Blue Cake for Breakfast

It's been just over a week since our trip to Costco, and we've consumed or used nearly 3/4 of the 5lbs of berries I bought.  For a family of three (with one who doesn't eat any...ehem...Kevin), that's pretty remarkable!  If you've been following the blog for awhile, you know that we love smoothies around here, and at least twice a week Jett and I share a big berry/spinach smoothie.  We also love to eat berries for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between.  On Saturday morning I made one of my favorite blueberry muffin recipes which took care of nearly 1lb of blueberries.  Jett calls it his "Blue Cake."

Double Blueberry Muffins (Courtesy of Gale Gand's cookbook "Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs")

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries*
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line 12 muffin cups with liners.

Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand mixer) until smooth. Add 1 cup of the sugar and mix. Add the eggs, vanilla, baking powder and salt, and mix.

In a shallow bowl, mash 3/4 cup blueberries with the back of a fork. Add to the batter and mix. With the mixer at low speed, add half of the flour and milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk. Fold in the whole blueberries by hand until well mixed.  In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon.

Use an ice cream scoop to fill the muffin cups three quarters full.  Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the muffins and bake until golden brown and risen, 25-30 minutes.  Let cool, and enjoy!

*I love that there are more blueberries than flour in this recipe! I have also substituted raspberries for blueberries, and it turns out wonderfully.