Blueberry Breakfast Cake with Lemon-Mascarpone Cream
Who wants cake for breakfast?? ME! I confess….I actually made this for dessert the night before. It was tasty, but was meant for breakfast, or actually, brunch, in my opinion. This would be the perfect, beautiful addition to your brunch menu. Imagine how impressed your family and/or guests will be when they see that you baked a cake for brunch! It’s really just one large blueberry muffin. It’s genius, actually.
I’ve made blueberry cakes with frozen blueberries, when the original recipe calls for fresh blueberries, and the cook time increases by over triple the time, in some cases. The moisture from the frozen blueberries throws off the balance of ingredients. Even though this recipe calls for frozen blueberries, it’s really important to allow them to thaw and allow some of the water to escape from the berry itself.
This recipe is unique, in that you don’t ever fold the blueberries into the batter. Pretty smart, actually, because frozen and thawed blueberries become quite mushy and if you did mix them into your batter, it might just turn the cake purple. Which may not be a horrible thing.
Any liquid you see within the blueberries is actually lemon juice. I let these blueberries drain long enough that they didn’t have excess liquid to release. It’s an important step in this recipe to rinse the berries before you let them drain. This will help the thawing process and they won’t all clump together.
The batter for this cake is pretty thick. Once you pour it into your pan, you will need to help smooth it out. It almost has a cookie-like texture to it.
Even though the majority of the blueberries stayed on the top of the cake, enough sunk down to help even things out.
This cake is easy and pairs really well with a nice cup of coffee or tea. I hope that you make this and that you enjoy it as much as we did!
Enjoy!
Blueberry Breakfast Cake with Lemon-Mascarpone Cream
Equipment
- 9 inch Sprinform pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter Salted or unsalted will work,
- 1 cup granulated (white) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups frozen blueberries, rinsed and drained
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- icing (or powdered) sugar for dusting (optional)
Lemon-Mascarpone Cream
- 1 cup 1 cup mascarpone, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, at room temperature
- 3 teaspoons honey I will add more honey the next time I make this.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla Original recipe calls for 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and scraped. Use this if you have any on hand.
- Zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
Blueberry Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter your pan and dust with flour.
- Whisk 1 cup of the flour with the baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until smooth.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula.
- In a bowl, combine the berries with the remaining 1 teaspoon flour and the lemon juice, lemon zest and cinnamon; spoon over the batter.
- Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan.
- Transfer the cake to a platter, berry-side up, and dust lightly with confectioners' sugar.
Lemon-Mascarpone Cream
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the mascarpone and whipping cream until just combined. Fold in the honey, vanilla, and lemon zest.
- To serve, spoon a dollop of the lemon-mascarpone cream on top of a slice of blueberry cake.
Ree’s Fruit Salad with Orange-Vanilla Syrup
I made this the first time when we had friends over for brunch a couple of years ago and it’s been a go-to fruit salad for me ever since! The Pioneer Woman is one of those Food Network chefs that I love to watch. I could have her playing in the background all day on my TV. Her kitchen is a dream and her voice is so inviting. She does make many ‘meat and potato’ dishes, which aren’t always for me, but after all, she’s cooking for cowboys! Even still, I trust her cooking. I think there was one in all the many that I have tried that didn’t cook according to her recipe.
I have made this salad both with and without the mint. It’s good either way. Mint can be a tricky herb. Too much could ruin this salad. I think my preference is to omit the mint, but should you want to add some, use it more as a garnish than an ingredient in this salad.
The simple syrup for this recipe really transforms the fruit. I also like that it is largely a berry fruit salad, in addition to the grapes. I’ve not experimented with other fruit, but I imagine any fruit would work well with this syrup. My daughter is not a fan of orange, but she still enjoys this salad. The syrup also adds a nice sheen to the fruit. It’s really yummy and such a nice addition to your brunch menu.
Enjoy!
Ree's Fruit Salad with Orange-Vanilla Simple Syrup
Ingredients
Orange-Vanilla Syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- Zest and juice of 1 orange
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste*
Fruit
- 2 pints strawberries hulled and halved**
- 2 pints blueberries
- 2 cups green grapes halved
- 2 cups red grapes halved
Instructions
- Place the sugar, 1 cup water, orange zest, juice and vanilla bean paste in a small pan and stir to dissolve the sugar. Then bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes to thicken. Set aside to cool completely. Pour over fruit and stir often to toss the fruit in the simple syrup.
Notes
**Original recipe calls for 4 pints of strawberries. I find 2 is plenty. If you have a really large party to serve, go for 4. Adapted from Pioneer Woman
Ina’s Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
It’s been a while since I’ve written, even though I think about this blog all of the time. I take pictures of almost everything I make and then I never seem to have the time to sit down and post about them.
Life has taken a turn recently, and so quickly. I’ve found myself on leave from work and back home to help take care of my mom, as she is very ill. So far, her appetite has been amazing, so I have been cooking up a storm, making sure she has whatever she wants on hand. All my cooking has brought me back here.
These muffins are easy, fresh and light.
Something I have never done with these muffins is gotten all the ingredients to room temperature. The buttermilk ALWAYS ends up being colder than the cooled melted butter, and that butter gets chunky once stirred in. Not to worry! I’ve had no issues with the batter.
This recipe makes 2 dozen muffins. As you can see, 2 muffins are already missing from this pic! 🙂
I really hope you make these. They are one of our go-tos.
Ina's Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1/4 cup butter, melted My preference, generally, is to bake with salted butter. But, use whichever works best for you.
- 1.5 teaspoons grated lemon zest When using the zest of a lemon, buy organic lemons, so that you aren't consuming any pesticides sprayed on the fruit
- 2 large eggs The original recipe calls for extra large eggs. It won't impact this recipe at all to use large eggs.
- 2 cups fresh blueberries 2 half-pints
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with muffin liners.
- Measure out and mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk, cooled and melted butter, lemon zest, and eggs.
- Make a hole in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well of dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until just blended.
- Fold in the blueberries into the batter. Don't over mix!
- Scoop the batter evenly into the prepared muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes
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