Lemon Blueberry Cake: 2 ways

Doesn't that sound like a fancy dessert at a restaurant or a challenge on Top Chef? I was thinking about a couple of things I wanted to write about, and they both happened to be cake-like things with lemon and blueberries. Umm, am I that one-dimensional? Yes, yes I am. And I own it. I think I will forever be baking things with the lemon-berry combo due to the permanent and traumatic scarring of the botched wedding cake fiasco of 2008 and the case of the missing raspberry. Just kidding. The wedding cake was fine. Other than the fact that it sucked. Gah I'm over it.

Way #1
The first lemon-blueberry cake is a recipe I had saved in my Google Reader for some time. I made it for dessert at the Shabbat dinner I wrote about below. This cake has all kinds of Rachael Ray (or is it Sandra Lee that's doing that these days)-type sneaks written all over it, but no one could tell and at least they claimed to like it! Via Shutterbean:

Lemon Vanilla Cake with Blueberry Topping

Printable Recipe

"-buy some of the Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix. Follow the instructions on the bag and when you are mixing it all up add a heaping teaspoon of Lemon Extract in the mix. If you don’t have lemon extract but have a few lemons hanging around your house, finely grate some lemon peel in the batter.

After the cake has finished baking, pour a few cups of frozen blueberries in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes. The juices will start releasing from the blueberries. I added a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s ginger jelly spread and dumped that into the mix. Continue to cook for another 5 minutes and you will see that the berries have released most of their juice. I stirred for a bit and then added a few teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken up the sauce. The longer you keep it on the heat, the thicker your sauce becomes.
Let the cake cool for a bit and then load the blueberries on top.

I think it looks nice when there’s blueberry sauce dripping down the sides. Enticing? YES!"

Image via Shutterbean

Amy's Notes:
* I didn't have any ginger jelly, so I didn't use it. Cake came out fine, but that would've been delish.
*I used blueberries that had been in the freezer since we picked them ourselves last summer....the best!!

Way #2:
My first-ever banana bread of any kind. I had old bananas. I needed to use them. I found this recipe, it sounded yummy and also had the bonus of only requiring ingredients I already had in the house....key. No more commentary, this has been a blog-ful evening and I'm about done! Recipe from Cooking Light, via here

Blueberry-Lemon Banana Bread
Printable Recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°. To prepare the banana bread, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk to combine.

Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until mixture is well blended (about 1 minute). Add mashed banana, egg substitute, sour cream, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Gently fold in blueberries and lemon rind. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool the bread 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove the bread from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.


Image via Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake

Amy's Notes:
*I substituted real eggs for egg substitute. Highly recommend whenever possible, especially in baking. Hehehe.
*I don't have a goddamn wire cooling rack. It cooled just fine.
*We were skeptical at first; thought there may be too many flavors. But they worked together perfectly and each fruit flavor complemented the others well. Yum.