It is the season of all things berry! We are a divided family when it comes to loving blueberries. The girls in this house absolutely love anything blueberry and the boys give blueberries two thumbs down. Which leads me to my favorite grown-up saying…”Girls rule. Boys drool.” I know, I bet you wish you were half this sophisticated.
Even though the boys were not berry fans, for my son’s eighth birthday party, I wanted to add one special addition to the birthday dessert table with some of our blueberries. Although the hate for blueberries was strong, just a peek inside this cake shows why anyone can eat it. The cake only has one cup of blueberries in the whole thing. This handful of berries makes a beautiful stripe down the middle and adds just the right balance of blueberries and cake instead of the overwhelming amount of berries that can be in other cakes and muffins.
The blueberries are suspended in the batter with the help of a little reserved cake mix and a quick toss to coat them. The cake mix has added flavor boosts from the addition of cinnamon, vanilla yogurt, and a little vanilla pudding mix. The resulting cake is moist and absolutely perfect.
As is tradition in our house, the whole family helps with the cooking for our parties and Emily was more than happy to be my helper in the kitchen. A bowl of blueberries kept her content while I did the parts of the recipe that she could not help with. I will admit, we were both quite pleased with the results and one of us had a very full tummy too.
What did the guests think? A total hit with blueberry lovers and haters alike.
Blueberry Muffin Cake (Courtesy of “The Cake Mix Doctor“)
1 package plain yellow or white cake mix (we used a yellow cake mix)
1 package (3.4 ounces) vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
2 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar (for dusting on top)
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 10-inch tube pan with shortening and then dust with flour. Set the pan aside. Measure out two tablespoons of the cake mix and reserve it. Place the remaining cake mix, pudding mix, yogurt, oil, water, cinnamon, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for two minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Toss the blueberries with the reserved cake mix.
Pour two-thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Scatter the blueberries over the batter. Spread the remaining batter over the blueberries so that it covers the fruit. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the cake until it is golden brown on top and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan (approximately 45-50 minutes).
Remove the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool for twenty minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack, then onto another rack so that the cake is right side up. Allow it to cool completely, 30 minutes or more. Place the cake on a serving platter and dust with confectioners sugar.