Mixtape Potluck...Featuring Blueberry Crunch Cake and My Favorite Holiday Party Playlist! #MixtapePotluckCookbook #abramsdinnerparty #cake #easybaking #holidayplaylist #getthepartystarted

The holiday season is here...which means lots of parties and potlucks with family and friends. It also means cooking and eating lots of great food! My latest featured cookbook as part of the ABRAMS Dinner Party group is Questlove's Mixtape Potluck. If you're not familiar with Questlove, he's the drummer for The Roots...who just happen to be the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He also loves to throw dinner parties! The premise of Mixtape Potluck is this: what if Questlove threw a dinner party and all his celebrity friends came? This cookbook focuses on a dinner party for Questlove's friends, their recipes....and the songs that each dish inspires. How fun is that?!?!? 

The book is full of amazing recipes, including Jessica Biel's super easy Blueberry Crunch Cake. It comes together in minutes...it smells amazing as it bakes...and it tastes fantastic! In the recipe introduction, Questlove mentions that Jessica moved around a lot during her childhood. In light of that, the song he chose to pair for this easy dessert recipe is Luther Vandross' version of A House Is Not a Home. It's definitely a comforting, homey dessert! 

Before sharing the recipe for this comforting cobbler-like dessert with you, I want to take a minute to share my curated playlist of holiday songs that are guaranteed to set a festive mood for your upcoming holiday celebrations! It includes everything from traditional holiday carols, to modern classics. All you need for a fantastic holiday party are people you love...delicious food...and some good tunes to bring it all together!

Now...about that Blueberry Crunch Cake recipe. I promise it will quickly become a go-to dessert recipe in your repertoire! This recipe is great to pop into the oven just before your party guests arrive...them smell will have their mouths watering in anticipation of dessert to come!

Blueberry Crunch Cake

from Mixtape Potluck via Jessica Biel

Serves: 12 to 16**

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine -- plus more for the pan
• 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple in juice
• 3 cups fresh blueberries
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1.5 cups chopped pecans
• 2 tbs. sugar

**Note: The recipe provided is for a full-size 13x9 cake. The photos shown below are for a half-size 8x8 version of the recipe that I baked for my small household.

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 35o℉ and butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Turn the can of crushed pineapple out into the prepared baking dish and top with the blueberries.

Step 2: Open the bag of cake mix and add 1/2 cup of the chopped pecans to the bag. Give the bag a few shakes to evenly distribute the pecans. Sprinkle the cake mix evenly on top of the blueberries. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then drizzle the melted butter on top of the cake mix.

Step 3: Add the remaining 1 cup of chopped pecans to the pan that the butter was melted in. Toss the buttery pecans with the sugar, then sprinkle evenly over the cake. That's it...ready for the oven in less than 10 minutes!

Step 4: Bake the cake for 1 hour, rotating once halfway through. The cake will be light golden brown on top. This fruity dessert is essentially a "dump cake," which were very popular back in the day. This version is updated to use fresh fruit instead of canned pie filling.

The combination of sweetly tart blueberries and pineapple worked nicely with the crumbly cake crumble...and the pecans provided nice crunch! We ate our Blueberry Crunch cake warm from the oven as is. But? A scoop of vanilla ice cream would be a fabulous addition! This recipe is perfect to have in your culinary bag of tricks during the busy holiday season. It's a snap to assemble, and it's practically foolproof to bake. Fresh cranberries could definitely be used instead of blueberries for a festive Christmas morning breakfast!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Mixtape Potluck as part of the ABRAMS Dinner Party group. All opinions expressed are solely my own.