Blueberry Gateau

I'm known for my Blueberry Gateau. It's a recipe I found in Country Living magazine years ago (from an article spotlighting recipes from Vermont's Blueberry Hill Inn) and I make it many many (many!) times each Summer.

I am proud of the fact that my teenage nephews ask if I've many any "gateau."

I'm tickled that Google associates me with blueberry gateau. Try it. Google "blueberry gateau" and see if I come up in the first ten results.

It is blueberry season, I am headed to the cottage and you can bet that the tablesetting will look like this before long.

Why don't you make a blueberry gateau? And be sure to tell me if you do!

Blueberry Gateau

Are you in charge of dessert for your next bookclub?  Need something to wow your Mother-in-Law?  Have I got a simple cake recipe for you! 

I have been faithfully baking this blueberry gateau recipe (courtesy of Blueberry Hill Inn in Goshen, VT) for the past ten years.  Since I bake and write about it so often during blueberry season, at some point people started to think of it as "my" blueberry gateau, but I want to make sure to direct you to its original source above.  It is a winner and I wouldn't change a thing.   

Things to love about this cake:

1. It looks "homemade" in the best possible way.  You worked your magic with butter, sugar and eggs and it shows.
2. It is loaded with fresh fruit.
3. You get to say gateau.

Apartment Living: Baked Goods & A Roaring Fire

Let's just say we were having a good night. Dan and I are living in an apartment outside Seattle as we transition our lives to Washington. Our apartment complex is brand new and in addition to having a nice swimming pool and community garden, they have an outdoor fireplace!

I knew that we would like sitting outside around a fire in the evening - who wouldn't? But until we walked over with a thermos of decaf and some blueberry gateau, did I realize just how perfect this is for us.

It was around 7:30 in the evening, a little too cool for swimmers, so we had the whole place to ourselves. While we made be crowded inside the apartment, this kind of amenity makes our space feel much more open.

*Have you made "my" blueberry gateau? I have written about it so much that many of the internet photos of blueberry gateau are mine! It is a wonderful recipe first printed in Country Living magazine and I know you'll love it.

Blueberry Gateau

Our micro-crop of blueberries is coming along nicely. We may have upwards of 100 blueberries this year! A real landslide compared to the crop of ten we had last Summer.

These little garden beauties are destined for a few bowls of cereal, nothing more. But even though there are hardly enough to speak of, we grew them ourselves and that will make them the best we've had all season!

Alas, the farmer's market is my actual source for blueberries. I need cartons and cartons to keep up with the Blueberry Gateau requests. It has become my signature dish in July and I just can't make it enough.

Have you ever made Blueberry Gateau? Make it once and they will ask for it for the rest of your life.

Blueberry Gateau

Blueberry Gateau...I have been making this recipe for years courtesy of Country Living magazine and a feature they did on Blueberry Hill Inn in Vermont. The recipe is published on their website here - you should really try it. It is a thin chewy cake with pockets of fresh blueberries. I make it several times a Summer and people love it. Great in the morning, perfect with tea, wonderful after dinner on the deck. Enough reasons? Plus, it is fun to say gateau.

gâ·teau Function: noun Etymology: French, from Old French gastel, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Old English wist sustenance, food

1 : food baked or served in the form of a cake 2 : a rich or fancy cake

Blueberry Dessert

What have I baked three times this week? My beloved blueberry gateau. Neighbors, friends, brothers - all have gotten their fill lately. Discovered years ago in Country Living magazine, this recipe from Vermont's Blueberry Hill Inn is becoming my signature dish for blueberry season. When I mention that I have/want/need blueberries, more & more people are asking "Are you making gateau?" (My neighbor even gave me a huge box of blueberries this week with a glance that said "You know what to do.") Delicious with a cup of tea, wonderful as a snack, perfect for company...I love this recipe. Try it. I know you will make it time and time again. And soon your friends and family will be asking...Are you making gateau?

Blueberry Farm: Bybee Farms in North Bend, WA

I am so happy that we found a U-Pick Blueberry Farm! In Michigan, all of the blueberry farms are too far away to enjoy on a weeknight, but here in Washington, I found one that is just 15 minutes from our house! 

We dropped Bybee Blueberry Farm a half hour before closing time and were invited to pick berries "until the air horn blew."  An air horn is the genius way they notify guests that it's closing time and that they should come in from the field to weigh and pay.

