Blueberry Muffin Cake

One of my favorite perks of living in New York? The fruit vendors who are strategically located on every other street corner and who sell fruit at ridiculously low prices. They have everything from figs to lychees to eggplants and while it is not organic and probably not local, I think I can feel good about buying from the average Joe who is fighting to achieve the American dream through produce sales. There are certainly worse causes I could donate my money to. Like Coca Cola, for example.

All of this available fruit has spurred me to want to bake more fruit-filled desserts, especially as I'm not sure whether these low scale venture capitalists will still be around in the winter. Knowing that blueberry season is beginning, I decided to make a blueberry cake as my dessert-of-the-week. Kind-of like a muffin top turned cookie cake, this confection was especially good served with a dollop of whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or you can just dust it with some powdered sugar and serve it for breakfast or brunch instead of dessert. It's good at multi-tasking that way.
Blueberry Muffin Cake
Makes 1 10-inch cake, adapted from Simply Recipes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 oz butter
3 oz unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 cups blueberries
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 10-inch springform pan.

2. Combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter on high for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat on medium until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Add the applesauce and mix until incorporated. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low and add in the flour a little bit at a time. Pour the mixture into the baking pan.

4. In the same bowl that the flour was in, combine the blueberries, 1 1/2 tsp flour, and lemon juice. Pour over the cake.

5. Bake on a middle rack for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to a platter, berry side up.

I am submitting this to Weekend Herb Blogging which is being hosted this week by Rachel of The Crispy Cook.