coffeecake with blueberries, brown sugar streusel, and orange marmalade

The details of this are based off the coffeecake recipe from Betty Crocker that was the first baked good I ever made by myself. The dream of this dish is the phrase "orange-blueberry bread." I recently read a rather endearing love story about an overworked lawyer who stress-bakes and the fellow who owns the coffeehouse across the street. It's one of two stories that makes me want to run off and start a coffeehouse bakery, the other being Robin McKinley's Sunshine (an adventure/thriller/vampire novel starring a snarky baker). To entertain myself, I decided to try to bake every baked good mentioned in the coffeehouse love story. And here is the first go: orange blueberry bread.



(Others to come will include: dark chocolate eclairs, cream cheese danishes with apricot glaze, and a really awesome cake).

The coffeecake is my basic Betty Crocker blueberry coffeecake, except with orange marmalade added to the center, buttermilk instead of plain milk in the batter, and lemon zest in the streusel. The center comes out a little gooey, which I think I'll work on in later attempts (maybe less marmalade? maybe mix an egg into the marmalade before adding it?). In attempting to deal with the extra moistness, I overcooked the cake a bit, so another attempt may be featured soon. The buttermilk in the batter made me quite happy and I think I'll keep that with every use of this batter from now on.



Orange-Blueberry Coffeecake
adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, gyzym's short story "I've Got Nothing To Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York)," and Alton Brown's marmalade recipe.

2 C flour
1 C sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 C butter, softened
1 C buttermilk
1 egg

blueberries (1-2 C)
orange marmalade (store-bought, or make you own)

In a large bowl, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, buttermilk, and egg for two minutes or until smooth. Grease a 9x13 pan and then pour in a little more than half the batter, using a spatula to cover the whole bottom of the pan with batter.



Sprinkle on the blueberries and some marmalade (perhaps a little less than pictured above; my cake was a little overly moist). Carefully drape the best of the batter over the blueberries. There will be plenty showing through and that's alright. Sprinkle on all the streusel (see recipe below) and then any leftover blueberries can go on top.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.


streusel
1/3 C brown sugar, packed
1/3 C flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 lemon's worth of lemon zest
3 Tb butter

Pound all ingredients with a fork or a whisk until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. If the clumps are too large and moist, add a little flour to dry it out.