WILD BLUEBERRY BUCKLE has been one of my all-time favourite cakes since I was a little girl. Mom didn’t call it a ‘buckle’ It was just a blueberry cake and it had to be made with wild blueberries picked by me! She would give me a small plastic cup which, when filled, would be the exact amount of berries necessary to make my favourite cake. I felt an amazing sense of responsibility to pick only the biggest, juiciest blueberries that I could find; my family’s dessert was counting on it! It was a perfect way to keep me occupied for a couple of hours. In my memory, the blueberry field behind our house, where I would sit all by myself picking berries, was huge. I’ve since gone back to that blueberry field to find it not so large – through the eyes of a child…
The other day Mom told me that she’d revised her original ‘blueberry cake’. It’s my new favourite…
WILD BLUEBERRY SNACKING CAKE
makes one 8″x 8″ cake
preheat oven to 350*F
CAKE BATTER:
2 cups flour – sifted 3 times before measuring…spoon the flour in to the measuring cup and level with a straight edge.
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1 ½ cups wild blueberries
THE STEPS:
- Butter and flour cake pan.
- Sift together pre-sifted flour, baking powder and salt then set aside.
- Beat shortening with sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat eggs in one at a time.
- Beat in vanilla and continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy.
- Fold in flour mixture and milk in thirds, alternatively, ending with milk. – leave a bit of flour to dust the berries
- Pour blueberries evenly over batter then lightly dust with a bit of flour.
- Carefully fold in berries.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan.
- Crumble streusel evenly over the top of the cake.
- Place in oven and check cake at 55 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the centre of the cake. The toothpick should come out clean.
- Remove from oven and set on cooling rack for ten minutes.
- Loosen cake around the edge with a butter knife and remove from pan.
- Place cake back on cooling rack for 10 minutes
- Using a fork, drizzle icing over the top of the cake.
- Allow to cool completely before serving.
STREUSEL TOPPING:
½ cup pecans, chopped
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter, melted
- In a small bowl combine pecans, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Pour melted butter over the top and stir with a fork until the mixture is completely moistened.
LEMON DRIZZLE:
1 ½ cups icing sugar
1 fresh lemon juice
- Add enough fresh lemon juice to make a thin frosting – squeeze slowly so that you don’t make the frosting to thin.
THE LOVE: To keep your berries from sinking to the bottom of your cake, give them a light dusting just before folding them into your cake.
Thanks for reading.
