There’s a boy in my son’s second grade class who is constantly making up stories. And my son, bless his heart, believes every word he says. Most recently, my son reported, this boy made up a new crayon color, sent it to Crayola, and they are going to start putting in their box of 64.
I had to explain to him that sometimes other people don’t always tell the truth. “You mean he LIED??”, he asked, horrified. “Well, this is more like a tall tale”, I told him. So now he’s never sure he wants to tell me the latest from the tall tale teller, ’cause he knows I probably won’t believe him. Bless his heart.
Well, when I made this recipe I was thinking I might just have to tell my son a tall tale myself, since he ‘thinks’ he doesn’t like nuts in his desserts. Little does he know that he has eaten nuts in all kinds of things I have made, and was no worse for the wear. He figured it out, though, and made me take the crumb topping off the top and put it ‘on the side’. The next thing I knew, his plate was empty, and he said to me “those nuts were really good!”.
I agree wholeheartedly. This Blueberry Crumb Cake recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, is my first one as a member of the baking blog group Tuesdays with Dorie. This week’s choice was made by Sihan of Befuddlement, and you can view the recipe there.
I really had no problems with the cake, besides using a lot of bowls! I loved how thick the buttery-sweet-crumbly topping was, and the crunch of the walnuts really did make it even better. My blueberries ended up mostly near the bottom of the cake, also, but in the book it looked like Dorie’s did too.
If I were to change anything, I would make the cake part just a tad sweeter. Maybe by increasing the sugar by 1/3 cup. The whole family thought this was super, and I will make it again, for sure.
Shortbread 
Yours looks so fantastic on the pretty blue plate!
That does look great. Glad this recipe got your son to eat nuts! All you have to do is coat them in butter and sugar!!
Yeah, I could eat just about anything coated in butter and sugar. I guess he gets it honestly!
Gorgeous photos! And I love your blog – adding it to the roll now! 😉
My son has a classmate like that. This one tells some pretty wild stories – sometimes I wonder if I should laugh or call the parent!
Anyways, welcome to TWD – you sure did a great job on the cake, and I’m glad you and your family liked it!
Welcome to TWD, your crumb cake looks just perfect! I love the story about the tall tale tellin’ second grader, how funny 🙂
Or you could double the topping.
Yum.
Even better idea!
Your cake turned out wonderful! I love your dishes. Glad that your son liked it. I too have had disguise food in order for my girls to eat it when they were little. Beautiful photos!
Your crumb cake looks fantastic.
Welcome to TWD! It’s a great group.
Yours looks so good! We loved this cake 🙂
Your blueberry crumb cake looks so delicious. Welcome aboard!
Welcome to TWD!! If you are like me, you will soon be working on your own nice muffin top because of the recipes. Yum.
I put my berries on top of the cake batter and they stayed at the top. sigh. I think sinking to the bottom wouldn’t be so bad next time;)
Your site is lovely and I love your story first.
Oh, yeah, doing that already! Gotta get on the treadmill.
looks great–no wonder your son cleaned his plate!
Welcome to the TWD group — I’ve had fun baking along with such a wonderful group of people, so I hope you’ll enjoy the experience as well!
Your cake looks delicious!
Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody! It’s going to take me a while to get through the roll, but I’m working on it.
Yes, I thought the cake part was a bit bland as well, but the topping more than made up for it! How cute are innocent children? Such a cute story about the “tall tale”!
Looks very good.
You know I have heard the Crayloa has color naming contests??
Is it your son? Just kidding!
Welcome to TWD! Your cake looks fab and so does your blog.
Welcome to TwD! This was such a good first recipe, don’t you think?
This cake is wonderful and is now one of my favorites!
Welcome to TWD….we are very nice and the desserts are oh so worth it :)…. I love your blog and the blue china is so fabulous….
welcome to the group! you did a fantastic job on the first recipe–your cake looks *perfect*!
you have a lovely blog! beautiful pictures 🙂
Looks like it turned out perfectly! Nice that the topping swayed your son, too.
Great first TWD post, Karen. Your cake on that plate is almost too pretty to eat. I’m so glad that Dorie (and you) have made your son a nut convert! Working your way through the whole list? I’m impressed. Love your blog.
Nancy
Yay!!! Welcome to TWD. Great job on this first Tuesday. It looks really moist and yummy!
Ha! What a great way to get your son to eat nuts. Welcome to TWD!
Welcome to TWD! What a great result you had with the blueberry crumb cake. Nice photos and story, I look forward to reading more about your cooking adventures.
What’s not to love about a crumb topping filled with sugar and nuts? Glad your family liked it. So what crayon did he make up anyway….kids are so darn funny!
Prown – purplish brown.
Oh, and welcome to TWD! This was such a great cake…I hope you’ll have lots of fun being part of this wonderful group.
Audrey