blueberry tea cake

The cake I chose for this month’s Cake Slice Bakers challenge is the Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake. I should call it Blueberry Lemon Small Curd Cottage Cheese Tea Cake, but really, that’s way too long.

Our local supermarket doesn’t carry ricotta, so it’s a toss up whether to use cream cheese or cottage cheese. I chose the cottage cheese because it’s closer to ricotta and smushed it through a sieve to get it more like a ricotta texture.

Surprisingly, it works great! The cake is soft, tender and full of bursting soft blueberries, with a whisper of lemon flavor. It is SO good.

A few weeks ago Bret brought home 4 lb. of wonderful strawberries and I managed to use them all up (see that great French Strawberry Cake). This week he came home with a giant container of Costco blueberries. Giant.

Luckily this blueberry cake came up for the challenge, although I’ve also been enjoying them on cereal and thrown into salads. Go antioxidants!!

I thought about making the cake in a 9″ cake pan and am glad I didn’t. It rose very high and would’ve drooled over the sides of the cake pan. It seems like every recipe I see that uses a springform pan requires 8 inches or 10 inches, and finally this one uses the size I have – 9 inches.

If all you have are cake pans, divide the batter between 8 inch cake pans and start checking for doneness at 35-40 minutes. I really recommend the springform, though.

This tea cake will definitely be made a lot at my house. A great use for those good-for-you blueberries and a divine flavor. A truly delicious cake. I think this will be good with blackberries, too. Wonder if Bret’s going to Costco next week..

Blueberry Lemon Ricotta Tea Cake

Yield: 8 - 10 slices

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Soft, tender, and bursting with fresh blueberries, along with a lightly lemon flavor.

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Ingredients

• 3 C fresh blueberries
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 C butter, softened
• 1 C sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest from 2 lemons (about 1 1/2 tsp)
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 C small curd cottage cheese (or ricotta)
• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (optional)
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 335°. Line a 9" springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides of the pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the washed and dried blueberries and cornstarch until the berries are well coated. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition.
4. Press the cup of cottage cheese through a sieve, scraping off of the bottom of the sieve. Add the cottage cheese to the creamed ingredients and mix again until batter is mostly creamy. (If using ricotta cheese, just add it directly to the butter mixture.)
5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Remove the creamed mixture bowl from the stand mixer and sift the dry ingredients into the batter, then fold with a spatula just until combined.
6. Gently stir in the lemon juice, if using (highly recommended). Add 2 1/2 cups of the blueberries to the batter and fold them in.
7. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan and spread the batter evenly to the edges. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of blueberries over the top, pressing them down lightly.
8. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Remove cake from the springform pan and peel off the parchment paper. Finish cooling on a rack. Dust about 1 tbsp of powdered sugar over the top of the cake after cooled. Serve it warm or cool.

Notes

Since I couldn't easily find ricotta cheese, I used small curd cottage cheese smushed through a sieve.  It worked perfectly.

The original recipe calls for 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of almond flour, but I never have luck with almond flour.  I used 2 1/2 cups of regular flour.

I included about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice from one of the zested lemons to add a little bit more lemon flavor.  I highly recommend this.

My cake was done at an hour and ten minutes.  Start checking the cake at an hour.

If you don't have a 9" springform pan, use two 8" cake pans and start checking the cakes at 35-40 minutes while baking. 

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 10 slices Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 492Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 127mgSodium: 477mgCarbohydrates: 68gFiber: 2gSugar: 38gProtein: 8g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

Here’s The Cake Slice Bakers’ Info. Check out the other bakers’ posts!

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th – never before – we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

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