Mulberry Crumb Cake

When I think of mulberries I think of the summer after fourth grade. We lived in a house with a mulberry tree in the back yard and my sisters and I assembled a 'mulberry factory' out of pieces of an old swing set. We climbed up into the tree and sent fat, ripe berries tumbling down a shoot and into a bowl resting at the bottom. We were so proud of our creation and our lovely harvest! No one seemed as excited about it as we were though. My mom was displeased with the berry stains and no one was certain if we should actually eat them. We did what any other school age child would do and smashed the berries into the driveway, spelling out our names.

Many years later I of course learned that you can in fact eat mulberries. After finding a mulberry tree at the back of our property I looked into it a little more and learned just how good those little berries are for you. High in many vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, iron, potassium, and vitamin K, all of which hold great health benefits, it's a no-brainer adding these into our diets. (You can read more of the heath benefits I learned about here and here.)

We picked until our hands were purple and I even stuck my sister up on the ladder to relive our childhood. We picked about 10 cups of berries over the course of a week or so, picking only the ripe berries each time. It was the sweetest thing watching my girls work together to pick only the purple berries and try to fill their bowl! Most of the berries went into the freezer for later use but I couldn't resist whipping something up with a few of them!

Mulberry Crumb Cake

I borrowed this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, swapping the blueberries she used for mulberries (and maybe throwing a few extra in for good measure!) and adding some brown sugar in the mix.

Ingredients
Cake:
1/2 stick + 1TBS butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
2 1/2 cups mulberries
Topping:
3/4 stick butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 TBS sugar for sprinkling

Directions
Preheat oven to 350
To make the cake combine flour, baking powder and salt  in a small bowl and set aside.
Cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until well combined.
Alternate adding flour mixture and milk until incorporated being careful not to over mix.
Stir in berries.
Spray a 9 x 13 pan with a non-stick spray and spread batter into the bottom.
To make the topping combine all ingredients in a bowl and use either a pastry cutter or two knives in a cross pattern until small crumbles form.
Sprinkle over the top of cake.
Bake 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned.
Sprinkle sugar over top the hot cake and allow to cool.

We were impatient and didn't let it cool. We ate piece after buttery piece. It was so good! We shared with friends and family, baked another and shared some more. I had it with coffee, with some softened butter and even with a little vanilla ice cream. The recipe is a keeper!

And now the purple hand gallery: