Lemon Blueberry Cream Cake

 

Lemon Blueberry Cream Cake

Here's a great flavor combination in a beautifully impressive dessert cake. It starts with a lemon version of our delicious butter cake filled with a freshly made blueberry compote and vanilla whipped cream. What an exceptional dessert this one would make at a dinner party or any celebratory occasion.

Lemon Blueberry Cream Cake

Lemon Cake

Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans. Smaller pans will not be sufficiently large. If you are using smaller pans reduce the measurements by 1/4.

Cream together very well until light and fluffy:

1 ½ cups butter
2 cups sugar

Add, one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffy:

3 eggs

Mix in

4 tsp vanilla extract

zest of two lemons, very finely minced

Sift together

3 cups cake flour
4 tsp baking powder

Fold dry ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with a warm mixture of

3/4 cup whole milk

1/2 cup whipping cream

beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. I warm the cream and milk in the microwave for a 15 -20 seconds.

Bake at 325 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Rely on the toothpick test to ensure that it is properly baked. Let the cake cool in the pans for 10- 15 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

Blueberry Compote

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

Simmer very gently together for about 10 minutes before thickening with a slurry of

2 rounded tablespoons corn starch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water

Add a little of the slurry to the pot at a time, stirring constantly. Add only enough of the slurry to thicken the slurry to a pudding-like consistency. The juice content of the berries will determine how much thickening the compote will require so use your own judgement on when you have added enough of the slurry. Continue to simmer stirring constantly for an additional minute to ensure the compote does not maintain a starchy taste from the slurry.  Cool to room temperature then completely chill the compote in the fridge.

Vanilla Whipped Cream

4 cups whipping cream

4 tsp vanilla extract

6 rounded tbsp icing sugar ( i.e. powdered sugar)

Beat together at high speed until stiff peaks form.

If you don't have a piping bag for the whipped cream, you can still make quite a pretty cake by using a large Ziploc bag with about a 1/2 inch opening snipped off the corner.

To construct the cake, split the two layers horizontally into four layers. Place the first layer on the serving plate, cover with whipped cream and add the second layer. Pipe a 1 inch  border of whipped cream around the entire edge of this layer. Fill the inside of the circle with half of the blueberry compote before adding the next layer of cake and covering with more whipped cream. Add the final layer of cake and cover the sides of the cake with whipped cream. Pipe a border of whipped cream on the top of the cake and fill the center with the remaining blueberry compote.

Garnish with pieces of candied lemon zest if you like which can be made very simply by removing the zest with a sharp vegetable peeler and simmering gently in a small pot with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar for about 15 minutes.