Blueberry Walnut Coffee Cake Inspired by Starling Farm

Sep 19

This past weekend, I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Starling Farm’s beautiful new Farm Stand near Kaslo, BC. Kristy, the stand’s wonderful owner, mentioned that she was going to open it up for an end-of-the-season pop-up and since I was in the region (Creston) tending a family matter at the time, I made sure to factor Starling Farm into my journey!

I’ve driven the loop to Kaslo from Castlegar (via Crescent Valley and New Denver) and then down to Ainsworth Hot Springs and back to Castlegar (via Balfour and Nelson) many times in recent years. But this was the first time since childhood that I’d headed up to Kaslo from the Southeast (via Creston to Crawford Bay) and taken the Kootenay Ferry. No matter which route you take to get there, it’s a truly stunning drive with gorgeous views of the mountains and lakes and many cute coffee shops and places to grab a nice bite to eat along the way.

The stand’s location is marked clearly at the roadside with beautiful, hand-painted, reclaimed wood signs and you’ll find lots of easily-accessible parking as you pull up. The stand itself – found just a short walk up a grassy path – is a spacious wooden structure hand-built with love and perched in a sunny glade amongst the whispering trees. As the sunlight filters in through the leaves above casting ethereal beams of light and shadows all around, you feel as if you’re standing in a scene of a fairytale.

Within you’ll find all sorts of goodies from ceramic pint containers (for berries) and wooden salt cellars, to cured garlic and fresh produce, blueberries, gently used books and vintage thrifted items, hand-painted and hand-carved ornaments, the cutest beeswax candles, stove top simmer pot mixes, dried lavender posies, home-baked treats (like lavender cookies!), and much more! I picked up a sweet little mini pumpkin beeswax candle, a wooden salt cellar, a pint of blueberries, a pint of whole walnuts (in the shell), and a nursery pot of “hens-and-chicks” (my late grandfather’s favourite plant). Sometimes I farm stand hop in search of specific ingredients for a recipe I already have in mind and sometimes the ingredients I find in my travels spark the inspiration. The following recipe is born from the latter. As I picked up the blueberries and walnuts I thought “I’m going to make something extra special with these” and so here is my delicious Blueberry Walnut Coffee Cake!

Ingredients

For the cake:

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½ cup sugar (or honey)
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¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
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1 egg
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1 cup milk
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½ tsp vanilla extract
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2 cups all-purpose flour
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2 tsp baking powder
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¼ tsp salt
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2 cups fresh blueberries
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For the crumble:

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½ cup walnuts, chopped
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½ cup brown sugar
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¼ cup all-purpose flour
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¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
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1 tsp ground cinnamon
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Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 4 x 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, mix together the crumble ingredients well. Set aside.

Using a whisk or electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the milk, egg, and vanilla extract, then mix until combined.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add to the batter in batches, whisking in between, until the batter is smooth, scraping down the sides if necessary. The batter will be thick.

Using a spatula, gently fold in most of the blueberries, reserving a handful of blueberries.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and sprinkle the remaining blueberries on top. Spread the crumble evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean in the centre of the cake. Let it cool before removing from the pan. Slice and serve.