Blueberry Corn Buttercake (gf)

 
The other night while laying in bed, I flipped through Deb Perelman's cookbook "Smitten Kitchen" that my soul sister Noelle gave to me on my last birthday, in knowing that each recipe was a figment of my chronic food fantasies. Perelman's style of cooking and baking is one that I can really follow and relate to, being that she never took a culinary class, doesn't have a super-chef kitchen, and doesn't always go for typical food pairings. She gets an idea "hmm how would this taste with this?" and she experiments with it, until she's satisfied, which is more or less what I do.

In my cozy little nook with a bouquet of lavender and a vanilla candle beside me, my heart yearned and my mouth salivated over the all-so-familiar photos of fresh fruits and vegetables splayed over linen table cloths in peak-season. I wanted to make everything, from the peach cobbler and raspberry ricotta scones to the shaved asparagus pizza and eggplant three cheese calzones. There's just no way I’m going to buy these fruits/vegetables from a grocery store in Queens on February 6th. That would just be sacrilegious...Although, OK I have been buying strawberries and blueberries every now and then. (Sh…don’t tell Norm Greig...or my parents). You and I will both just have to be patient...admittedly a pretty absent ingredient in my genetic makeup.

Sleep deprivation can sometimes result in obsession however, and I did eventually decide on making this blueberry cake anyway since I bought pretty impressive looking blueberries that day (I know, hypocrite)  that were sleeping in the fridge, waiting to be devoured in the most deserving way, with the utmost appreciation; Something I was perfectly willing to take on...Once I got a few hours of sleep.

Because I love my celiac-branded roommate Amanda so much, I pulled out my gluten-free flours and adapted the recipe; which really makes everyone feel better anyway, including myself.
The end result- Really buttery, blueberry- studded corn bread, reminding me of Mikee’s muffins at Tivoli Bread & Co. (which I loooove). So I paid tribute and made myself some Tivoli blend coffee too.  

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup gf all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
8 T unsalted butter (1 sticks), room temp.
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream OR plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup blueberries, washed and patted dry

TOPPING:
1/2 cup sugar
6 T brown rice flour
2 T cornmeal
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 T unsalted butter, cut into cubes.

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour the bottom/sides of an 8x8 square pan

• Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.

• Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until smooth and fluffy. Beat the eggs in 1 at a time, then add vanilla and lemon zest.

• Add a 1/3 of the flour mixture, all of the sour cream, and another third of the flour, beating until just blended after each addition.

• Mix the last of the flour with the blueberries, folding the flour-blueberry mixture gently into batter.

• Spread cake batter in the pan.

• Combine the dry topping ingredients in a bowl, smashing the butter with a fork or your fingers. Scatter topping over batter.

• Bake the cake until the top is golden, about 35-40 min. Cool the cake in the pan for awhile, then flip it onto a cooling rack before serving. 

The cake is perfectly sweet on it's own, but I found that a little drizzle of honey made it even better.