There's one in every family sire. Two in mine, actually. And they always manage to ruin special occasions.

I have two younger sisters.  And while they very rarely ruin special occasions, they do have one quality I just don't understand.  They don't like citrus.  Or they like some citrus, but not all.  Oddly enough, Roommate is the same way, she likes some but not others.  On the other hand, I have yet to meet a citrus I don't like.  The acidity, the tartness, the way it enhances and/or contrasts with other flavors, it's wonderful.

To be fair, there are foods/flavors I don't like at all.  For example, eggs and ham - I dislike their taste, texture, and smell while my youngest sister could probably live quite happily on eggs and ham for the rest of her life.  Eggs do have the redeeming quality of being very important for baking, so in that way only I approve of them.  And yes, I like all other pork products, I just dislike ham.  Actually, citrus and pork tenderloin go quite well together.  But my favorite citrus and ______ combination is citrus and fruit.  Especially citrus and berries.  

Blueberries have never been my favorite berry.  They're fine, they make a lovely muffin and a fine addition to pancakes, but compared to strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, they always seemed to be missing something flavor-wise on their own.  Or at at least that is what I thought until last summer when my mom brought home a 10-lb box of Michigan blueberries.  I ate them by the handful.  And then I had another handful.  And then maybe just one more.  I made them into fruit salad, muffins, frozen yogurt, all of which were phenomenal. 

Of course, berries that delicious could not last forever, so I had to go back to using their more mundane counterpart, the grocery-store purchased blueberry.  Store-bought blueberries really depend on the recipe and the other ingredients in the recipe to enhance their flavor.  And this is where the glory of citrus comes in.  Combine with the wonder of Pinterest, and you have Lemon-Blueberry-Buttermilk Cake.  It is divine.  Since discovering this recipe about two months ago, I have made it countless times.  Roommate and I devour it at a rate that is really quite unseemly.  But we don't care.  It's that good.

It is important to start with room-temperature butter.  Shockingly, the best way to get room-temperature butter is to set it out on the counter and leave it for a few hours.  This is my preferred method, but sometimes you cannot wait that long.  In that case, you can use the microwave.  Either way, take your room-temperature butter and put it in the mixer bowl with 1 cup MINUS 2 tablespoons sugar and the zest of one lemon and beat it until it gets light and fluffy.

At this point I feel compelled to mention the best way to zest a lemon.  First, it is very important that the lemon be clean, because it is impossible to clean zest once it has been zested.  Or so I imagine, I have never tried.  Second, it is much easier to zest a lemon if it is cold, so keep them in the fridge until you are ready to zest.  Third, use a Microplane grater.  It is to zesting citrus what the immersion blender is to making smooth soup.  It is fantastic.  You should get one.

Once the butter-sugar-zest combo is light and fluffy, add the vanilla and egg and beat until it is all mixed together.  Next, in a separate bowl, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup flour.  This step may seem unnecessary, but it is actually quite important, because it keeps all the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.  In another separate bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, the salt, and the  baking powder. 

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter-sugar combo, mix until combined, then add half the buttermilk and mix, 1/3 the flour and mix, the rest of the buttermilk and mix, and the rest of the flour and mix.  The batter will be fairly thick and fluffy.  By hand, mix the blueberries into batter, carefully so as to not rupture the berries.  Spread the batter into the baking dish, sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown on top and a knife inserted comes out clean.  The cooking time will vary based on your oven.  The original recipe says 35 minutes but that up to 10 additional minutes may be necessary.  In our oven, it usually takes about 50 minutes, but it is a gas oven and my experience over the last three months is that it takes longer to cook almost everything in a gas oven.  Let cool slightly, then enjoy!

Lemon-Blueberry-Buttermilk Cake

from Alexandra's Kitchen

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 c sugar, divided (2 T and 7/8 c)

zest of 1 lemon

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 c fresh blueberries

2 c flour, divided (1/4 c and 1 1 3/4 c)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 c buttermilk

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together butter, 7/8 c sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.

2.  In a small bowl, toss blueberries and 1/4 c flour, set aside.  In another bowl, whisk remaining flour together with salt and baking powder.  Add four mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture, alternating flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour.  

3.  Add in blueberries, stirring gently until all flour is incorporated.  Spread batter into a greased 9x9 baking dish.  Bake until golden brown, at least 35 minutes, but possibly longer.  Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

The Verdict:

I believe I may have mentioned that this gets eaten frequently and in large quantities, this was just the first time I managed to pause long enough to take pictures.  I really am not very good at this food blogger thing, either I forget to take pictures at the beginning, or I forget to take pictures at the end.  And when I do remember to take pictures, they look nothing like the other food pictures you see on the internet.  Regardless of my photography skills, this is delicious.  Especially the sugar crust on top.