We had a church supper coming up. Merri Ann, my wife, asked, “What can I take that people will really like?”
“Make a Blueberry Lemon Crunch Cake,” I said “It will make you a hero.”
She did. She is.
A Blueberry Lemon Crunch Cake is a moist, slightly dense cake with lots of blueberries and a crunchy almond topping. It’s drizzled with a luscious lemon sauce or syrup, one with a flavor like lemon pie. Lemon and blueberries are a classic combination. This cake will tell you why.
The purpose of this article is to tell you how make the almond crunch so that you can add it to your desserts, coffeecakes, and muffins. We’ll also explain what a cream cake is so you can add that to your kitchen arsenal.
What You’ll Need/Shopping Tips
Save $7.00 and get the Blueberry Almond Crunch Cake mix. (Offer expires June 30, 2015) We have yet to find anyone who is not delighted with this cake.
Then get the syrup—for free. (Offer expires June 30, 2015.) You’ll find a drop down menu to choose the syrup or sauce you want. It’s a thick syrup. If you would like it a little thicker, cook it for a minute or two longer. But we think it is perfect just as it is.
See the Vanilla Bean Cream Cake mix other cream cakes mixes.
What is a Cream Cake?
A cream cake is made with pudding. There is enough pudding in the cake that it is moister and a little denser than ordinary store mixes. It’s not as dense as a pound cake.
We use cream cakes almost exclusively for cupcakes. There is so much frosting, and sometimes filling, with cupcakes that it just overwhelms the light, airy store mixes. A cream cake creates a better balance.
But mostly, we like the way they taste and their moistness.
But there is another reason: they handle inclusions such as chocolate chips or fruit better. You cannot make this cake—at least not as well—with a light, airy cake mix. The fruit drops through the batter to create a layer of fruit on the bottom of the pan. Same thing with baking chips. There is too much air and too little batter in a store mix. (If you beat too much air into a cream cake, the fruit will tend to settle also.)
You may find some gourmet or quality cake mixes in your grocery store with pudding in the mix. Or you can buy them from us.
What’s the Secret of the Crunch?
An egg white. The egg white “glues” the sliced almonds together and becomes crunchy in the oven.
Here is the recipe to make enough almond crunch for a 9×13-inch sheet cake:
- 1-1/4 cups of sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg white.
Mix the three together. Spoon the mixture over the batter and bake per the cake directions.
Pretty simple. It’s pretty versatile too. It’s perfect for coffeecakes. It’s delightful on muffins. Look at these blueberry crunch muffins.
More Suggestions
The lemon is the perfect match for the blueberry cake but don’t overlook the others. Here are a couple suggestions:
- Put the spiced pear syrup and sauce over a spice cake made with walnuts. (Nuts are light enough that they won’t sink through the batter of a store mix.)
- Make acarrot cake and instead of frosting it, drizzle it with caramel syrup (The Old Fashioned) and top it with whipped cream.
- Carrot cake with almond crunch is fantastic.
The almond crunch is light enough that you can use it on store mixes.
Now, go create some delightful desserts for your family.
When you look at the components, this is a simple dessert. Combined, it is absolutely luscious.
- We used a vanilla bean cream cake mix for the base.
- We added frozen blueberries.
- We added a crunch almond topping.
- We drizzled it with a luscious lemon sauce.
Save $7.00! Get the cake mix with the crunchy almond topping.
Make a free lemon or other sauce to drizzle over the cake.
We added the crunchy topping to a muffin mix to make the best blueberry muffins you’ve ever tried.
Author Biography
Dennis Weaver has burnt food from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Miami, Florida. He is the founder of The Prepared Pantry in Rigby, Idaho and the author of How to Bake: The Art and Science of Baking available as an E-book or as a Kindle book on Amazon.
He loves to help people bake and shares his vast collection of cooking and baking knowledge on his blog as well as in his E-books and Magazines.
Dennis lives in Rigby, Idaho, with his wife, Merri Ann. They have five wonderful children and five beautiful granddaughters.
