Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Cake

Lightly sweetened, this breakfast cake has a springy texture and is easy to make. Why not bake a Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Cake today?

A few months back marked five years since we moved to Maine. Leading up to it, I thought about it often. Five years is a long time — longer than I lived in Pawling, NY or Manhattan and way longer than my stint in Arizona. I imagined what I would write to the mark the occasion and how a cake recipe would pair nicely here on Sarah’s Cucina Bella.

But then the day came and went and … it just wasn’t that important. As it turns out, it was a milestone that didn’t need fanfare.

I live in Maine. I’ve been here for five years. I like it a lot more than I did Connecticut. I guess that’s really all there is to say.

With Will starting high school in a month (!!!) and Paige not far behind him, this place that once felt so cold and so far north is now home. And it’s a pretty good home. There are mountains and lakes, a craggy coastline and history — so much history. We’ve hiked and ice skated and gone to concerts and learned to live a simpler life.

I love a simpler life. Turns out, having one television in a house isn’t a hardship. We don’t need the gadgets and gizmos that make homes have a constant buzz. And even going landline free — a bit earlier than a lot of other folks I know — was a pretty okay thing too.

Yea, Maine’s been good for us.

Fun fact: Maine is the largest producer of wild blueberries in the world. If you read literature by Maine authors like Cynthia Lord or Gillian French, you might just come across mentions of blueberry barrens. Although a majority of fields are picked with machines these days, there’s still plenty among the 44,000 acres in the state that are picked by hand using a blueberry rake.

And here’s something interesting about all those blueberries (50.3 million pounds in 2018!): most of them are frozen and shipped to stores around the country. If you’ve bought frozen wild blueberries, chances are they came to you from here — Maine.

Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Cake is a breakfast cake that celebrates blueberries. It’s springy and filled with blueberries and has a buttery topping that’s just perfection.

This starts with a batter, as most cakes do, that includes oats. Yum. And lots of blueberries too, naturally. I make it with frozen berries, but fresh could be used as well.

Then it’s topped with that sweet, buttery topping that bakes to perfection. Delightful!

This is easy enough to whip up for breakfast … well, when you have about an hour to spare. So maybe it’s easy enough for weekend mornings.

Or just make it ahead. Maybe that’s the smarter thing to do.

Then you have more time for exploring … wherever you call home.