Friday, September 2, 2016

Moist and Flavorful Blueberry-Lemon Poundcake with Lemon Glaze

Rich, dense and moist pound cake bursting with sweet blueberries and drizzled with zesty lemon glaze

I know, I know. One more sweet recipe with juicy blueberries.
You might be wondering, what's up with Manuela's obsession with berries?!
What can I say? Some things just can't be explained.
It might simply be my love for these healthy and delicious nature wonders... Or maybe it's the fact that they were on sale at my grocery store. And I just can't pass up a great deal!

While waiting in line at the check-out line, I was brainstorming about my next berry creation. I've posted recipes for blueberry muffins, blueberry crumble bars, blueberry and peach upside-down cake ... So how about a moist and flavorful blueberry pound cake?!? Oh yeah, look at this baby! Made with few simple ingredients, this breakfast cake was perfect next to my cup of coffee this morning.


And there are not just blueberries in this handmade goodness. But blueberries AND fresh lemon juice and zest. These two work so well together. A scrumptious sweet and sour combination.

This buttery and perfectly dense cake, with a moist crumb from the juice blueberries,  is fantastic on its own, but even better with a flavorful lemon glaze, bringing the zesty to a whole new level. 


This dessert can be dressed up with more berries, ice cream, or whipped cream. Or not. You decide. 
I guess it really depends on when you plan to serve it. 
If you should know what happened to the blueberry lemon pound cake in these pictures - I devoured a big chunk of it for breakfast with my coffee. More specifically, dunk in a creamy and steamy Italian cappuccino. Mmmmm. So good.  And a great way to jump-start my day! 

Here are a few things to keep in mind when making this recipe.
You need to be patient when creaming the butter with the sugar and mixing in the eggs and vanilla extract. Take your time. 
Blend well, and scrape the sides. I used a handheld blender, but anything works. Just take your time and mix until the mixture is light and super fluffy.

When you combine the dry ingredients to the cake batter though you want to do the minimum amount of mixing. It's best to use the blender at low speed and just enough to combine the flour.

Add the blueberries, and fold them in with a spoon. Coating the blueberries with flour before adding them to the cake batter can help avoid them sinking to the bottom of the loaf when in the oven. I didn't do it this time. Shame on me! The result was not too bad, with the exception of one edge which could have used fewer blueberries :)

Make the simple glaze and pour it on top of the cake when ready!


Ingredients: for one loaf 9x5 in (23x12.5cm)
For the pound cake batter:
  • 2 cups (300 gr)  all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons  baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 8 oz (225 gr) unsalted butter, softned*
  • 1 1/2 cups (300 gr) sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • 1 large lemon, grated zest and juice
  • 1/2 cup  (125 ml) milk
  • 10 oz (280 gr) fresh blueberries, about two full cups
For the glaze:
  • 3/4 cup (85 gr) of powdered sugar (icing sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • zest of half lemon (optional)
*Remove from the refrigerator about one hour before starting with the recipe.

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C). In a medium bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside for later.

In a separate large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar with an electric hand mixer at medium speed. 
 Blend in the eggs one at a time.
Add the vanilla extra, lemon zest and lemon juice to the large mixing bowl. Blend some more.

Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl. Combine. 

Add milk and mix some more.

Finish with the rest of the flour. Mix until combined. In these last two steps, you don't want to over-mix.
Wash the fresh blueberries, and toss blueberries in one tablespoon of flour. Add the blueberries coated in flour to the mixture. Fold gently with a rubber spatula or spoon, scraping well the sides of the bowl. 

Line a 9 x 5 inch (23 x 12.5 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper (or grease with butter and flour like I did). Pour batter into the pan, and level with a spoon.

Bake in the middle part of the oven for about 60 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum paper after the first 45 minutes if the top is getting too brown and the cake is still not fully cooked. Test with a toothpick in the middle of the cake to make sure it's fully cooked.
Let it cool down before removing it from the pan.

Prepare the simple lemon glaze: In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar with the lemon juice. It should be thick, but not too thick that you can't pour. Add more lemon juice or more sugar as necessary to obtain the right consistency. Add grated lemon zest if desired.

Drizzle over on top of the cake, and enjoy! 
Ready to try this lemon blueberry pound cake recipe too?!?

PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD: Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze





9 comments:

  1. Hi Manuela,
    I just made this and it was very oily and never set up properly.
    Is it 8 oz of butter or 8 TBL (4 oz)?
    When I went back and watched the video it does not look like 8 oz of butter.
    There is a ton of oil in the bottom of the pan!
    thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cindy, I'm sorry it didn't turn out that great. It was 8oz of butter (two sticks). The classic pound cake recipe actually asks for the same weight of butter/flour/sugar/eggs which would be more butter than what I used. I'm not really sure why it had happened... Was it cooked throughly? What did you use to grease the pan?
      Mine was moist, especially with the blueberries. Buttery but not oily.
      Have a great holiday weekend :)

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  2. I made this today using Bob's Red Mill 1:1 baking flour for a gluten free version. I also had some trouble getting it to set - I ended up baking for an extra 10 minutes and it did set. However, I also used a silicon loaf pan and inadvertently used about 12oz of blueberries (2 6oz packages) and those variations, along with the flour sub, might have accounted for the extra bake time. I tried a piece to make sure it was good enough to serve to my dinner guest tonight, and it is good. I am not planning on glazing it...it's plenty sweet for my palate. I will offer my guest the glaze though!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Joy for trying the recipe. I'm happy you made your adjustments and it all worked out.
      And YES! Silicone molds tend to require a little more baking time than other pans.
      Have an amazing weekend.

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  4. To keep the blueberries from settling to the bottom of the pan, I set aside about 3 tablespoons of flour, fold in the blueberries to coat all completely, and then gently fold them in before adding the batter to the pan. Works for me every time!

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  5. But beware....frying chicken plus tomatoes means both a mess and a last minute rush in the kitchen to get everything out in time (and still hot...cold fried green tomatoes are less than stellar).
    =============> Best Cheesecake

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  6. Hi Manuela, Happy Holidays!
    I loved the recipe, have tried it twice in two weeks. First time the blueberries sank to the bottom, but the second time the flour trick worked wonderfully.

    Thanks!!

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  7. i made this recipe today and follow the ingredients, turned out very good and very moist, my mother in law was very impressed after a very terrible failure from my last cake. Its not oily ( i made sire to cream the butter first before adding the sugar though) but im so happy with this pound cake recipe! thanks Manuela!!!

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