Blueberry Breakfast Cakes
I made these a few years ago for the first time, hoping to find the perfect blueberry muffin recipe to add to my collection. When I took them out of the oven, I was sad. They hardly rose at all, I thought. Where are my muffin tops?
I thought I would have to continue my muffin search. Then Stewart ate one. Then another. I tried one. The batch was gone within hours. Don’t be fooled by their diminutive stature. These little lovelies are moist and fluffy. They’ve got everything I love in a muffin – a crunchy sugar top, a balance of blueberries to cake, and above all, consistent results. I realize it’s a risk to say that when I post a recipe, but they’ve always come out well for me, even in four different kitchens over three years.
I should say that they do lack a proper muffin top, but that’s not an issue for us. I suppose my search for a perfect muffin isn’t over, but I hardly think about that when I get to have these. They’re not muffins, they’re not cupcakes, they’re blueberry breakfast cakes. Or afternoon cakes. Or midnight snack cakes. Or gimme now cakes!
Blueberry Breakfast Cakes
Makes 12 cakes
1 1/2 Cups + 2 Tbs All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
Heavy pinch salt
1 Cup Sugar, and more for sanding
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (like canola)
1 Ener-g Egg Replacer
1 Cup Vanilla Silk Yogurt (a little less than 2 small containers)
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Cup + 1/2 Cup Blueberries (frozen okay, see directions*)
Muffin liners
Preheat oven to 380º F, (will be increased to 400).
Line metal muffin trays with paper liners and set aside.
*If using frozen berries, keep frozen until the last second! I’ll tell you when to take them out of the freezer in the directions.
Mix all the dry ingredients (through sugar) in a large bowl. Use a whisk or a fork to incorporate everything very well. Remove 1 Tbs of this dry mix and place in a small bowl and set aside (this is for coating your blueberries).
In another bowl (or 2 cup liquid measure, I find that easier), mix your yogurt, oil, vanilla and prepared “egg”. Whisk well to incorporate.
Get your blueberries from the freezer, measure out 1 Cup and place in the small bowl with 1 Tbs of dry ingredients. Toss to coat. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, getting every bit (a rubber spatula helps). Using your rubber spatula or a wide wooden spoon, gently fold the wet ingredient into the dry. Once it is JUST incorporated, scatter blueberries on top.
You have 3 stirs to mix them in, so make them count. I’m not kidding.
See, here’s the deal. Frozen blueberries tend to turn everything, well, blue. You want your cake part to be yellow, not some weird purple-gray color. Any more than 3-4 stirs, and that protective coating of dry ingredients we tossed the berries in will start to come off and dye your batter. (Fresh blueberries aren’t this fussy.) The good news is that you really can stir them in in just 3 turns, even though you’ll really really want to stir more.
Once the berries are mixed in, distribute all the batter into your tins. You’ll feel like you’re over filling a bit, but that’s a-okay. These don’t really rise all that much so it’ll be fine. Add up to 1/2 cup more blueberries over the tops, pressing them into the batter gently but not submerging them.
Sand cakes with a (un)healthy amount of sugar, using a coarser sugar if you’ve got it, such as Sugar in the Raw. I’m weird and keep like three different kinds of sugar in my kitchen at all times. The sugar you used for the batter will work just fine.
Place them in the oven and increase the temperature to 400º. Bake for 20-25 minutes on the middle or top-middle rack of your oven, turning half-way to ensure even cooking. They’re done when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are a rich golden brown.
Let cool on a wire rack. They’re delicate when they’re hot so be careful when transferring them. These taste amazing at room temperature, so wait as long as you can to try one.
I know there are a lot of specific directions for these, but hey, it’s what I do and they come out great!
Happy belated birthday, by the way! I’m in love with my cast iron griddle and pans, so I know you will find much use for yours.
As for these cakes… what can I say, they’re gorgeous. I just ate the last of my vanilla silk for breakfast (damn!) so I’m going to have to buy some more just to make this recipe!
so pretty! I will try these soon.
Lolo, did you use the Silk brand Live Soy Yogurt with this recipe?
So I just made these for my friend’s b-day tomorrow morning and I am hoping they will be hugely successful. I have been holding off eating them right out of the oven per your suggestion, so I will wait until morning to taste test. Mine got a little syrupy (carmelish color) in the bottoms of the tins, probably from the sugar at the top, but they look like they are holding up their shape. I am so exited about presenting them tomorrow!
Hit upon your blog while I was doing a blog search for Moroccan recipes..the soup does look lovely and im going to try it…
On these ‘cakes’ – i am a vegetarian, so i eat yogurt and egg, can I substitute your soy yogurt with plain yogurt and the egg replacer with egg for similar results?
Thank you very much for sharing this recipe!
I just made it yeastarday and it’s almost gone.
This is an amazing cake!
Bazu – Thanks! I do love my cast iron stuff. I’ve been over excited about the grill/griddle, so I haven’t even used the skillet yet! Shame on me.
Celine – Thanks! I’d love to know what you think!
Katie – I hope they worked out for you okay! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the caramel color on the bottom, so let me know what ended up happening!
Nandita – I have no idea if eggs or dairy yogurt would work in the recipe, I haven’t bought, eaten or baked with them in years. Sorry!
Lotta – Yay! I’m glad you liked them! I saw your flickr photo, they look absolutely gorgeous!
I wanted to make these last night, but I don’t have soygurt at the moment, and didn’t want to use silken tofu instead. I mean, there’s a big diff between vanilla soygurt and silken tofu, for pete’s sake. boohoohoo. anyway, hopefully, soon.
perfection!!
two questions about these delicious looking cakes:
1. how sweet are these? will i be able to get away with 3/4 cup sugar or less? (still going to sand the top with sugar)
2. would using flax instead of ener-g mess these up really bad?
Yummy! I used a banana instead of the Ener-g because Whole Foods didn’t have any egg replacements (what?). Still good. They also didn’t have vanilla yogurt so I used blueberry yogurt. So since they were blue anyway I didn’t do the fancy blueberry technique. I agree, they are prettier when they’re not all blue. But whatever.
Hi, First off let me say great site! I had a question about the Ener-g egg replacer, if I can’t find it where I live is there anything else I could use to replace it? I live near a Wild Oats but I’m not sure if they carry it.
Also, if I wanted to use lemon extract instead of the vanilla (and plain soymilk) do you think I’ld use the same measurement? My friend made some non-vegan lemon blueberry muffins that I heard were great and I wanted to try to make ones that were Vegan. Thanks!
I made them today for breakfast. Delicious! I substitute half of the flour with whole wheet flour, and I only had kid’s fruit yogurt, so I used 4 banana’s and one strawberry cups (50g each). I love them! This exactly want I wanted to make! Thank you very much.
these look like veganized muffin versions of the classic french gateau au yaourt! fantastic!!
These muffins are SO GOOD !! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I used flax (1 Tsp ground flax seed in 3 Tsp of water) instead of «Ener-g Egg Replacer» and it worked well.
Oh my gosh these are soooo good! I like muffins for breakfast and was stressing out over the weekend since I’d decided to be a vegetarian and couldn’t use my normal recipes. VeganYumYum to the rescue!
best muffin ive ever had including nonvegan ones! so yummy and delicious…the entire muffin tastes like a muffin top so there is no need for one anyway! thanks for the great recipe
YUM! I used ground flax seed as my egg replacer, and ended up using vegan sour cream instead of soy yogurt (I had already put all the dry ingredients together without realizing – whoops – no soy yogurt on hand!). These are DELICIOUS, I really can’t praise you any more – I had two for breakfast and my (omni) dad loves them too. Thanks so much!