Blueberry Poppy Seed Cake

I DID IT! Yesterday I woke up at 4:45am to get ready for my first race! I was so excited and so nervous when I woke up I couldn’t really eat, but I forced myself too. Then I quickly got ready, picked up my friend Lauren, and headed to ASU to meet up with about 30,000 other runners to run 4.2 miles in honor of Pat Tillman. Let me tell you this: IT WAS AWESOME. My official time was 49:23, that’s about an 11:46 mile – my fastest time yet! My friends Lauren and Charles ran with me too.

We tried to stay together, but eventually all got separated. When I started running by myself I started to talk to my feet (I needed something to get my mind off how bad my knees hurt). I just kept telling them “You can do this!” and “Come on feet! Take me places!” A little bit crazy? Yes. But did it help? Yes. I also liked running in an actual race because having people pass me pushed me to run faster so that I could pass someone else. I think that’s why my time was faster than it normal is. All I know is that It was the best feeling in the world to cross the finish line and feel SO ACCOMPLISHED. My knees were killing, my body was dehydrated, my feet wanted me to sit down, but for the first 10 seconds after I crossed the finished line none of that matter because I accomplished my goal! GO ME!

So to reward myself for my awesome run yesterday I decided to make this oh so delicious blueberry poppy seed cake and eat TWO pieces as soon as it was done! This recipe is originally from Joy the Baker, but I adapted it slightly. I cut out some of the oil and added some Greek yogurt. Instead of making a blueberry glaze, I added the blueberries into the actual cake and then made a lemon glaze on top. SERIOUSLY. LEMON AND BLUEBERRY ARE THE BEST FLAVOR COMBINATION EVER. It’s my favorite. It should be yours too. I also think you should get your butts in the kitchen and make this recipe as soon as you are done reading my post! Deal? Deal.

(Beware I got a little picture happy with this recipe.)

Blueberry Poppy Seed Cake
(Adapted from Joy the Baker)

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup canola oil
1/3 cup Greek yogurt*
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 – 2 ½ cups fresh, or frozen, blueberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F**. Grease and flour a ten inch bundt cake pan. Then, in a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Set Aside

In a medium bowl combine oil, Greek yogurt, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until there are no lumps in the batter.

Then fold in poppy seeds.

Then fold in blueberries.

Bake 325F for 1hr 15 mins – 1hr 25mins***. Let cool completely in bundt cake pan.

Once cooled, release cake from pan by flipping it over. Then glaze the cake with a mix of powdered sugar and freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice). THEN DEVOUR!

Notes:
*You can use plain yogurt if you like, I just prefer Greek yogurt. You could even use the original 1 1/3 cup canola oil if that is all you have
**&*** The original recipe says the cake should be baked at 325 fro 35-45 minutes. Mine took a lot longer than that. I don’t know if it was because of the Greek yogurt, the frozen blueberries, or just because I was too excited to keep the oven door shut. So your cooking time may very. Also, trying baking the cake at 350 for a less amount of time. Let me know what worked best for you!

Avocado Pound Cake: FAIL.

I’m sad and upset to report that the avocado pound cake was an epic fail…okay maybe I’m being a little dramatic. Was it a fail? Yes.  An epic fail? No.  The cake itself tasted DELICIOUS.  There was a subtle hint of avocado that I wasn’t expecting.  I thought the avocado flavor was going to be more of a in your face flavor, but it wasn’t, and it was beautiful.  The batter was delicious too! Once I poured the batter into the loaf pans I couldn’t stop eating the left over batter that was in the bowl.  SO GOOD.  Now you see, the fail part comes into play when I put them in the oven.  I baked them for the recommended baking time of 45 minutes.  But when the time went off, and I took them out of the oven they were still jiggley in the middle.  I put them back in for another 15 minutes and the middle caved it.  It was a horrible mess.  They didn’t look pretty, the center was still slightly gooey, and the top was too brown for my liking.  FAIL.

I figure since this blog is about my baking adventures that I should post the mess ups.  Not that mess ups happen often.  This has only happened to me one other time – with a lemon cake.  There was lots and lots of champagne involved (Note to reader: Do not drink while baking).  It was a REAL mess.  But I don’t really want to talk about it.

BUT don’t worry.  The pound cake may have won this time, however, I feel a round two coming soon.  And I am pretty sure that I am going to own the pound cake.