As the end of August approaches and students are getting ready to resume classes, it reminds me of a decision I made just over 3 years ago. I was twenty-five and working a job that I enjoyed, but I still felt that something was missing - so after a lot of soul searching and with the support of my family and friends, I decided to go back to school to pursue a degree in pastry. I graduated with my Associate's Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts this past December, and began working at a local bakery where I also completed my internship last summer.
One of the things I love about my job is having the creative freedom to come up with new desserts each week. There are five bakers that I work with, so each of us has a different day of the week to come up with something new and delicious for the pastry case. As I was going through Aunt June's recipes I came across this "Melt in Your Mouth Blueberry Cake". I've never had a blueberry cake, and I was kind of worried that it would taste like a muffin, but I had to try it nonetheless.
The Original Recipe:
2) Cream together butter and 1/2 cup sugar.
3) Add salt, vanilla and egg yolks and beat until creamy.
4) Combine 1 1/2 cups flour with baking powder. Add to egg mixture alternately with the milk.
5) Beat egg whites until soft, then add 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff.
6) Coat berries with 1 T flour and add to batter.
The Original Recipe:
 |
| These are the cakes right before going into the oven. |
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 3/4 cup + 1 T sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups + 1 T flour
- 1/3 cup milk
2) Cream together butter and 1/2 cup sugar.
3) Add salt, vanilla and egg yolks and beat until creamy.
4) Combine 1 1/2 cups flour with baking powder. Add to egg mixture alternately with the milk.
5) Beat egg whites until soft, then add 1/4 cup sugar and continue beating until stiff.
6) Coat berries with 1 T flour and add to batter.
7) Fold egg whites into the batter.
8) Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with remaining 1 T sugar and bake for 50 minutes.
My Substitutions:
The Verdict:
My Substitutions:
- I used individual paper baking cups instead of an 8" pan, and used 7 oz batter per serving.
- I used frozen blueberries - totally fine when you're baking with them, I promise!
- I needed to get at least 12 portions, so I made the recipe x3, which yielded exactly 12 cakes. *Note - Your baking time will be less than 50 minutes if you make individual cakes*
- I added the zest of 3 lemons (Just use 1 lemon if you're making the recipe as is).
- To jazz it up for work, I topped each cake with a swirl of lemon cream cheese frosting, and added some lemon zest and sugar flowers to the top of each one.
 |
| The finished product. |
This cake turned out great! It was better than I expected, and the texture was definitely more like a cake than a muffin. I'm sure the blueberry on it's own would have been delicious, but it's summertime and fresh lemon just makes everything feel more summery. It looked great in the pastry case at work, and all but one of them sold! Naturally, I took that one home for myself. I was really happy with this dessert, and I would definitely make it again - with just the blueberries next time. And then again, with peaches. And maybe a scoop of blueberry sorbet on the side. The possibilities are endless!
