Blueberry Almond Cake With Lemon Curd Food

BLUEBERRY, ALMOND AND LEMON CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius. Grease a 9- or 8-inch/21-centimeter loaf pan with butter, line it with a parchment paper sling and butter the paper. Set the pan aside.
• Place butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light, then lower speed to medium. Add eggs in three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times as necessary. The mix may split a little but don't worry: It'll come back together once you add the dry ingredients.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and almond flour. With the stand mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing just until no white specks remain. Fold in about 3/4 of the blueberries by hand, then scoop batter into the prepared loaf pan.
• Bake for 15 minutes, then sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top of the cake. Return to the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes, until cake is golden brown but still uncooked. Cover loosely with foil and continue to cook for another 25 to 30 minutes (less for a 9-inch pan, more for an 8-inch pan), or until risen and cooked, and a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside in its pan to cool for 10 minutes before removing cake from pan and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
• When cake is cool, make the icing: Add lemon juice and icing sugar to a bowl and whisk together until smooth, adding a bit more juice if necessary, just until the icing moves when you tilt the bowl. Pour over the cake and gently spread out. The blueberries on the top of the cake may bleed into the icing a little, but this will add to the look. Let icing set (about 30 minutes), slice and serve.

BLUEBERRY LEMON SHORTCAKE

Steps:

• Heat 1/2 cup sugar, water, and cornstarch over medium heat. Add blueberries and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil until thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
• Beat 2 eggs, yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and salt in a saucepan until well mixed. Stir lemon juice and zest into egg mixture. Add 1/3 cup butter.
• Cook and stir egg mixture over medium heat until lemon curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Pour mixture into a bowl and cool. Lemon curd can be covered and refrigerated for up to two weeks.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease two 11x17-inch baking sheets.
• Combine flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Mix 1 cup milk, lemon extract, coconut extract, vanilla extract, butter extract, and almond extract in a separate bowl.
• Beat 3 cups sugar, 1 cup softened butter, and shortening in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat 5 eggs into butter mixture until smooth. Pour in the flour mixture alternately with milk, mixing until batter is just incorporated. Divide batter into prepared baking sheets, spreading evenly.
• Bake in preheated oven until cake springs back when lightly pressed, 25 to 35 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Cut cake into rounds using a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place a cake round on a plate and top with blueberry sauce and lemon curd. Top with another cake round, followed by blueberry sauce and lemon curd to make one serving. Repeat with remaining cake, sauce, and curd.

BEST LEMON BLUEBERRY BUNDT CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F Butter a 12-cup bundt pan.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In another large bowl, beat butter (or margarine) until smooth. Add sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in flour in three additions, alternating with buttermilk. Beat for 2 minutes. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into prepared pan.
• Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a sharp knife around edges of the pan. Turn out and cool completely.
• Glaze: in a small bowl, mix together confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and corn syrup until smooth. Drizzle over top of cake and let it roll down the sides.

LEMON-ALMOND BUTTER CAKE

Steps:

• For the curd, combine zest, juice, sugar and eggs in a heatproof bowl, and beat well. Add butter, and place over a saucepan full of simmering water. Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, until mixture thickens into curd, about 5 minutes. Strain into a bowl, and press plastic wrap onto surface to keep skin from forming. Refrigerate until cool, at least 1 1/2 hours.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9-inch spring-form pan with 1 tablespoon butter, and dust with 1 tablespoon flour, shaking out excess.
• With an electric mixer, cream the remaining butter and 1 cup sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift together the remaining flour, baking powder and salt, and stir in. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs until they start to foam. Do not overbeat or the cake will be tough. Add eggs and ground almonds to batter, and mix well.
• Scrape batter into the prepared pan. Drop 8 individual tablespoons lemon curd around perimeter of batter, leaving a 1-inch border, and taking care to space drops evenly. Drop 3 to 4 tablespoons curd into center of batter. Refrigerate remaining curd for another use. Sprinkle cake with toasted almonds and 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar, depending on taste.
• Bake until cake is toasty brown on top and a toothpick inserted into cake (not curd) comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool on rack 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan, and cool completely.
• Whip cream with almond liqueur. Present cake at table, and offer whipped cream on the side.

LEMON CURD & BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with a long strip of baking parchment. Put 100g yogurt, 2 tbsp lemon curd, the softened butter, eggs, lemon zest, flour and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl. Quickly mix with an electric whisk until the batter just comes together. Scrape half into the prepared tin. Weigh 85g blueberries from the punnet and sprinkle half into the tin, scrape the rest of the batter on top, then scatter the other half of the 85g berries on top. Bake for 1 hr 10 mins-1 hr 15 mins until golden, and a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
• Cool in the tin, then carefully lift onto a serving plate to ice. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in enough lemon juice to make a thick, smooth icing. Spread over the top of the cake, then decorate with lemon zest and edible flowers, if you like. Serve in slices with extra lemon curd, Greek yogurt and blueberries.