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Blueberry Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Blueberry Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Last week, after making this amazing buttermilk blue cheese dressing I found myself with some leftover buttermilk and since Granny taught me (while scraping all the last bits of cake batter out of the bowl) that "one must always be frugal" I couldn't bear to let it go to waste. I also had these huge and lovely plump and juicy blueberries. I'm telling ya some of these suckers could've been mistaken for plums! They really deserved a nice cakey home and they received it in this gorgeously fresh and easy beyond belief cake.

blueberries and lemons

So, all you foodies out there know about Tessa Kiros right? Yes? Well, then you know that she writes the most beautiful cookbooks, every time I open them up I want to dive in and live inside them where I could eat well and be happy for all the rest of my days. This cake is from her book Apples for Jam...you probably know it, it has little red shoes on the front of it! Tell me, who could possibly resist a cookbook with shoes on the front! Well I couldn't anyway. The book is beautifully laid out featuring recipes from all the colours of the rainbow interjected with lovely little stories. A book written for her children, and to help parents cook with children, it is grown up but features such simple heartwarming food that it really is a triumph for all ages. With the dirty thirty looming very soon, I am decidedly not a child (despite acting like one more often than I would like to admit), and I have no children (yet...hi mom!) but I love this book all the same. Every time I cook something from one of her books I am reminded that I should be cooking from them more often...Tessa if you're out there you are one of my food heroines! 

I made a few adjustments to the recipe adding a bit of lemon juice and yogurt to bring even more lightness to it, and I baked it in a smaller pan than what was called for as I really wanted thick slices you had to really stretch to get your mouth around. I think you could probably even do this cake in several shapes and sizes, its so easily adaptable I might try it as a bundt cake next time. Tessa also mentions you could use any type of berry here as well, I think raspberries or blackberries would work beautifully but whatever you do make sure you are using fresh and not frozen as the latter would make this disappointingly mushy. 

Blueberry Lemon Buttermilk Cake
  • 2 1/2 cups / 315g plain flour 
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder 
  • 1 very scant cup / 90g of caster (superfine) sugar
  • pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup / 250ml buttermilk (or 3/4 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup yogurt as I did) 
  • 10 Tablespoons / 60g butter, melted and cooled slightly  
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 150g / approx 1 cup blueberries
  • 2 Tablespoons demerara sugar  
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest 

Preheat the oven to 400f / 200c. Grease the pan. The recipe calls for a 12 x 8 inch (30cm x 20cm) pan but I used an 8 x 8 inch (20cm x 20cm) square pan, and turned the oven down to 375f / 190c as the smaller pan created a thicker cake that I did not want to go too brown on top. 

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder, and add the sugar and nutmeg. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the eggs until fluffy. Add the buttermilk, butter, lemon zest, and lemon juice and mix well until incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. You know the mixing rules...

Spread the mixture into the pan and tumble the blueberries over the top and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. I used less than what was called for in the recipe and I did regret it a bit as it would've given a nice crunchy dimension to the texture, so next time I would use the full whack. Bake for 25 minutes until the top is just golden and a skewer comes out clean. I let mine bake a little bit longer, taking about 30 minutes in my oven. 

Makes 12 - 15 regular sized square, or 9 "i didn't know my mouth could open this wide" squares. 

Found your post on TasteSpotting.  The cake looks wonderful.  You mentioned in the narrative that you used yogurt but did not list it in the ingredients.  Could you explain how to add/sub yogurt in the recipe?  Thanks!!!

April 26, 2010

This blueberry cakes looks fantastic!

April 26, 2010

I haven’t heard of this cookbook author, I will see if I can find one of the books at my local library.  This cake looks so good, tasty way to use up leftover buttermilk.

April 26, 2010

Lovely cake and photos!

April 26, 2010

Sorry about that! thanks for pointing it out Sue! I actually subbed 1/4 cup of the buttermilk with greek yogurt as I didn’t have quite enough leftover. The extra few teaspoons of lemon juice helped to loosen the yogurt to the right consistency.

This really was so good and sooo easy! Tessa Kiros is a firm favourite :)

April 26, 2010

this is incredibly gorgeous. Do you have any kind of light setup or did you just take the picture by a window? looks delicious!

April 26, 2010

Your blog is gorgeous!  Great way to use up that buttermilk!

so tasty looking….I would like a slice :)

April 27, 2010

Laura - thanks I don’t have a light setup, despite having a relatively dark space. I set my stuff right by the window and use a white foam board to bounce the light off which does wonders. I usually have a measly 1-hour window of perfect light every day so I have to work around that!

April 27, 2010

These look so tasty! I’m making a lemon/raspberry dessert this week, but am now tempted to use blueberries instead.

April 28, 2010

I just want to say that I think your site is absolutely fantastic. This blog is refreshing and inspiring. Claire x

April 30, 2010

I ate this scrummy looking cake and I one slice was not enough! Tthe best fruity cake I’ve ever eaten x

May 03, 2010

Thanks Melange, Claire, and Kirsty!! x

May 04, 2010

I made this last weekend for brunch at our ladies’ getaway in the country.  Perfect springtime deliciousness!  (I used blackberries because they were on sale here). Thanks!

May 18, 2010

Emily - so glad it worked out for you! I may try it with blackberries too, that sounds so good!

May 18, 2010

I just made this AGAIN for a birthday brunch. This time I completely forgot to pick up lemons.  But I had oranges and so I replaced the lemon zest and juice with orange and it was delicious too.  This is a fabulous recipe!

June 13, 2010

Thanks for the tip Emily! I will definitely try it with orange, I bet it would go fantastically with cranberries in the winter months too. Another version to try ;)

June 15, 2010

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