Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

A few weeks ago Kyle and I jumped on a plane from London headed for San Francisco. I was terrified that all the times I side-eyed a screaming baby would come back to haunt me. Luckily Kyle was a star traveler, charming my seatmates with a huge grin and sleeping nearly the entire trip. I know I've been a bit MIA...since we are now home I've been spoiled with family taking care of me, allowing me to spend all of my time getting to know my sweetest creation and out of the kitchen.

Being back in California means that I have more berries than I know what to do with so after they are eaten fresh, prepped for frozen for winter months ahead, made into jams and compotes, there are still some left to sprinkle on cakes. This sour cream cake is pretty fabulous...I think I sometimes hear angels chorusing in the background when I bite into it. Take care to follow the method, especially mixing the sour cream with baking soda and leaving it out for an hour at room temperature and taking the time to slowly add the sugar.

SOUR CREAM BLUEBERRY CAKE inspired by Carole Walters

CAKE TOPPING

• 1 cup walnuts (or pecans)
• 6 Tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup blueberries (or raspberries or a mixture of both)

Combine walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon and pulse in a food processor till the nuts are pebble sized or smaller. Set aside. Clean blueberries and set aside in a separate bowl.

CAKE BATTER

• 1 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp baking soda

Combine sour cream and baking soda and set aside at room temperature for 1 hour.

• 3 cups sifted flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (2 sticks) butter, slightly firm
• 1 3/4 cup superfine sugar**
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

**If you do not have superfine sugar pulse regular granulated sugar to make superfine sugar. Do this before pulsing the nut mixture so you don't have to clean your food processor twice.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift together dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Using a paddle attachment beat butter for 1 minute. Add sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, taking about 6 minutes to complete this step. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating the mixture for 1 minute after adding each egg. Add vanilla. Alternate adding drys and sour cream mixtures, beginning and ending with drys. Do this by adding 1/4 of the dry mixture and alternating with 1/3 of the sour cream mixture.

Butter a 9x13 inch glass pan. Add the batter. Sprinkle the nut mixture on top of the batter. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly across the top and gently press them into the batter. Bake for about 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes and then out of the pan for 30 minutes.

A few notes...

Originally I made this cake as a coffee cake loaf. I added about 2/3 of the batter into the loaf pan and then sprinkled half the nut mixture. Then I added the remaining batter on top and finished by adding the rest of the nut mixture. The baking time did increase, taking about 1 1/2 hour. The batter fit into an 9x5x3 inch large loaf pan. I must also tell you that the batter just barely fit and only did so because I was so diligent in sampling the batter, which by the way, is absolutely delicious and reminiscent of one of my favorite splurges...cake batter ice cream. The point is the next time I make this cake in loaf form I will probably split it between two medium sized loaf pans, rather than baking it in one large loaf pan.

I've been pretty broody with Kyle, but here is a little peak -

Making bald men jealous everywhere! 
 

Comments

[Nina]

Ohhh, I love sour cream cakes and adore Carole Walters...I am sure this is heavenly! Love that you did this in a loaf pan...thanks for the tips about using two med sized pans. You are so lucky to have a plethora of berries!

[joel]

you should give some of that hair to his folicularly challenged father!

[OysterCulture]

He is such a cutie, I cannot wait to meet him in person.

So glad you are here to provide inspiration for all these lovely berries. This cake sounds stellar. I cannot imagine my reception if I showed up at the work front with this in tow. Oh yeah!

[Darina]

It's been awhile since I've stopped by, so congratulations! This is my favourite way to eat blueberries. Looks delish.

[gastroanthropologist]

Nina - This recipe has made me fall in love with Carole Walters as well...I need to experiment with more of her methods!

Joel - Hah. Grandpa and Dad are so jealous of Kyle's wild hair.

OysterCulture - We have to meet up asap! Before his hair gets so long it flops over =).

Darina - Thank you!

[Tangled Noodle]

Adorable!! I had not idea a baby could possibly possess so much hair (in comparison, my little sister was virtually bald until 2 yrs old). What a handsome travel companion you had. I've always loved your baked goods, but ever since Kyle was born, they've been particularly sweet! Hope your SF sojourn was fun! 8-)

[Lori]

Oh wow, that is some head of hair! What a cutie! And the cake looks good too. ;)

[Sweet Hampers]

Folicularly-challenged father- LOL!

Your child is such a cutie. I totally forgot that this post is about the sour-cream coffeecake.