Blueberry Coffee Cakes

. Food Days.  At the office.  I ♡ them.

I don't know who or what to give credit [oh, maybe the mini quiches, coffee cakes, dips, pizza, wings, cookies, bars, lasagna, BRISKET!...], but everyone is just cheerier on Food Days.  Including myself.  The office is always a little chattier and you can always hear the shuffling of feet as co-workers walk to and from our conference room where the sweet and savory treats are stored. 

I obviously did nothing to contribute to the savory goodies [which usually seem to be amiss on these Food Days but definitely were not this time] but I did my fair share of baking.  Oh, you betcha!  I actually had a couple things in the works not only for Food Day but also for a request from a good friend.  I don't think he's made an appearance on my blog yet, but this particular co-worker is one [of two] of the people I started my job with.  We also had a fun experience 'training' together last fall for the Corporate Cup, which is a 6K race.  I use the term 'train' rather loosely though, since our training included maybe 2 sporadic runs throughout a week consisting on average of about 4+ miles each.  Oh, and we started about 1 month before the race.  However, our lack of consistency seemed to pay off because we did rather well in the race.  But we can thank our semi-young bodies for that. 

Anywho, since it was his birthday I graciously offered to bring in a treat of his choice.  He quickly responded that a nice chocolate chip cookie wouldn't be too bad, so the NYT [Best] Chocolate Chip Cookie was immediately on the list.  For the actual baking, I did the same thing as I listed in the post.  Except, there's always an 'except', I decided to throw the pre-baked balls of dough into my Whoopie Pie Pan.  In my expert opinion, I thought they turned out rather nicely.  I had to be careful about the baking time because I didn't need burnt cookies for Food Day, but otherwise it was all pretty simple.  The cookies turned out chewy, soft, and perfectly rounded.  I haven't decided yet if I like the perfect roundness or if I prefer the more free-form cookie.  Hmm...we'll make that decision at a later date though.

Since a dessert was picked out for me, I felt obligated to also bring in a breakfast item (just kidding, that's only my excuse to bring in another baked goodie), which I also received some guidance with.  During a shopping trip, Bacon-Loving Friend (oh, and we'll refer to my friend up above as Running Friend from now on) picked up some nifty brownie liners, which are free-standing liners to make individual brownies, bars, muffins, etc.  So because of these, I knew I would be making something to utilize this gift (and it also had to be blue because the liners had cute blue swirls and I need things looking pretty).  The whole blue aspect narroed my options down rather quickly, straight to blueberries in fact.  And since Food Day's are so monumental, I had to go to a source that I knew wouldn't disappoint.  Thank you, Magnolia Bakery.  I decided to test out their Blueberry Coffee Cake, adapting the recipe to fit the individual serving idea I had in my mind. 

And what do you know, I was quite pleased with the outcome!  Honestly, I was nervous about changing this recipe because more often than not, it never comes out quite right.  But thankfully, truly thankfully!, the cakes turned out so very moist and scrumptious.  The coffee cake itself is very, very light in flavor.  Dad, these would go great with coffee!  But the kicker is the Vanilla Glaze drizzled across the tops.  The glaze is extremely simple [as you can tell from the lack of ingredients], but it complements the cake to a 'T.'  Not too sweet , but juuuust right.  A perfect morning treat.

Off to work with my goodies!  I look like I'm going to a kids' birthday bash...

Hope everyone has a great weekend, our department has a golf outing tomorrow afternoon so wish me luck!  I'll need it.  Haven't picked up a club since our last department outing.  Last year.  I'm just praying I don't embarrass myself.  And if I do, I'll probably eat one of these left over coffee cakes.  And a cookie.

P.S. Remember that list of food I mentioned above?  That's seriously only part of the list of items people brought in for Food Day.  See above ☺

Blueberry Coffee Cakes

Adapted from More from Magnolia

Ingredients:
Cake:
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. canola oil
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/2 c. fresh blueberries, lightly coated with flour
Sugar in the Raw (optional)

Vanilla Glaze:
1-1/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 325°F.  Place 12 baking cups on baking sheet.  In small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

2.  In large bowl, with electric mixer on medium speed, beat together oil, sugar and eggs until light and thick (about 3 minutes).

3.  Add dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk and vanilla extract, beating after each addition until smooth.

4.  Fold in blueberries.

5.  Pour batter into baking cups, filling 3/4 full.  Sprinkle with raw sugar.

6.  Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

7.  Remove from baking sheet to wire rack and let cool completely.  Repeat with remaining batter. Meanwhile, combine powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream and vanilla extract in small bowl.  Heat in microwave at 50% for 30 seconds.  Stir glaze until smooth.  Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

8.  Drizzle glaze over coffee cakes.  Allow glaze to set before serving.

Yield:  18 individual coffee cakes

*My Notes:

• The original recipe made this coffee cake in a 10-inch tube pan.  If you don't want to make individual cakes, coat the tube pan lightly with grease and bake 60 to 70 minutes.  Then let the cake cool for 1 hour before removing from the pan.
• If you do decide to make this recipe how I did, I found that this cake doesn't rise much at all.  So go ahead and fill these fairly full (I recommend 3/4 but if you want a thicker cake, use more batter in each cup).
• Don't forget to coat the blueberries with flour!  This helps so the blueberries don't sink to the bottom of the cake while baking.