blueberry short cake

blueberries. i love blueberries. here is a delicious blueberry upside down cake. one of our family favorites. it's great for breakfast. or basically anytime.

• 2 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
• 
  
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, combine blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest. Toss to coat berries, then pour into the prepared pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the almond extract and 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest. Stir together 2 cups flour and the baking powder. Beat into butter mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter over the berries in the pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Place serving plate over the top of the pan and carefully invert cake and plate together, so that the berries end up on top. Carefully unlock the buckle on the side of the pan and remove. Sprinkle toasted almonds on top of cake and serve warm.

won't you be my neighbor

i made amish friendship bread last week and let's just say, i think it helped me make a lot more friends. mmmmm, so yummy! thanks to big pimpin kim for the starter and the recipe. here it is:

this is after someone gives you a start. you can make your own and there are tons of recipes online telling you how to do so. you can freeze the start once it's made if you are not ready to use it.

****do not use any metal! do not use any type of metal spoons or bowls for mixing. do not refrigerate. when air builds up in the bag, let it out. it is normal for batter to raise bubbles and ferment.*****

day 1: do nothing. this is the day you receive the batter. make sure the bag is dated.
day 2: mush the bag
day 3: mush the bag
day 4: mush the bag
day 5: add to the bag: 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of milk, then mush the bag.
day 6: mush the bag
day 7: mush the bag
day 8: mush the bag
day 9: mush the bag
day 10: mix and divide the starter

pour entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl, add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of milk, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. mix together. separate mixture into 4 separate gallon ziplock bags and one non-metal mixing bowl (about 1 1/4 cups per portion). keep one ziplock for yourself and give away the other three to friends with a copy of the recipe.

preheat oven to 325 degrees. add to the remaining batter in the mixing bowl.

3 eggs
1 cup oil or 1/2 cup applesauce
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 - 2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large box of instant pudding mix (any flavor -- i used chocolate)

**optional: 1 cup of nuts and/or raisins and/or chocolate chips -- i used chocolate chips

grease 2 large loaf pans or you can use pam cooking spray. mix in a small bowl: 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon. dust the greased loaf pans with the cinnamon mixture. pour the batter evenly into the 2 greased pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon mixture over the batter. bake 55-60 minutes. cool until the bread loosens from the pan (about 10 minutes). Turn out onto serving dish.

**note: if you have time restraint problems with any of the days, just put bag of starter in freezer and resume the day count where you left off when you take it out again.

at the end you get this! so good. however, i did have a hard time taking it out of the pan without all the cinnamon topping coming off, so we just served it straight out of the pan. if anyone has any suggestions for this sort of thing... let me know.

word of mouth

are there any bakery sites or blogs that you guys love? i am trying to bookmark some ideas/inspiration and i'd love to see anything you guys find yummy/dreamy/lovely, etc.

any input would be highly appreciated!

stand by me

how dreamy is this??



i covet it. you can find this adorable cupcake stand here.

i will be posting about banana bread, amish friendship bread and something else i might have forgotten. please don't be mad, it's been a crazy few weeks.

ps- happy birthday, whoolia!!