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 powderÂ
- 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.
Turkey Sausage and Arugula Pasta
I have been making this dish since I saw Giada making it on her Food Network show a few years ago. She tops this yummy sauce over baked potatoes, but I far prefer it served with pasta. This dish looks really similar to another dish I made, Cheesy Sausage Pasta, but it is very different. I just like to use shells as my pasta of choice. 🙂
There are many things that I like about this dish. It’s a great weeknight meal, because it comes together quickly. The sausage adds so much flavor on it’s own. It’s almost fool proof! You can easily switch out the arugula for spinach, should your local grocery store not carry it. Like I did this time around. I do prefer arugula, though, as it doesn’t go mushy as quickly as spinach. But, my daughter loves both, and that’s enough for me!
In a pinch, you can use pork sausage for this recipe, as it is more readily available, but be sure to drain off the fat. Sweet sausage is also much more kid friendly than the spicy variety. My daughter picked up on the spice in this dish right away when I couldn’t find sweet sausage, and she wasn’t as big a fan. So, I stick to the sweet stuff now.
The arugula or spinach will look like too much when you first add it to your dish. But, it will wilt down really quickly.
See? Mmmmm….this is yummy stuff.
Here’s what you need to do:
Turkey Sausage and Arugula Pasta
Turkey Sausage and Arugula Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium white or yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
- 1 package of sweet turkey sausage about 4 or 5 sausages, casing removed
- 1 jar tomato basil sauce 2 cups
- 3 cups arugula or spinach
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 pound pasta your choice of noodle
Instructions
- In a large skillet, sauté the onions in olive oil over medium high heat until translucent. Add minced garlic and salt and pepper and cook for 1 minute, stirring often. Add the turkey sausage and cook until the meat has cooked through. Add in the tomato sauce and arugula. Let the arugula cook into the sauce until it reduces in size. Add in the mascarpone cheese and stir till combined. Remove the skillet from the heat, and stir in the parmesan cheese. Add pasta into the sauce, and finish with more parmesan cheese.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nonna’s Tiramisu
Years and years ago, I made tiramisu for a boyfriend, with the help of a good Italian friend from high school. It turned out great, but I haven’t made it since. About a month ago, my husband, and some family and I went to a wine club that we are new members of for a private dinner, and tiramisu was for dessert that night. The tiramisu was good, but the cookie still had some bite to it, and I felt like I could make it better.
Fast forward two weeks later, over my lunch break, I found myself at McCall’s Cake Decorating store in Toronto for some Christmas baking ingredients. Surprisingly, they were selling ladyfingers, and since I wanted to make tiramisu, I bought them. I asked the girl behind the counter if she thought I could make two pans of tiramisu with the amount of lady fingers I had. She told me she would ask the woman that was in the basement, as she makes them all the time. From the basement, a lovely, little Italian Grandma comes up, and proceeds, in broken English, to tell me the recipe she has used for 30 years! 1 egg, 1 spoonful of sugar, and 100 grams of mascarpone, is what she said. She told me that for an 8×10 pan, she uses 5 eggs, 5 spoonfuls of sugar, and 500 grams of mascarpone. I thought that was all she was going to share, but then she kept going! She told me to separate the eggs, and beat the yolks with the sugar and then the mascarpone.
Till it looks like this.
In a separate bowl, beat your egg whites until they reach a soft peak.
Like this.
Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture.
This is what you end up with. Just the right amount of sweetness.
I will tell you, that the container of mascarpone that I bought was only 475 grams, which I knew was 25 grams short from what Nonna told me to use! But, I figured, I’d be fine. In truth, and this is just between you and me, I think 6 eggs, 6 spoonfuls of sugar, and 600 grams of mascarpone would have been better, as we all felt that it tasted a bit heavy on the coffee and could have used a bit more custard. BUT, it was still damn good and needs to be shared.
Nonna's Tiramisu
Ingredients
- 3 cups of espresso cooled
- 1 package of ladyfingers about 50 ladyfingers
- 5 eggs separated
- 5 tablespoons of sugar
- 500 grams of mascarpone
- Cocoa for dusting
Instructions
- Working quickly, dip each lady finger, one at a time into the espresso, on both sides. Don't let the ladyfingers sit in the espresso, as they will absorb way too much liquid. A quick dip.
- Place each ladyfinger side by side, to fill in the space of the pan.
- Once your bottom layer has been filled with ladyfingers, put half of your custard on top and spread smooth.
- Repeat with another layer of ladyfingers.
- Finish with the remainder of your custard.
- Dust generously with cocoa to finish.
- Enjoy!!!
(Source: Boss Of The Apple Sauce)
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