelly beans and that made a mess. So plan B: cut them all to fit, put them in a mason jar, tie a pretty ribbon around the neck of jar. To make it a little more special I hot glued a plastic Easter egg onto a skewer and tucked that into the flowers. Then because I never know when to quit, I hot glued another egg onto the end of one ribbon :)

The second one is a little more time consuming but really cute. The inspiration came from here. I bought 2 bunches of tulips and 3 bunches of carrots with the stems on. Put a rubber band around the vase or container you are using - I used a big mason jar. Tuck clean carrots under the rubber band to hold them place (around the outside of the container), trimming the bottoms to fit. I entertained the idea to leave the carrot tops on but that looked super out of control and messy so I trimmed them to about an inch off the carrot top. Tie a pretty ribbon over top of the rubber band.

Note I did not peel my carrots (didn't seem necessary and they'll last longer I think - just brush them off so they are clean) and left more of the tulip leaves attached so it has a little more "messier" natural look then the inspiration picture. I also found that turning a couple of the carrots upside down helped them lay better against the jar.

wet jelly beans = a mess

Peep Cupcakes

Peep cupcakes - super easy and SO cute. Make whatever flavor cupcakes you want, mine are lemon.  I frosted them with marshmallow buttercream, topped each one with a bunny Peep and a few shreds of candy "grass" (comes in a bag, should be able to find now at the grocery or craft store).

How can you not smile looking at these little cuties?

To make marshmallow buttercream frosting I just add one small jar of marshmallow fluff to my normal buttercream recipe which is:

1 stick of softened butter (if using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt to the frosting)
3 - 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
enough milk to give the consistency I want, maybe 2-3 tablespoons. I don't measure, just pour in a tiny bit at a time.

Beat the butter until smooth, add remaining ingredients with enough milk to make firm spreadable frosting. Then blend in the jar of fluff. So good!

Kids Crafts for Easter

Brooke has a couple cute ideas for Easter crafts that are inexpensive and since there is no hot glue involved (for once), they're probably suitable for different ages of kids to make!

For the first one she is making bird's nests out of string, balloons, glue and water. Dissolve some white glue in water, soak colored string in it, wrap it around a balloon and let dry. Remove the hardened string from the balloon either by pulling it off or popping the balloon if necessary. Voilà, you have a cute string bundle that looks like a birds nest - for Easter you could fill with candy eggs, plastic grass, little chicks, etc. This is also a cute craft for other times of year! Love it, good idea B.

The second one is shown in the middle of this video - she is simply stringing plastic eggs onto string to use as a garland. She's making hers to drape over her door but you can make it as long or short as you want and place it anywhere. I've never noticed but apparently there are little holes in the top and bottom of plastic eggs, perfect for stringing them up. She doesn't show the finished garland, but after she strings a couple of eggs you get the idea of what it'll look like.

Watch her intro even if you don't want to make kids crafts - her saying how 'excited she is about Easter, because Easter means spring, and she loves spring' is super cute.

Deviled Egg Chicks

DEVILED EGG CHICKS - saw this idea on Pinterest and it's just too cute. These are a HUGE hit!

Make traditional deviled eggs (I make mine by mixing the yolks with mayo, yellow mustard and a dash of brown mustard, salt and white pepper in a food processor until smooth and creamy). To make the chicks: cut the narrow top off the egg (instead of splitting them lengthwise down the middle) and scoop out yolk. Fill with deviled egg filling mounding it up a bit on the bottom part - that's where the eyes and beak will go. Replace the top of the egg that you cut off, add pieces of black olive or black peppercorns for eyes and little bits of carrot for the beak. To keep them standing upright I put a dab of filling under each one to help stabilize it.

Easter Side Dishes

I love Easter dinner - instead of sharing main dish ham recipes I thought I'd give you a couple ideas for side dishes to serve with it. These are my usual go-to sides, they are really nice with ham but would probably work with other meats as well.



PINEAPPLE STUFFING - my friend Mary introduced me to this and OMG it's so good, very rich and very addictive. It's quite sweet and is perfect with ham.

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
5 slices white bread, cubed

Preheat oven to 350'. Grease a 9 inch baking pan with butter. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then add the pineapple and bread cubes. Bake for one hour. Let sit a few minutes to firm up before serving. Makes 5 servings.

NOTE: I usually double this and put it in a 13x9 baking dish.


CREAMED NEW POTATOES AND PEAS - recipe from Epicurious

2 pounds small red skin potatoes
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup flour
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
salt and pepper
16 ounce frozen peas, thawed

Boil potatoes until just tender, approx 20 minutes. Cut them in half and set aside.

Melt butter, whisk in flour for 3 mintues. Gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a simmer, stir often until very thick approx. 10 minutes. Mix in cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Add the potatoes (note: you can make this 1 day ahead up to this point, cover and refrigerate. Bring to a simmer before continuing with recipe). Mix peas into sauce, cook on medium-low until heated thru, 8 minutes. Makes 8 servings.


ROASTED CARROTS click here for complete recipe. I double this recipe, everyone loves them and they are great leftovers, so if you end up with too many that's a good thing.

Halve 12 carrots lengthwise; toss with 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, and thyme and place on baking sheet. bake at 400'  for 35 - 45 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.

  

How to Fold a Bunny Napkin

I found the instructions to fold napkins into bunny ears here, each one is a square napkin and a few folds - I think these are adorable and not hard to do at all!

Bunny Cakes

It's almost Easter and I have a few fun things to show you for inspiration this week. Starting with bunny cake...

I have made this bunny cake for years - as long as I can remember. I have friends that have also been making this for as long as I've known them, I'm thinking that might be where I learned this, so that means I've been making it for like 30 years! Classic :)

I have no idea where this originally came from, you can google and see tons of examples of how people have decorated their Easter bunny cake. It's made from 2 white cake layers, one you leave whole (that's his head) and the other you cut into 3 pieces (2 ears are cut from the outside leaving the center part as a bowtie). Arrange them all on a platter and decorate using thin licorice for whiskers and ears, jelly beans, coconut, m&m's, sprinkles - whatever you want!

Last year I decided to break tradition and try a different bunny cake - it's a bunny butt! So cute, might be a new tradition. It does take a little longer to make this one though, so if you want simpler/faster maybe just do the classic bunny cake!

This one is made in an ovenproof bowl along with 3 cupcakes. See here for the recipe and full instructions.

Whichever one you decide to make will be a hit - everyone loves an Easter bunny cake!