I've been making this Blueberry Pound Cake ever since it appeared on the cover of Cooking Light magazine. It's hard to believe that it is a "light" recipe, because the cream cheese and yogurt give it great flavor and moistness. In late July and August, our family makes quite a few trips to Parlee Farm in Tyngsboro to pick blueberries which we then flash freeze and use throughout the year to make these great cakes. I must say that when we have a Blueberry Cake, sitting on my glass pedestal cake stand in the kitchen, I feel a little bit like June Cleaver. And that's a good thing.
http://parleefarms.com/
Ingredients:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup softened butter (I use unsalted)
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
- 3 large eggs
- 1 large egg white
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour, divided
- 2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 (8 ounce) carton lemon low-fat yogurt
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar, butter, and cream cheese until well blended. Add eggs and egg white, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reserve 2 tablespoons of your 3 cups of flour to coat the blueberries.
If using frozen blueberries, wait until the batter is completely done before removing them from the freezer, as they will quickly begin to defrost and will "bleed." If using fresh, you can toss the blueberries in the 2 tablespoons of flour to coat them. The coating prevents the blueberries from bleeding into the batter so that your cake remains yellow and does not turn purple from berry juice.
Combine the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, alternately with yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Gently fold in the blueberries, tossed in flour. Using non-stick cooking spray (preferably with flour), coat a 10 inch tube pan (angel food cake pan) or bundt pan and then pour the batter. Bake for 60-75 minutes.
Cool cake for 10 minutes and then either invert or remove, depending upon which pan you used. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and drizzle over the warm cake or brush it on with a pastry brush. Yield: 16 servings, 288 calories/serving
