Skip to main content

March Birthday Goodies Part 1: Blueberry Cake


So this week was a busy week for baking in the house...we had two birthdays in two days and, being the good little daughter-in-law and sister-in-law that I am, not to mention baker, I volunteered to make the cakes.  I asked both of the birthday girls what they wanted and they decided on an angel food cake and a blueberry cake.  We will get around to the angel food cake...honestly I am not a fan and was not so excited about that one.  Plus I promised all the girls at work that I would post the blueberry cake recipe like a week ago, so I guess I had better get on that!  LOL

My sister-in-law loves, loves, LOVES blueberries.  She would eat blueberries for every meal honestly, so the fact that she chose a blueberry cake was not really a surprise.  This of course meant that I had to find a recipe, since I didn't already have one.  After reading a ton of different recipes and looking at lots of pics, I chose this one because it seemed over loaded with tons of blueberries and I wouldn't want to disappoint the birthday girl or anything!  This cake was so good in fact, that my daughter, who is also crazy for blueberries, demanded that I make her this cake for her next birthday too!




The egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar, beaten until stiff peaks formed



Fold the egg whites into the shortening, sugar and flour mix


Fold in the blueberries...




Blueberry Cake
adapted from Reluctant Gourmet

4 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup shortening
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup milk
3 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Using a mixer, beat the egg whites together with 1/2 cup of the sugar until stiff, glossy peaks are formed.  Set aside until later.  Sift together the flour and baking powder, then set aside.

Cream the shortening together with the rest of the sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Beat in the salt and vanilla.  Now add the egg yolks, one at a time, being sure to incorporate them entirely.

Toss together the blueberries with 1/4-1/2 cup of the flour mixture.  Mix in the remaining flour mixture alternately with the milk.  Beat just until incorporated then gently fold in the egg whites followed by the blueberries.

Pour into a greased 9"x13" baking pan and bake for 45-55 minutes.  Watch it carefully near then end as it can dry out quickly.  I grabbed mine out of the oven just in time.  (I still think it was a tad on the dry side but everyone else said it was perfect.)


Blueberry Frosting
makes 3-4 cups

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine (3 sticks), room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 to 1 1/2 cups blueberries, mashed, strained and cooled

Using a mixer, beat the butter until soft and fluffy.  Slowly add in 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add blueberry mixture and remaining powdered sugar until a good consistency is reached.  



To make the blueberry "mash", simmer blueberries on low heat until they release most of their juice.  Remove from heat and mash.  Strain to remove most of the skins then set aside to cool so that it does not melt the butter in the frosting.  Don't forget to strain it!  I did at first and found out the hard way that it is difficult to get the skins through smaller decorating tips...yeah.  I was not happy...but it all turned out in the end.

Enjoy!!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fruit & Nut Granola

I love having granola for breakfast!  I remember always wanting to have some granola whenever we had it in the house as a kid, it seemed like the kind of food grown ups ate, sort of like Grape Nuts only way better! The biggest down fall to granola is the really yummy stuff is sort of expensive, especially if it has lots of fruit and nuts, just the way I like it!  That's fine though, they can keep their expensive granola because this stuff is so simple to make at home! It takes almost no time and the joys of making it yourself is you know exactly what is going into it and you can customize your ingredients depending on your tastes!  Like I said, I love mine with lots of fruit and toasted nuts so I tend to use quite a bit of them in my recipe.  Feel free to adjust this to your tastes and try out different ingredients like coconut and various seeds, nuts and fruits. In a medium bowl combine your oats and sunflower seeds. Roughly chop you...
1 comment
Read more

The cookie that has it all: Double Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies!

So I'm not sure how many of you know how I feel about peanut butter and chocolate but I might have tossed around words like "God's gift to food" or "the most yummiest thing of all time" in the past.  Long story short, if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life you can be assured that peanut butter and chocolate would be main ingredients in my choice.  That is why I was so captivated by these cookies I saw posted over on Picky Palate 's page.  They have chocolate, peanut butter and pretzels...and they are topped with a tiny bit of sea salt, bringing that whole sweet/salty combo that is out of this world!  What more could you possible ask for in one small baked good?  Nothing I tell you!  Well, almost nothing in my opinion.  I am not really a fan of white chocolate so I substituted semi-sweet chips for the ones added in but either way these truly are the cookies that have it all!  For this recipe you are going to need some broken pre...
2 comments
Read more

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls...from scratch!

Tuesdays are our lazy days around our house.  I don't work until the afternoon and my daughter doesn't have school, so it is kind of the day that we sleep in, have a yummy breakfast and get a few things done around the house.  This Tuesday, I decided to make it extra special and make homemade cinnamon rolls...from scratch!  I don't think there is any better breakfast than a delicious hot from the oven cinnamon roll that you made with your very own hands.  Plus, I had some leftover cream cheese frosting that tasted just like Cinnabon's frosting...so yeah, basically best breakfast EVER! lol Our ingredients... Add your milk, oil, and sugar to a saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until just below boiling. Sprinkle on the yeast and allow to sit for a minute. Stir in the 4 cups of flour. Allow to sit covered with a kitchen towel for an hour in a warm place.  then stir in the last 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Place in ...
4 comments
Read more