Blueberry & Lemon Loaf Cake
My husband loves blueberries, so when it was his birthday earlier in the year and he said he’d be happy with a blueberry muffin instead of a birthday cake, I thought to myself, how about a cake that’s essentially a giant blueberry muffin? So that’s what I made!
This cake is gluten free and suitable for vegetarians. You could dairy free baking block (I’ve used the vegan one from Stork before) and lactose free yoghurt to make it lactose free too. In the UK, I find the LF yoghurt from Tesco the best, it’s nice and thick.
Ingredients
- 80g unsalted butter
- 120g caster sugar
- zest of one unwaxed lemon
- 250g plain gluten free flour blend
- 1.5 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
- large pinch of salt
- 300g blueberries
- 2 large eggs
- 80g Greek yoghurt
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- icing sugar to serve (optional)
Note: Make sure all your ingredients are at room temparture before starting.
Directions
Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (or 160 C for a fan oven).
Line a 2 lb loaf tine (approx. 23cm x 13cm) with grease proof paper.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool down until just warm.
In a large bowl, rub together the sugar a lemon zest. The rubbing helps to release the essential oils from the zest and makes your cake more lemony.
Add the flour, baking powder, Xanthan gum and salt to the bowl with the sugar and whisk together.
Keep aside a handful of blueberries. Add the remaining blueberries to the mix and toss until they are coated in flour.
In a separate bowl, together the cooled down butter, eggs, Greek yoghurt and lemon juice until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients with the blueberries, to the wet ingredients, using a spatula or wooden sppon to mix everything together just enough that there are no flour clumps remaining. You should have quite a thick batter.
Leave the batter to rest at room temperature for 5 minutes. This give the blend of dry ingredients time to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients and thickens the batter. A thicker batter means the blueberries are less likely to all sink to the bottom.
After the batter has rested, transfer to your prepared baking tin. Use a spatula or back of a spoon to ensure the batter is evenly spread out and smoothed on top.
Scatter the handful of blueberries you set aside over the top of the batter, pressing them every so slightly in (but not all the way, you still want them to be sticking out a bit).
Bake the cake in the oven for around 50 minutes to an hour (depends a bit on your oven). Check half way through and cover with tin foil if it is getting too dark on top before it’s baked through.
The cake should be ready if you insert a wooden skewer an it comes out clean, i.e. no wet batter sticking to it.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before carefully lifting it out by the greaseproof paper. Gently off the paper and transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely before cutting.
If you like, you can dust the cake with icing sugar before serving.
