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From America's Test Kitchen Season 8: Old-Fashioned Breakfast Cakes
This coffee cake with the odd name—so called because the girl who created it for the Pillsbury Grand National Baking Contest said that teenage boys found it irresistible—is a moist cake with blueberries and a light streusel topping. We tracked down a version of the contest-winning recipe and decided to see if we could improve it.
The original recipe called for shortening and granulated sugar. We swapped butter for the shortening and brown sugar for some of the granulated sugar. Both exchanges resulted in richer, deeper flavor in the cake. We doubled the amount of blueberries; half went into the cake batter and the other half on top. An extra egg in the cake batter firmed up the structure so that the extra fruit wouldn’t make the cake mushy. The topping couldn’t be simpler: in addition to the blueberries, just sugar and cinnamon instead of a streusel, which baked into a light, crisp, sweet coating. If the quick disappearance of this cake is any indication, it’s not only teenage boys who can’t refuse a second piece.
Serves 12
If using frozen blueberries, do not let them thaw, as they will turn the batter a blue-green color.
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