Recipe: Blueberry-Cornmeal Cake
Miriam Rubin offers a a simple cake recipe that makes the most of berry season.
It’s a berry good time of year in the Hudson Valley. I snag baskets of strawberries and blueberries, fresh as can be, from our local Mennonite farm stand down County Route 9. In the garden, our four blueberry bushes are filled with fat berries but the birds and chipmunks have other ideas. The only blueberries we are able to harvest from these bushes must be picked very early in the morning, eaten by the stealthy handful. The birds are watching.
My freezer stash of blueberries is totally depleted. So I buy berries and freeze them for the chilly months that will certainly come. Some are kept aside for this simple sweet cake.
The recipe was originally Dorie Greenspan’s from the Washington Post. I made some tweaks, adding blueberries to the batter instead serving it with strawberries and cream as she did. I love this cake because you melt the butter instead of creaming it and you don’t need to haul the mixer. And I love the crunchy cornmeal. I use organic yellow cornmeal from Farmer Ground and you should too. The berries sink to the bottom but I don’t even mind.
Good friends visited with their lovely daughters, Roxy and Ruby Wu. The girls offered to sample the cake, along with some homemade vanilla ice cream. Roxy and Ruby approved.
Roxy and Ruby Wu. Photo credit: Rachel Passaretti-Wu
Blueberry-Cornmeal Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries
1 cup granulated sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
Coarse or raw sugar for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper and butter the paper.
Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture to the blueberries and gently toss them with your fingers.
Put the sugar in a large bowl; add the lemon zest and work it with your fingertips until the sugar is fragrant and lemony.
One at a time, whisk the eggs into the sugar, beating until well incorporated. Whisk in the butter and vanilla. Add half the flour mixture and stir with a spoon to blend. Add all the buttermilk, then the remaining flour mixture. Fold in the blueberries and any flour mixture and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with about 1 tablespoon raw sugar.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the cake begins to shrink from the sides and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Best eaten the same day.
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan.
