Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Glaze

This time was the first time I didn’t know what to bake for our bi-weekly sunday gatherings. I don’t know why but I was just so not feeling like baking (for the first time ever), so I decided to just go to the supermarket and see what strikes me fancy. In the end it all worked out and I resulted with a beautiful, moist blueberry coconut cake to bring back the spring feelings.

The picture is from the bloemenmarkt in Utrecht which I recently visited with a friend (we also went to a baking shop and I really had to hold back to not spend all my monthly budget on baking stuff!). Luckily, this cake is pretty budget friendly (it only uses frozen blueberries (2.50 a package) and 4 tablespoons shredded dried coconut as special ingredients, the rest are what I would call “from the pantry”.

As you can see it was really moist and fluffy on the inside (and the berries only bled minimally into the battern due to the flour trick I’ll share below). Only problem…in my hybris (a word that I learned in my fancy studies which basically means arrogance) I thought I could cut it and fill it with lemon cream cheese and well…let’s not do that. Ever again.I almost broke it in the process (you can still see the cracks) and it’s not necessary at all! A simple lemon glaze or nothing on top is enough.

What was your biggest cake hybris moment?

With love from the student kitchen,
Johanna

• Servings: 10
• Time: 70 minutes, including baking time
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This is what you need
150 g Butter (2/3 cup) at room temperature
225 g Sugar (1 cup)
1 sachet vanilla sugar (or one teaspoon vanilla)
4 Eggs at room temperature
220 g flour (1.5 cups + 1 tablespoon)
1 sachet baking powder (they sell it in small sachets here, if you have questions about the size please contact me!)
250 g Frozen blueberries (one package of 8.8 oz, so I guess 9 oz)
(1 tablespoon flour for mixing with the blueberries)
1 pinch of salt
5 Tablespoons grated, dried coconut
2 Tablespoons milk
For the glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice

And this is how we do it
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F, grease a round 23 cm (9×2) springform pan and dust lightly with flour
2. Cream butter and sugar (+ Vanilla) together with a hand mixer (or fork, as I did) until creamy and well-incorporated
3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating after every egg until it’s well incorporated
4. In an extra bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and coconut
5. Add the dry mix to the wet ingredients until all is incorporated (don’t overmix, otherwise the cake will become dense)
6. Add frozen blueberries and 1 tablespoon to an extra bowl, stir them with a spoon until each berry is coated with flour *
7. Add the blueberries to the batter, stir with a spoon to mix them all in (you have to do it fast because the blueberries will start freezing your batter)
8. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out evenly with the spoon
9. Let bake for approx. 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (it’s really important to insert it in the center!). If the cake browns too fast, cover with tin foil.
10. When it’s baked, remove from the oven, let cool for some minutes, slide a knife around the inside of the ring to open the springform pan and remove the outer ring. Let cool completely, then remove from the pan and rest on a baking grid. *
11. Mix the ingredients for the glaze with a spoon into a thick glaze and pour over the cooled cake.
12. Wait until the glaze sets and enjoy with your friends

Notes
* Coating the berries with flour will prevent the colour from bleeding into the battern and the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cake
*I don’t own a baking grid, so I usually take it out of the pan,  when cooled, and turn it upside down for half an hour (this only works if the cake doesn’t have a dome though and if it doesn’t have any fancy topping that might get destroyed) before decorating. I try to prevent with this that the cake becomes soggy at the bottom, but if you’re gonna eat it the same day anyways it doesn’t really matter.

This is my own recipe. Please do not use it commercially without my permission. When using it on your blog, please re-write it in your own words and link it to the source to give proper credit. Thanks!