playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren

I waffled back and forth about whether to share this recipe with you or to be a selfish wench and keep it to myself.  Since it’s the holidays I thought I’d be nice for once and share it with you.

Also, it’s already on the Internet, so it’s not exactly a secret.

I’m particularly proud of this recipe because it was originally published in Gourmet Magazine.  When I first got interested in cooking, I subscribed to that magazine for a year and made exactly ze-ro of the recipes.  They were all too hard and had too many ingredients and too many of the ingredients were things I’d never even heard of.  But this recipe!  Oh THIS recipe has ingredients that are easily found in any market and it was very simple to make.

Since it’s not blueberry season, I used frozen blueberries and they all sunk to the bottom of the bundt pan, despite the fact that I followed the directions in the recipe to toss them in flour and alternate blueberry and batter layers.  I think fresh blueberries would have stayed put.  Still?  Delicious.

I made this Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake to be both a dessert AND a breakfast bread.  Two birds with one stone!  Perhaps this would be a lovely dessert for your Christmas Eve dinner and then as your quick breakfast on Christmas morning??!! Good idea, huh!

A helpful baking hint that I *think* I learned from Casey/Moosh in Indy, is to be sure to get all your ingredients up to room temperature before baking.  I don’t know why, I just do as I’m told.  If you’re curious about the reason, either Google it or find a nerd to ask.  I’ll ask my chemical engineer husband when he gets home.

This was THE BEST POUND CAKE I EVER HAD THE PLEASURE OF EATING.  As someone who doesn’t even love sweets that much, this was perfectly sweet, but not rich.  The cake was moist (MOIST!) and even three days after baking, it is still moist.

Enough jabber, eh?  Let’s bake!

Here’s what you’ll need for Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake, recipe courtesy of Epicurious and Gourmet Magazine.

For the cake

1/3 cup milk
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup freshly grated lemon zest
3 cups thawed, frozen blueberries, tossed with 1 1/2 tablespoons flour

For the syrup

1/3 cup lemon juice (Fresh is ALWAYS best)
1/2 cup sugar

Mmmm, cake:

In a small bowl whisk together the milk, the eggs, and the vanilla. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter with the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the zest until the mixture is light and fluffy, add the flour mixture alternately with the egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beating the batter after each addition until it is just combined, and fold in 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries. Spoon 1/3 of the batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (3-quart) bundt pan, spreading it evenly, and sprinkle 1/2 cup of the remaining blueberries over it. Spoon half the remaining batter into the pan, spreading it evenly, and sprinkle 1/2 cup of the remaining blueberries over it. Spoon the remaining batter into the pan, spreading it evenly, sprinkle the remaining blueberries over it, and bake the cake in the middle of a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until it is golden and a tester comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, poke the top immediately all over with a wooden skewer, and brush it with half the syrup. Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, invert it onto the rack, and poke it all over with the skewer. Brush the cake with the remaining syrup.

Mmmm, syrup:

In a small saucepan combine the lemon juice and the sugar, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and remove the pan from the heat.

Head on over to Rachel’s place for more recipes!