The best blueberry muffin cake

Method

Prep:15min  ›  Cook:45min  ›  Ready in:1hr 

1. Preheat an oven to 170 C / Gas 3. Prepare an 18cm round cake tin. In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients, so that's the plain flour, baking powder and the sugars.
2. in a separate bowl or mixing jug combine all the wet ingredients. That's the 2 eggs, vegetable oil, milk or buttermilk and vanilla.
3. now make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and tip in the wet ingredients. Now quickly and determinedly fold the two mixtures into one lumpy batter. The trick here is to not overwork the mixture. A few turns with a spoon and you're done. Lumps are good, I know it goes against every baking fibre in your body but lumps in muffins equal lightness.
4. Now just tip in your blueberries and give one last stir before pouring into the greased cake tin. If you like you blueberries to bleed into the mixture a lot I recommend halving them or squishing a few. The reason for tossing the fruit in flour before should help keep them suspended in the cake batter while it cooks so that they don't all end up at the bottom.
5. Now create the crusty top by scattering over the flaked almonds and a good sprinkling of demerara sugar. I find demerara is the best sugar to use on cake toppings; it gives a good crispy sugar crust.
6. Place in the oven for about 45 minutes, until when skewer comes out clean without wet batter sticking to it. If your cake starts to brown a lot on top - usually this can happen after 30 minutes - you can lower the temperature of the oven a little or place a bit of tin foil over the cake to stop the browning. However, just be aware that this may alter the cooking time.