Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

To continue my week of Martha Stewart recipes, I made this blueberry sour cream cake. The slight hint of sour, a dash of lemon zest, and a dense moist texture make this summer-y blueberry cake totally comforting, even in the middle of January. Frozen blueberries can be substituted for fresh so long as they are thawed and drained before use.

The recipe was actually for a pound cake, but I made it in a scalloped ceramic pie pan, just for a pretty result. Scallops= pretty. The shape, not the seafood. Though I am a fan of that kind of scallop, too. 

Pound cake is fascinating to me. Is it weird to be fascinated by a type of cake? I think it's the lack of leaveners and odd proportion of butter and eggs that really gets me. Traditionally made with a pound of flour, plenty of butter and sugar, and no baking soda or powder, it's no wonder the result is rich, but admittedly it can sometimes turn out too dense. I found the texture of this cake to be pleasant though, instead of super heavy.

 The original recipe did not call for lemon zest, but rather for lemon whipped cream on top. Sounds delicious, but I decided to skip the cream for now, as it is recently post-new years, and I am at least pretending to be healthy. Apparently in my mind cake= healthy, but once you add whipped cream...forget about it.

Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Note: the original recipe was doubled, I decided to make only one cake, hence some odd numbers like 4 and a half eggs. To see the original recipe click the link above. Be prepared though, it calls for 3 sticks of butter and 9 eggs!

1/2 lb  + 1 Tablespoon Flour

1/2 Tablespoon coarse salt

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (+ some to butter pan) softened

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4.5 large eggs, room temperature (yeah, sorry about that half egg thing...)

1 cup blueberries fresh, or frozen (thawed and drained)

zest of one lemon

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar 

Directions:

Oven temp: 325

1. Cream together the sugar, butter and sour cream with a hand mixer or standing mixer.

2. Add eggs and vanilla slowly to butter mixture and continue to blend

3. Add the lemon zest to the butter/sugar/egg mixture

4. Combine the flour and salt in a separate bowl

5. Fold together the flour mixture and the wet ingredients until smooth

6. Fold in the blueberries

7. Butter your baking dish and pour in the batter

8. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, up to 65 minutes.

9. Let cool, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.