Cream cheese and blueberry coffee cake

Once again, we're snowed in. Seriously snowed in. The highways are closed, the public transportation system is shut down, and no one has even bothered to start shoveling. It's serious. Although I'll be hurting a little bit if work is cancelled again tomorrow, I've had too many (unpaid) snow days.

I searched high and low on the internet for a recipe like this, and I couldn't find any. I wanted a basic coffee cake, but with berries, a cream cheese layer, and a crunchy streusel-y topping. Why doesn't this exist besides in my mind?

The good news is that my ideal recipe translated perfectly into reality. This is a hell of a coffee cake. The base cake is light and fluffy, the blueberries fit right in between the cake and the creamy layer of cheese, and the streusel topping is thin and crunchy.

Cream cheese and blueberry coffee cake

Cake base and streusel layer adapted from the Joy of Cooking 1975 edition

For the cake base:

1 1/2 c rice flour mix

1/4 t salt

1/4 t xanthan gum

2 t baking powder

1/4 c butter, softened

1/4 c sugar

1 egg

2/3 c milk

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, blend together the flour mix, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder, then set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg, followed by the milk. Add the vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture. Blend well, then spread into a 8x8 pan or an 8" pie/tart pan.

For the berry layer:

1/2 c to 3/4 c fresh or frozen blueberries (don't thaw them if they're frozen)

1 T sugar

Toss the berries in the sugar, and sprinkle over the cake layer.

For the cream cheese layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used low fat 'Neufchatel')

1 egg yolk

1/4 c sugar

2 t lemon juice or vanilla

Smoosh the cream cheese together with the egg, sugar, and lemon juice. Beat until smooth, and drop big spoonfuls on top of the berries.

For the streusel layer:

2 T rice flour or almond meal

2 T butter

3 T sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

Mash together all the ingredients with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over the cheese layer.

Bake the cake about 45-60 minutes, until no longer jiggley in the center, and starting to brown. Cool completely before serving.