Shenandoah Valley Blueberry Cake

I was eagerly anticipating how this month's cake would turn out because it uses blueberries. That I have plenty of .. frozen ones .. in my freezer. What a great way to get rid of some of my cache from last summer! And guess what, summer is here again! Singapore really does not have summer or the four seasons for that fact. Hmmm ... come to think of it, we actually do have four season; hot and hotter, wet and wetter. I'm not joking.

Speaking of wet, we have a really bad thunderstorm on Wednesday morning. We had about 100mm of rainfall in less than 3 hours. The main shopping belt, Orchard Road, was flooded. Of my 20 years staying in Singapore I have never heard of Orchard Road being flooded .. never! I was totally glued to the
photos which were being posted in cyberspace. I watched over prime time news that evening and it reported that shops which operated in the basement of these affected buildings had a lot of their goods damaged and they are anticipating quite a set back in their busines. Vehicles which were stranded in the floods and stalled along Orchard Road, would have to have their entire engine overhauled and dried out. How lucky I was not to be working in that part of town!

I remembered last year in November we experienced similar floods. Some of the buildings' basement carparks in a residential district was entirely flooded. Cars that were parked there were totally submerged and I meant underwater. There was a relatively new Ferari parked in one of these buildings and I think the driver would have to pay at least $$300,000 or maybe more just to repair his vehicle. That's provided his Ferari could still run.



Before I ramble further, this particular blueberry cake may look simple but it was oh so delicious. It's extremely, extremely moist and light. Not as light as a sponge cake but not that far of in my books. I had at first thought of halfing the recipe but am glad that I did not. The batter was extremely thick and as I was using a handmixer, the blades were kind of groaning a bit. I had so anticipated a heavy and dry cake but on the contrary it was not. This is one recipe, in my books, is for keeps!

Shenandoah Valley Blueberry Cake
Recipe Adapted from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw and dust the blueberries with about 2 tablespoon of the flour mixture)

Method

1) Heat the oven to 375F and generously grease a 9 inch square or round pan.

2) Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. In a medium bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat with a mixer at high speed until well combined. Add the egg and beat well for 1 to 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl until the mixture is smooth and light.

3) Stir in half the flour mixture then half the milk, mixing just enough to keep the batter fairly smooth and well combined. Add the remaining flour, then the rest of the milk, mixing gently. Stir in the blueberries. (Note that the batter is extremely thick and you will likely have to scrape the top so as to level out the cake batter)

4) Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until the cake is golden, springs back when touched gently in the centre and is pulling away from the sides of the pan.

5) Serve a square of cake right from the pan, warm or at room temperature. If its round, let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack or folded kitchen towel for 10 minutes and then turn it out to cool, top side up.