Wednesday 27 February 2013

Soured Cream and Blueberry cake - Hummingbird Bakery

 
I made this cake for our second meeting of Putney Clandestine Cake Club and have had a couple of email requests to post the recipe. Yes, there is such thing as cake club, you should get involved!
If a hug had a taste it would taste like this cake. I'm no good at describing things so you'll just have to make it and see for yourself. It's a hummingbird bakery recipe that I've been making for years. Its got a golden crunchy crust that contrasts with a sponge that feels like you've just face planted a warm pillow. The bursts of blueberry that dye the sponge in purple, inky patches goes so well with the sour cream icing. I've made a few minor adjustments to the cake, mostly to the icing and I add lemon zest to the cake.
The girls how the blueberries stay suspended in the mix, hopefully you can see from the pic above that the batter is thick enough, like a muffin or scone mix for the berries to stay put.
Do you know why I love this cake so much? Because it yields slightly too much batter for my tin and so I'm left with a few muffins on the side. Soft, fruity, moreish muffins.
You could eat the cake unadorned if you so wish, it would taste just like a giant muffin!
But I prefer to spoon over the sourcream icing so it starts to fall down the sides, in that ever so inviting 'scoop me up with your finger' look!
Blueberry cake - Adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
Preheat oven to 170C fan

350g butter, unsalted, room temp
350g caster sugar
6 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1 lemon zested
450g plain flour
2 tbsp of baking powder plus 1tsp
270ml soured cream

250g blueberries plus extra to decorate
1 quanitity of cream cheese frosting
(300g icing sugar, 50g unsalted butter, 125g cream cheese)
loosened with 30ml of soured cream and 20ml of lemon juice

25cm ring mould, greased and lined

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2.Add eggs, one at a time
3.Beat in vanilla, lemon zest, flour and baking powder
4.Add soured cream and beat until combined, gently stir in blueberries
5.Fill your tin and smooth surface over with a knife
6.Bake for 40-50 mins until the crust is golden brown and the sponge springs back.
7.Leave to cool in the mould for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wired rack, removing the paper. 
8.When the cake is cool, pour the icing mix over the top and sprinkle with blueberries.



14 comments:

  1. Beautiful! So much tidier than mine. And you're right, this is a hug in cake form :)! I want to make it again now.

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  2. Gorgeous cake Milli! I want to know more about the Putney Cake Club?!!

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  3. I've been wanting to make this cake from the Hummingbird book for ages and never gotten round to it. It looks so good though, especially with the sour cream. I wish there was a cake club near me.

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  4. I would most likely pick all the berries out (not a fruit fan!), but this looks lovely!! x

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  5. Sophie- thank you, my inspiration I recall!..I used to ice it like in the book but found it a bit sticky! Make it again, and again and again, I never tire of it.

    Thelittleloaf- You should come, look it up on the Clandestine Cake Club website, next one in a months time..think it is cocktail inspired!

    Thecakehunter- Try it! It really helps to keep the batter thick or the blueberries sink, so reserve a little soured cream, the recipe says to pour the mix but having made this cake over 50 times, just don't let it get to that consistency, think of it like a loose scone mix

    Googtimestora- you are insane, how can you not like berries?! I wish I didn't like something, I enjoy playing with my food!

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  6. Hi Milli,

    We’ve recently launched the website Alldishes.co.uk. It’s a search engine that aims to gather all the best recipes from UK and Irish websites and blogs. We’ve noticed that you have a lot of great looking recipes on your blog that we would love to feature on our site. To read more about how it all works and to sign up with your blog, please visit: http://alldishes.co.uk or send us an email on info@alldishes.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
    Kind regards,
    Senka

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  7. Thanks so much for this recipe! I baked the cake for a friends birthday and it was sooo delicious!!

    So, again, a lot of "thank u"s from Germany!
    Sabine

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  8. How long do you bake the muffins for??
    Thanks!

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  9. I've just made this cake and it overflowed my tin despite putting some batter into 4 cup cake moulds. I am slightly curious about the amount of baking powder. I have never put so much in a cake before and know from past experience it leaves a strange taste in the mouth. Do you really need so much?

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  10. your findings also the relevant details are mentioned at Abhi Tailor so it really makes sense.

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