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My love for blueberry breakfast treats goes all the way back to when I was a child. I wouldn’t say that blueberry muffins were on the menu every weekend morning, but along with chocolate chip pancakes, they were definitely breakfast goodies our mom would make fairly often. My brother, sister and I would often help make them—we’d mix the batter in my mom’s vintage butter-colored mixing bowl, scoop the batter into paper-lined muffin tins and press our noses to the oven door to watch them puff up. And as soon as the timer would go off, mom would pull the muffins out, and the three of us would quickly try to peel off the liners without burning our fingers because we couldn’t wait any longer to eat them.

I got really nostalgic when making Dorie Greenspan’s Blueberry Crumb Cake. As it sat baking in the oven, the wonderful smell of blueberry cake took me right back to my childhood. Isn’t it funny how certain smells take you back to specific experiences? Some studies say that smell is the human sense tied most closely to memory!

While this crumb cake certainly smelled like the blueberry cupcakes of my youth, it tasted far superior. For one thing, this cake was made from scratch—not like the muffins we used to make, which were straight out of a Betty Crocker cardboard box, you know, with the tin cans of watery blueberries. Also, the cake had the lovely crumb topping—crumb topping! It was fantastic, giving the cake fantastic texture and an extra bit of oomph.

I’ll admit I was somewhat surprised the Blueberry Crumb Cake tasted as yummy as it did. For one thing, the batter was very, very thick—not at all pourable, which is what I was expecting. Secondly, there was so much of the the raw crumb batter, I thought I had miscalculated the measurements (I halved the entire recipe and baked it in a 9×5 loaf pan). Thirdly, once baked, the crumbs on top of the cake weren’t golden and crumbly, but rather dark and bordering on crunchy. Which wasn’t bad—who doesn’t like caramelized nuts?—it just threw me off a little. (I think my new loaf pan conducts heat a lot faster than my old one did, because my recent creations have come out near-burnt.)

Thanks to Sihan for picking Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake this week. The recipe was wonderful, and the trip down memory lane even better. My scaled and lightened version of the Blueberry Crumb Cake is below, but for Dorie’s original, go to Sihan’s blog. 

Recipe: Blueberry Crumb Cake

Adapted from Baking: from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Serves 8

For the Crumbs:

• 2 Tbsp Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend at room temperature
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/6 cup light brown sugar (packed)
• 1/6 cup all purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

For the Cake:

• 1/2 pint fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tsp whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
• Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• 3 tbsp Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend at room temperature
• 1/3 cup Egg Beaters at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Butter an 9×5-inch loaf pan and put it on a baking sheet. To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the nuts in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface. Refrigerate until needed. (Covered well the crumb mix can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

To make the cake: Using your fingertips, toss the blueberries and 2 tsp of the flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries; set aside. Whisk together the remaining 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Working in the bowl of a stand mixer or in another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled — it will soon smooth out. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients.) You will have a thick, creamy batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries.

Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the fridge and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. There’s no need to try to get even pieces — these are crumbs, they’re supposed to be lumpy and bumpy and every shape and size. Scatter the crumbs over the batter, pressing them down ever so slightly.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.