It’s wild Maine blueberry season so I decided to whip up this coffee cake, verbatim from the King Arthur recipe. Very much like blueberry muffins (very similar recipe in fact), but just in cake form. Stick with the wild sort of blueberry, not the cultivated type, as they are smaller and distribute better throughout the batter.
I decided to make this little Almond Red Currant Bundt Cake as a thank you present for a friend. I don’t make many things gluten free, but do know that my friend is wheat intolerant, so I gave it a go. Now, bundt cakes don’t need a whole lot of structure (that gluten provides) and I did give it some extra lift by whipping the egg whites separately (in addition to baking powder). Recipe is for one big bundt cake or two little ones (which I did). Substitute fresh or frozen blueberries if you don’t have red currant.
Just to prove — once again — that you can actually make my shortbread crumble bars in almost any flavor, I decided to go for three more unique ones: Jostaberry (a cross between a gooseberry and a black currant), Cloud Berry (golden blond raspberries) and Lingonberries (loosely related to cranberries). Over time, I had either made or bought jams of all three and decided to make bars from them. As always super easy to make and are delicious.
Here a bit using the of bounty from my weekend in Maine: Chanterelle and Caramelized Onion Breakfast Tarts with the chanterelles that I foraged in the woods myself. Let me start with this disclaimer: If you do not know your wild mushrooms, please don’t go foraging; just buy them in the shops. Even if you know your mushrooms, please be exceptionally careful. I have been “mushroom hunting” since I was a toddler with my family … it’s a German thing.
As is tradition in my little world, I went strawberry picking over the weekend, and what comes after strawberry pickin’? Jam makin’! Every year, I try to make something a little different, and this year, I used a little bit of honey. It’s just a little bit of a taste of floral, but nevertheless adds something nice.