Blueberry buttermilk snack cake

We had a fair amount of wood dust floating around the place today . . . in landed in our noses, irritated our eyes, and even got caked to our knees (at least some of our knees).  We are back at the home improvement thing -- and by we I mean mostly Byron.  The latest project: rehabbing our seriously weathered west-facing deck.  It was in rough shape when we bought the house, but rather than replace the rails and decking next year, we've decided to try to get several more years out of it by staining it.  In preparation, we took everything off the deck, replaced a few compromised pieces of decking, and gave the entire surface a once-over sanding.  This is dusty work.  And dusty work deserves a tasty reward.

Today's reward was snack cake.  You may recall my fondness for this cake form -- and this cake did not disappoint.  I found it among Smitten Kitchen's recipes.  But true to form, I changed a few things.  Partly because I had lots of help making it and my helper isn't super accurate at measuring things yet -- and also because I thought we would like it better with a few adjustments.  My cake didn't come out of the oven until dinner, so it was really dessert tonight.  But it will be eaten as snack cake tomorrow I assure you.

Last Wednesday, Wyatt and I took a little road trip with our friends Michelle and Sabine to a lovely blueberry farm north of Seattle in Bow, Washington.  We picked blueberries, chased chickens (at least some of us did), and eventually came home with eight pounds for ourselves.

These berries are the heirloom Jersey high bush variety -- deep blue, thin-skinned, and dead-ripe.  Because they are so good, we are doing our best to eat them all fresh rather than freeze any.  Thanks to Wyatt's double-fisted snacking, sharing some with my sister, and making this cake,  I have just one pound left to last us the weekend.

Blueberry Buttermilk Snack Cake
adapted from Blueberry Boy Bait by Smitten Kitchen

Cake:
2 cups flour + 1 Tb. flour, divided
1 Tb. aluminum-free baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
scant 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries

Topping:
1/2 cup fresh bluberries
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x13 pan.  For the batter, combine two cups flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.  Beat the sugars with the butter with an electric mixer on fairly high speed until fluffy (a couple minutes).  Next, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl between eggs.  Don't over mix.  With the mixer stopped, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on slow speed until just combined.  Stop again and add 1/2 the remaining dry ingredients and another 1/2 cup of buttermilk, then mix again.  Finally, add the last part of dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Fold the blueberries into the batter by hand. 

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Distribute the 1/2 cup of topping blueberries over the batter and then sprinkle the sugar mixture all over the top of the cake.  Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden.  Cool for 15 minutes before serving.