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.
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
Raw Brussel Sprout Salad with Pomegranate and Apple
Every five weeks, after I get my hair done, I go shopping at Whole Foods, because it’s so close to my salon. It’s my little guilty pleasure. When I was there, I saw baby brussel sprouts, and while I have scarring childhood memories of eating brussel sprouts, I wanted to give them another chance, with bacon. While I was in the produce area, there happened to be someone showcasing brussel sprouts in a fresh salad!! I was intrigued. I tried it. I liked it!!! I thought it would be a perfect salad for Christmas dinner. So, that’s what I did. I had no idea of amounts of anything. All I knew was the ingredients I needed.
I took this picture at Whole Foods, so that I would remember what I needed to buy.
I made enough salad to feed many people. It’s a nice salad to adjust easily for a small or large crowd. I, also, used a mandolin to shave my brussel sprouts, but you could easily use a knife. Just make sure to slice them thinly.
To release the pomegranates from their skin, I like to use a meat tenderizer, instead of the wooden spoon that is so often suggested. I just don’t find that the spoon does the trick. But, in a pinch, you can easily find pomegranates ready to eat. You will just pay quite a bit more.
For the almonds: I toasted mine. You can do this in the oven, but I did mine in a pan over the stove, with no oil or butter. This process doesn’t take long, so don’t leave them sitting for too long without moving them around.
For the vinaigrette: Usually for a dressing like this, follow the general rule of 1 part acid (in this case, lemon) to 3 parts oil. Add about 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Shake, shake, shake.
Raw Brussel Sprout Salad with Pomegranate and Apple
Ingredients
- 1 pound brussel sprouts shaved
- 3/4 cup shaved almonds toasted
- 1 to 2 apples sliced like matchsticks (or julienne)
- 1 Pomegranate seeds removed
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Mix the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper together and set aside.
- Shave the brussel sprouts.
- Add them into a salad bowl with the apple and pomegranate.
- Drizzle with vinaigrette and top with almonds.
- Enjoy!
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