We picked a pound of blueberries in 30 minutes and paid $2.25/lb - not bad, huh?

The Bybee Blueberry farm boasts 6 varieties of blueberries available for U-Pick. I am not certain which variety we picked but they were delicious and the bushes were loaded!

We had enough blueberries for snacking and to make one of my gorgeous blueberry gateau. Blueberry season is still in full swing and I intend to go back and pick even more! Happy Summer!

Coffee on the Patio

It's a simple ritual, but one I look forward to just the same. Saturday morning coffee on the patio with my husband. On this particular day we lucked out and had some Blueberry Gateau from dessert the night before.

Have you made my blueberry gateau yet? It is very easy and absolutely delicious. Come on...blueberries are still available, but not for long.

Join me on the patio?

Individual Cherry Gateau

I love homemade desserts, especially ones that look as good as this! In the height of cherry season, I wash and pit fresh cherries and then freeze them in a single layer on a cookie sheet. After they are frozen, I transfer them to a Ziploc bag and store them in the freezer. When I want to bake, it is just a matter of defrosting! Try this preservation technique next Summer - you'll be glad you did! For now, buy some cherries in the freezer section of your grocery store.

This recipe is adapted from the tried & true Blueberry Gateau recipe that was featured in Country Living magazine as a specialty at The Blueberry Hill Inn in Vermont.

Individual Cherry Gateau

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
approx. 2 cups fresh cherries, washed and drained (or defrosted)
*enough cherries to place 3-4 cherries per muffin cup


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a Texas-size (giant) muffin pan with vegetable-oil cooking spray.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and light. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat until blended. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture.

Put 1/3 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Nestle 3 or 4 halved cherries into the batter in each muffin cup. Bake for 30 minutes.

Tiny Baked Goods: Me and My Toaster Oven

Ok, how do I really use my Hamilton Beach Set and Forget Convection Toaster Oven?  Baking! I was sure that I would be making lots of homemade dinners in our hotel room (with a kitchen, but no oven) and that premise justified buying and shipping this little beauty to our hotel. But in truth, it was my love of baking that kept this little oven busy.

I believe that food is love and that the effort you make in creating sweets for someone speaks volumes.  My husband is working very hard on this project and he needs cookies, I'm sure of it.  

Because I am in a new city, it is tempting to drive all over the area exploring, taking photographs, trying the local ice cream.  Day after day, I am out and about.  So when I specifically plan to be "home" all day in our hotel room, I do a baking blitz.

On this particular day, I made Blueberry Gateau, Baked Washington Peaches (I bought a bag of fresh frozen sliced peaches and they were delicious!) topped with a Granola Crumble and a batch of classic Chocolate Chip cookies. The room smelled heavenly and we had lovely treats to choose from the rest of the week. Win-win.

Can you really bake in a little Toaster Convection Oven? Absolutely. I really didn't see much difference in the baking time either. I kept an eye on things, but the gateau was ready in the expected amount time and the cookies took a minute longer. 

It was easy and it made me oh-so-happy to be mixing flour, sugar, salt again.

Cost Plus World Market: Super Cute Mixing Bowl Measuring Cups

When it comes to shopping for kitchen items, I am weak.  I absolutely love measuring spoons and dishtowels and cherry pitters and thermometers and...

You get the idea.  Well when I was living in a hotel for a few weeks in Seattle, I had a little kitchen where I was able to cook dinner for us.  I even had a convection toaster oven shipped to the hotel (thank you Amazon Prime) so that I would be able to roast and bake in the room, which was equipped with only a microwave and 2 burners.

Before I left for Seattle, I had fun at home planning my culinary adventure (cooking in a hotel room with limited supplies) and I packed up key spices in little ziploc bags and flew my favorite nonstick pan (a cross between a wok and a small stock pot) out in my suitcase.  But I forgot measuring cups. The room comes stocked with a liquid measuring cup, measuring spoons, a spatula and that's about it.  

Oh darn, I "have to go shopping" for some measuring cups.  And boy did Cost Plus World Market exceed my expectations! I have been finding more and more things that I like there. Items that are cute and fun.

Look at the teeny-tiny "mixing bowl" measuring cups I found! They were about $5 and I absolutely love them.  They look so cute sitting on the countertop that I have yet to put them away.  So far I have made my blueberry gateau twice!