I am really a terrible gardener. The only thing I can do well is put things in the ground. It’s pretty easy for me to decide that I want a plant to grow close to me. Most of my decisions about plants are motivated by the potential for eating them, or at least smelling them. My daughter will pick things solely for how they look, and I’m grateful for her perspective but I don’t understand it. Me, I want to put them in my mouth.
My husband is generally very supportive of my poor gardening, in that he does nothing to criticize or discourage me. He does occasionally suggest plants, and blueberry bushes were at the top of his list. I quickly followed those with raspberry and blackberry canes, given to me by a friend when his bushes spread. Now I have a nice little patch. and I get this every few days.
Faced with this abundance, I have to act fast. I freeze, I snack, but I also make desserts, which brings me to this beautiful cake. I know you came here for the cake.
While I am definitely bad at gardening, I am a decent cook. Okay, I’m a good cook. I know you are eyeing that very homemade-looking cake and you are doubting me. My food may not always look gorgeous, but it tastes amazing. I think you should probably try making this cake and see what you think.
I got the original recipe from the August 2001 issue of Bon Appétit, and they got it from Thymes Two Catering out of San Francisco. Don’t you think those chefs lie a little bit when they give out their recipes? I mean, I probably would. But I’m not going to lie to YOU. I made this cake just a little different. Some would say better, but let’s just assume that they were lying about the real recipe and I somehow accidentally discovered it. I have restored it to its previous glory!
Lemon-Blueberry Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
2 cups plus 6 tablespoons cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon Penzey’s double strength vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon Penzey’s lemon extract
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 cups sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and flour three 9-inch cake pans, and line with parchment paper. Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Take one tablespoon of flour mixture and toss with fresh berries until coated in separate bowl.
Stir together the milk, lemon zest, vanilla, and lemon extract in small bowl. Beat the butter and sugar together in a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Alternate adding flour and milk mixtures, about a third at a time, until blended.
Divide the batter between the three pans. (I honestly think you could use two pans if you wanted thicker layers, but then you get less frosting per slice, so I’m going to leave that up to you.) Sprinkle on the blueberries evenly over the batter. I use my fingers to lightly swirl the batter over the blueberries. You could just mix in the berries, but I like a more even distribution and I don’t want them all stuck on the bottom.
Bake cakes for about 25 minutes, until golden brown and the tester comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans on racks for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto the racks to cool to room temperature. Now make the frosting!
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
¾ cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Penzey’s lemon extract
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Penzey’s double strength vanilla extract
Beat the cream cheese and butter together using a mixer. Gradually add the powdered sugar, followed by the lemon juice, vanilla, and extract. Taste for lemon! I like mine strong. Refrigerate until cool enough to spread easily, about an hour.
Assemble your layers, covering each with about 3/4 cups of frosting. I always have frosting left over, no matter how much I slather on, so be generous. Use some of your other berries to decorate the top. I have tons of raspberries, so I like those, but any berry would be fun. Or leave it plain or add some lemon peel curls.
Eat and enjoy! Let me know how it turns out for you. I store mine in the refrigerator because Arkansas is hot this time of year!
The Entertaining Anthropologist 
When we lived in Richmond, I scavenged vacant lots to find blackberry plants. After some selection, we had a bunch of them. The good news is that they grow fast and are hardy, at least in Virginia. For several years we collected some 8 quarts of big, juicy blackberries a season. The bad news is that I didn’t know how to take care of them. They sprout a branch one year, the next year it branches, blooms and bears berries, and then it dies, to be replaced by a new one. Blackberries have the wickedest thorns I have ever met, and I grew up in Texas among the cactus and mesquite. So I harvested blackberries in the ‘briar patch’, among the dead blackberry branches. And got bloodied. One year I put on special clothes and took rose shears and pruning shears to try to clean up the mess; I ended up seriously battle-scarred. I think you are supposed to trim out the dead branches every year; letting it go makes the job nearly impossible. I never learned, or rather, I never took the time to do it right. But we always had lots of blackberries, fresh out of the briar patch.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I went blackberry picking today and came away unscathed. I too recall picking blackberries in Virginia as a pain-inducing experience, enhanced only by the persistent wasps in the patches. My own blackberries are thornless (whoa!) and host turtle nests every spring. That is, I see the egg shells and can’t tell if they belong to turtles or snakes so I’m going with turtles. Don’t try to talk me out of it.
LikeLike