LEMON & BLUEBERRY SLICE

I had glanced at this recipe for ‘Blueberry Tea Cake’ in Bill Granger’s cookbook Feed Me Now! for several days before deciding to bake it. As I have several 4:15am early mornings a week for work, I can sometimes become a little forgetful mid-week. I had assured myself the morning of baking day that I had bought all the ingredients I needed for this tea cake. When I commenced the first few steps however, I realized that I did not have enough sour cream, butter, eggs or any cream cheese to follow the original recipe. Being a little impatient as I am, I decided that I couldn’t be bothered going back to coles for the items I needed. I would make do with what was in my pantry. Hence the tea cake became a slice and the cream cheese frosting became lemon icing. The slice turns out to be incredibly moist and tasted like ripe, fresh lemons and blueberries. Just goes to show that you do not need to follow recipes exactly to make good food!  

INGREDIENTS 

• 125ml light sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 330g caster sugar 
• 200g plain flour
• 1 egg
• 150g butter, at room temperature 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 250g blueberries, fresh or frozen (thawed)
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest 

Icing

• 75ml lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 
• 250g icing sugar 

COOKING

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a baking tin (the measurements of mine were 15cm x 26cm) with cooking spray. 

2. Combine the sour cream with the bicarbonate of soda and leave aside for 5 minutes. 

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and caster sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest and vanilla and beat well to combine. Beat in the egg and then add the sour cream mixture. Stir until combined. 

4. Place the blueberries in a medium bowl and toss with a small amount of the flour. Stir the flour and the baking powder into the cake mixture. Gently add the blueberries to the batter by folding. 

5. Place the batter into the baking dish and bake for around 45 minutes, or until a skewer (or tip of a knife) can be inserted into the middle of the cake and come out clean. Leave slice to cool in the tin for around 20 minutes, then place slice on a wire rack or plate to cool completely. 

6. To make the icing- use an electric mixer to mix the icing sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest until the consistency becomes liquid. Drizzle this over the slice. 

x E