I found this recipe for blueberry cake when searching for things to do with blueberries last summer. Gateau is any form of French cake. Just as a cake can mean anything from an elaborate layered confection with lots of decoration to a simple sheet cake from a box, the term 'gateau' covers an array of baked goods. You can read more about this at The Food Timeline. It turned out beautifully and since then I've used it with other fruits with equally lovely results. Chopped up apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon or cranberries with a little citrus zest both work really well. This cake looks really pretty and fancy, but the recipe is very simple.
The recipe for this dessert (which is also quite good for breakfast or brunch) can be found here at Group Recipes. I'll go ahead and type it up for you to save you that click:
Blueberry Gateau
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
1 cup all purpose flour plus 1 teaspoon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz (one stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla on high until light and fluffy. This will take a few minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time and keep mixing. Sift in the dry ingredients and combine on low speed. Pour the batter into a well greased, buttered and floured cake pan. Combine the berries, 1 teaspoon flour and lemon juice in a separate bowl and spoon them over the batter. Bake for 1 hour and let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes before inverting it onto plate and then back onto a cooling rack to show the pretty berry side up.
Just before serving, sift confectioners sugar over the cake for that special touch.
If you do not have fresh blueberries, you can substitute frozen blueberries or cranberries. Just defrost them in a bowl of warm water and rinse them off. You can also use apples cut into small peices.
I have eaten this at the bloggers home and I can tell you that it's delicious!!!!
Posted by: Mandy | Thursday, 30 June 2011 at 09:16 AM