Also known as the best summer fruit based cake known to mankind.
Today was one of those crazy baking days where you just seem to make one thing after the other.
Jack and his friend Will wanted banana cake. So I made banana cake.
Then my friend Ashleigh came around with a box full of blueberries. So we made this blueberry cake.
Then I felt like sending Jamal something in Dunedin. So I baked a brownie.
Then before you knew it I was getting everything out to start cooking dinner.
Anyway Back to the blueberry cake.
Ashleigh took a trip to the Coromandel and on her way stopped off in Ngatea to pick some blueberries. I have decided that another trip to Ngatea needs to be made as they were the best blueberries I had ever tasted and better still they were only $9 a kg. Brill!
I saw a recipe in my Julie Le Clerc Favourite Cakes book for a frosted lemon blueberry slab cake. I'm not a fan of slab cakes, they never look as pretty as a nice circle, so we decided to use a 23cm circular tin instead. You don't want too small a tin as the blueberries sink which would leave you with a massive layer of plain cake over the top of the blueberries.
I feel like the blueberries could also be substituted for raspberries if you happened to have those in the fridge. What I think makes this cake great is the lemony tang of the lemon is softened with the delicate flavour of the blueberries.
The sour cream also makes it delicious and moist. The sourness counteracts all the sugar making it less sickly sweet.
Then you add delicious, whipped and luscious lemony icing to the top.
Just make this cake ok. It is so great. I know I say that about a lot of cakes but this is different. It is Summery. It isn't chocolatey and heavy but light, airy and fruity. And since fruit is good for us, especially blueberries, it is basically calorie free.
But as we all know, calories don't even count between December and February.
True story.
Did I mention this was super easy to make?
Ok I'll stop blabbing now and get straight to the important bit.
Lemon Blueberry Sour Cream Cake
Adapted from Julie Le Clerc's Favourite Cakes
Makes a 23cm diameter cake
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or thawed frozen ones)
Lemon icing:
30g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat until fluffy and voluminous.
Mix in sour cream and lemon zest.
Sieve in the flour and gently fold in until just combined.
Add the blueberries and delicately mix in.
Transfer into a lined cake tin (preferably one with a removable base) and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns golden and a skewer comes out clean. I found that the top of the cake browned quickly so to stop over browning I placed a piece of tin foil over the top.
Leave to cool for half an hour before removing from the tin and transferring to a cake rack. Leave to cool completely before icing.
To make the icing, beat all the icing ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. You may need more icing sugar or lemon juice depending on the resultant consistency.
Garnish with strips of lemon zest if you wish.
Enjoy with a nice glass of iced tea (we did!)
Today was one of those crazy baking days where you just seem to make one thing after the other.
Jack and his friend Will wanted banana cake. So I made banana cake.
Then my friend Ashleigh came around with a box full of blueberries. So we made this blueberry cake.
Then I felt like sending Jamal something in Dunedin. So I baked a brownie.
Then before you knew it I was getting everything out to start cooking dinner.
Anyway Back to the blueberry cake.
Ashleigh took a trip to the Coromandel and on her way stopped off in Ngatea to pick some blueberries. I have decided that another trip to Ngatea needs to be made as they were the best blueberries I had ever tasted and better still they were only $9 a kg. Brill!
I saw a recipe in my Julie Le Clerc Favourite Cakes book for a frosted lemon blueberry slab cake. I'm not a fan of slab cakes, they never look as pretty as a nice circle, so we decided to use a 23cm circular tin instead. You don't want too small a tin as the blueberries sink which would leave you with a massive layer of plain cake over the top of the blueberries.
I feel like the blueberries could also be substituted for raspberries if you happened to have those in the fridge. What I think makes this cake great is the lemony tang of the lemon is softened with the delicate flavour of the blueberries.
The sour cream also makes it delicious and moist. The sourness counteracts all the sugar making it less sickly sweet.
Then you add delicious, whipped and luscious lemony icing to the top.
Just make this cake ok. It is so great. I know I say that about a lot of cakes but this is different. It is Summery. It isn't chocolatey and heavy but light, airy and fruity. And since fruit is good for us, especially blueberries, it is basically calorie free.
But as we all know, calories don't even count between December and February.
True story.
Did I mention this was super easy to make?
Ok I'll stop blabbing now and get straight to the important bit.
Lemon Blueberry Sour Cream Cake
Adapted from Julie Le Clerc's Favourite Cakes
Makes a 23cm diameter cake
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or thawed frozen ones)
Lemon icing:
30g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on bake.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat until fluffy and voluminous.
Mix in sour cream and lemon zest.
Sieve in the flour and gently fold in until just combined.
Add the blueberries and delicately mix in.
Transfer into a lined cake tin (preferably one with a removable base) and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns golden and a skewer comes out clean. I found that the top of the cake browned quickly so to stop over browning I placed a piece of tin foil over the top.
Leave to cool for half an hour before removing from the tin and transferring to a cake rack. Leave to cool completely before icing.
To make the icing, beat all the icing ingredients together until smooth and fluffy. You may need more icing sugar or lemon juice depending on the resultant consistency.
Garnish with strips of lemon zest if you wish.
Enjoy with a nice glass of iced tea (we did!)