This recipe is my interpretation of a lemon cake with blueberry sauce found on epicurious.I chose it because it was a low-equipment cake recipe. I don't have a lot of equipment, having moved several times in the past few years. I have no mixer and I don't have cake strips, so a simple cake is all I can manage (and happily, all I need) for now. Still, lemon desserts are my absolute favorite, and I love cake though I'm not a big fan of frosting.
Most of the flavor in this cake comes from the icing glaze, which is understandable - I've never met a lemon cake that didn't have to be soaked in lemon syrup to be lemony. I have blackberries on hand because it's that time of year, and I do love to use what I've got. Plus, the mustiness of ripe blackberries is beautiful alongside the tart lemon.
It's a lovely casual cake - it doesn't get fancy, but not every cake needs to be fancy.
Lemon Blackberry Cornmeal Cake:
Glaze:
- 1 1/2 cups (packed) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon Juice
Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cornmeal
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice, let stand a few minutes
- 2 large eggs
- 1 TB finely grated lemon peel
- 3/4 tsp vanilla (I used limoncello, because I had it on hand).
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, cooled
Make the glaze. Add enough lemon juice to make it a thick paste. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Butter & flour the bottom of a 9 inch pan.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the eggs into the milk mixture. Add liquids and lemon zest to dry ingredients, fold in just until there are no dry lumps. Scrape batter into prepared pan, put in the oven. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out dry. Remove and spread the lemon glaze over it (up to about 1/2 inch from the edges - it will run) while it's still hot.
For the sauce: Smash 2 cups of blackberries (or most any berry) with 1/2 cup of sugar - bring to a boil then let it cool.
Serve. Eat. Be happy.
