Madness is Baking in August

I've baking through the entire summer, really. I've been baking for over a decade, but not until this summer A) with such ferocity (Hungryface Bakery) and B) where I've actually owned (read: will own in just under 30 years) the place I live in and therefor am trying to cut down the electric bill. 
Does that stop me? Heck no! Who wants some coffee cake?
While innocently perusing the local WholeFoods, I found some tiny blueberries. Wild blueberries, as it turns out:

 They wanted to be made into something special, and who am I to stand in the way of that? So I turned to this Recipe and once again, I'm veganizing Smitten Kitchen. Now, I've made coffee cake before, but streusel- damn you, streusel - has always eluded me. Not anymore. This recipe calls upon the Streusel Gods with such fervor and intensity so as to never be denied. You too, can make streusel. Let me be the guide.

Wild Blueberry Coffee Cake

(but use whatever fruit you want, I can't tell you how to live your life)

For the Streusel

 1/3 cup Brown Sugar

1/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 heaping tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Ginger 

1/8 tsp Salt

1/2 cup melted Coconut Oil

1 and 3/4 cup Flour

For the Cake

1 cup Flour

1 Tblsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Soy Yogurt

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Sugar

3 Tblsp Coconut Oil, semi-solid (ie: it's 80° in your kitchen)

Zest of 1/2 Lemon 

 

Firstly, streusel is a picky beast, there is a method here to follow. Combine the sugars, salt, and spices and then add the melted coconut oil. Once you have a sweet/spicy mess, add the flour and mix to incorporate. The result should be something very similar to the moon sand of your childhood:

Pack it down and leave it be for now.

On to the cake! Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. In another bowl, whip your sugar, zest, soy yogurt, vanilla, and coconut oil together with a fork until uniformly combined. Add the dry mix to the wet in batches until just combined.

Grease an 8x8 baking dish and add about half of your batter to it, then sprinkle with blueberries. You know what? It doesn't matter how gentle you are, you're going to break some blueberries. There will be blueberry carnage, hell, there was from just washing them, but it's okay. It will be tasty, and in the end, no one will ever know. They were wild blueberries, after all, no one will miss them. I mean...top off with the rest of the batter and add some more!

Glorious!

Now for the streusel. Break up your packed streusel with a fork into somewhat big crumbs. Smitten says approximately 3/4 of an inch at most. Sure. Sounds good. Sprinkle that on top of everything. And by sprinkle, I mean cover it until you ensure it will never see daylight again.

Push the streusel a bit into the batter, then top with some more blueberries and sliced almonds for crunch.

The low baking temperature of this recipe surprised me, but sure enough SK comes through again. Bake at 325° for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out cleanly (barring you stabbing some poor berry)

Take it to your friend's house and watch some Food Network because unless you want to gain 30 pounds in one sitting, you're going to need some reinforcements. That said, my calendar's open.

And just take a look at the streusel-y goodness. I don't think I've ever used that word as much as I have in the last 2 days. Streusel.

Enjoy!