Lemon Blueberry Cake
I told my son, Joshua, that I was working on a Lemon Blueberry Cake and his immediate response was to tell me in effect that I bake with lemons much too often. I tried explaining to baby boy (nearly 22 years old!) that I bought too many lemons over Thanksgiving and simply HAD to do something with them. This did not seem to please him, but it certainly did not stop me from figuring out this cake.
Around the same time that I bought enough lemons to open up a lemonade stand, I also bought blueberries at the grocery store. What I got was an overpriced package of inferior blueberries. My fault, really, because I know better than to dream about beautiful Maine blueberries at this time of the year; foolishly, I settled for the little itty bitty ones which were available.
So, I decided to try something I had never tried before; I bought dried blueberries. I decided to add a broken cinnamon stick to the blueberries before plumping them back up a bit with boiling water. The aroma was heavenly.
This Lemon Blueberry Cake is much lighter than its pound cake version. The original cake recipe called for a glaze of butter, confectioners sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Everything was great until the mixture curdled. I still poured it over the warm cake because I thought, “Of course, this recipe must know the secret to solving curdled mush.” WRONG! My curdled mush was just as terrible over the warm cake as it was in the mixing bowl.
Which meant that I had to bake another Lemon Blueberry Cake to get the glaze right, since scraping off the curdled topping and reapplying with another glaze did not seem like the right thing to do. In the end I had a good laugh at myself for the mess I had created with the first cake.
I am not so sure that I would have smiled quite so brightly had the second round not worked so beautifully. Will this light, refreshing cake put a smile on Joshua’s face? Perhaps, but only if I tell him that I will NOT bake with lemons in the near future.
| Lemon Blueberry Cake | | Print |
- Cake:
- 1 cup dried blueberries
- 1 cinnamon stick
- boiling water to cover blueberries
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk
- Glaze:
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 325°. Trace a 10” tube pan on a piece of parchment paper. Cut out the shape of the pan. Grease tube pan with butter and place parchment paper onto the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
- Break cinnamon stick in half and place over blueberries. Cover blueberries with boiling water and set aside for 25 minutes. Drain, and cover with paper towel to dry. Set aside.
- Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- Place butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add eggs one at a time.
- Blend in one-half of the dry ingredients followed by the buttermilk, lemon zest and juice. Add remaining dry ingredients. Remove cinnamon stick pieces and mix in blueberries.
- Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake on middle rack of a 325° oven for 65 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Prepare glaze while cake is cooling.
- For the glaze:
- Combine confectioners sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice in a medium size bowl. Stir vigorously until smooth. Transfer to glass measuring cup.
- After 10 minutes, cover pan with cooling rack, turn upside down and remove pan. Peel off parchment paper, cover with another cooling rack and turn cake over.
- Drizzle glaze over warm cake. Cool completely before transferring to serving plate.
- Betsy's tidbit:
- For easy cleanup, place wax paper under cooling rack before drizzling glaze over the cake.
