A not-too-sweet anytime treat: Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

Blueberries and sour cream are the basis of this modestly sweet cake a dessert, a breakfast treat, a mid-day pick-me-up. Recipe below.

WE ARE STILL BEING VERY CAUTIOUS THESE DAYS. We are not flying. We are not going into our offices. We are only going into shops and the library and other public places when they are relatively empty. We aren’t going to bars at all, which is so sad. But we are still seeing people, with great care, as we wait out what looks to be a multi-year pandemic. Meaning we still want to have some treats on hand, just in case. Thus this simple bundt cake.

It’s a variation on another blueberry cake we made a while back, but we like this new version so much that we want to tell you about it. It is just delightful. It is easy to assemble. It is modestly sweet. It can be a dessert, a breakfast treat, a mid-day pick-me-up. You can cut a couple of generous slices and drop them off at your neighbors’ as a casual way of saying hello. You can fix it the day your overnight guests are arriving, and serve it to them in the morning with their coffee, because it is even nicer the second day. If, like us, you may be having company in the weeks to come, please give it a try.

This version uses sour cream for the dairy—hence the name. As you’ll see in the Kitchen Notes, you can substitute buttermilk or Greek yogurt, but we like the pound cake vibe the sour cream delivers. Bake it in a bundt pan or a tube pan. Don’t use a square or rectangular pan—you will end up with a sad raw collapsed bit in the middle. We learned this the hard way.

As you see, we chose not to ice the cake, because it is just lovely on its own. If you do want something along those lines, you can prepare a lemon glaze, or a simple vanilla icing, or you can serve it with a fabulous lashing of whipped cream. Or you can do what I have been doing, which is to have a bit of this with a little vanilla or salted caramel ice cream. Just delightful.

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Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

Blueberries and sour cream are the basis of this modestly sweet cake a dessert, a breakfast treat, a mid-day pick-me-up.

Course Dessert

Servings 12 slices

Equipment

• 9-3/4 inch bundt pan or 9-1/2 inch 2-piece tube pan, lightly oiled (see Kitchen Notes)

Ingredients

• 1 pint (2 cups) blueberries, divided if you are using a tube pan
• 2 cups plus 2 teaspoons, white unbleached flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, just melted (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract, optional
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt or salt substitute
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

• Heat the oven to 350ºF.
• Rinse the blueberries and pat them dry with a lint-free cloth. If you will be using a tube pan with a removable core, set aside about 1/3 cup of blueberries. Lightly coat the rest of the blueberries (or all the blueberries, if you are using a bundt pan) with the 2 teaspoons flour.
• In a big bowl, mix together the eggs, sour cream, oils, sugar, vanilla and lemon extracts. You can do this by hand or you can use a hand mixer at a medium speed.
• In a medium bowl, use a fork to lightly stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
• Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, a little at a time, just until everything is incorporated and uniform. The batter will be thick! Then, by hand, gently fold in the blueberries (except the ones that you set aside).
• Scrape the batter into your cooking pan—because the batter is thick, you will need to gently level the surface with a spatula. If you are using a tube pan, this is the point when you use those set-aside blueberries. Scatter them uniformly over the surface of the batter and press them in so they are well embedded and still visible.
• Slide the pan into the oven. Turn it after about 10 minutes to ensure uniform baking. After about 35 minutes, take a look. This is done when the surface is a handsome golden brown and the cake is just starting to barely pull away from the outside of the pan. It may take a total of 45-50 minutes depending on your oven. A tester inserted mid-way should come out clean.
• Set the pan on a cooling rack. After about 15 minutes, for the bundt cake, carefully remove it from the pan—place a plate face down on top, invert the pan, and the cake should slide out; then invert the cake again onto its final serving plate. For a tube pan cake, just lift the core out and let that cool on a rack, then remove from the tube and set on a plate.

Kitchen Notes

The pan. Bake this in a bundt pan or a tube pan—something with a cavity in the center. Do not use a square or rectangular pan—you will end up with a sad raw collapsed bit in the middle. I learned this the hard way.

The dairy. Some variations of this say it is OK to substitute buttermilk or Greek yogurt. You certainly can (and these substitutes will likely lengthen the baking time a bit), but I think this is best with sour cream, which gives it a nice pound cake vibe.

The butter and oil. For the version you see here, I used a combination of 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons plant butter, and 4 tablespoons grapeseed oil. Use the variation on that you prefer, up to all butter or all cooking oil. When using butter or plant butter, heat it gently just until melted before incorporating into the eggy mixture.

The nutmeg. Don’t leave it out. It imparts a delicate freshness that is irreplaceable.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. Keen observers will note this plate has already made an appearance on Blue Kitchen. You can read about it here.