The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

In honor of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee I was inspired to whip up something British to eat while watching the Boat Parade in London on the Thames this morning.  Such pageantry despite the rain.  And that Queen and her Prince Philip.  86 and 90 years old respectively, and their they stood through the whole rainy but spectacular flotilla.  Nice to catch glimpses of the handsome Princes William and Harry too.

Being of British ancestry and also loving all things English, I felt a sense of pride and thought what fun it would have been to be in London today and be a part of such a celebration.  Instead though, I nibbled on my tea cake and sipped my coffee, enjoying the festivities on the telly in my warm, dry house!

Long live the Queen!!

Blueberry-Lemon Tea Cakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, divided
2 large eggs
2 cups blueberries

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp or more lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F and spray 4 (5 3/4″ x 3 3/4″) loaf pans with nonstick spray. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Combine buttermilk, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a small bowl.

Beat lemon zest, butter, and 3/4 cup sugar in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture; fold in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly between loaf pans and bake for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. While cakes are baking, combine remaining 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and syrup thickens, about 4 minutes.

Remove cakes from oven and transfer to a wire rack; brush tops of cakes with lemon syrup and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, and cool completely.   Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice together to form a thick glaze. Spoon glaze over cooled cakes and let firm up before cutting. Store cakes in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

Our First Blueberry Crop

Over the last few weeks I have been harvesting blueberries from the two bushes we planted in May. What a surprise to get at least 2 pints from them, when we thought this first year there would be no harvest all. The berries are big, plumb, blue jewels and I'm looking forward to many years of blueberries in the freezer to utilize in new recipes.An old favorite I made this morning was blueberry muffins. This is a tried and true recipe I have been using for years and it never fails to make delicious, moist muffins. I like to get the dry ingredients together the night before as well as the wet ingredients which I stick in the fridge. The following morning I just have to give it all a quick stir up, throw in the blueberries and as fast as you can say "Easy as a Sunday morning", there you have a dozen hot muffins coming out of the oven.Blueberry Muffins

(makes 1 dozen standard size muffins)

2 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 cup blueberries (frozen ones work best)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease 12 muffin tin cups. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium size mixing bowl. To that stir in the blueberries and coat with the dry ingredients.

Combine the milk, oil and egg together and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix until combined but do not overmix. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle a small amount of granulated sugar over the top of each muffin. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool at least 5-6 minutes before removing muffins from tins.

Patience Is A Virtue

The old adage "Patience is a virture" is so true in life, particularly when you are cooking. My blog is subtitled Success and Failure in the Kitchen and today's efforts would certainly fall in the latter category.

I bought some plump local blueberries yesterday and pondered what to do with them. I decided on a pound cake (more like 5 pound cake) recipe from one of my favorite old cookbooks, The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzan. It is filled with vegetarian recipes and includes a number of delicious dessert choices. I have made the following pound cake once or twice before but today I decided to adapt it by adding lemon zest and blueberries to the mix.

This is a project where a large stand mixer is almost a requirement. The cake mix becomes so voluminous as it is beaten through the various stages that it almost oozes out over the bowl. It is quite satisfying to make this particular cake for that very reason. This however is where I made an egregious error. I beat everything with the mixer instead of by hand as directed. I put my cake batter into my prepared bundt pan all the time wondering if it was all going to fit. It did, coming right to the very edge of the pan.I put it in the oven at 350 degrees, set the timer for one hour and went off to putter around the house. Approximately 20 minutes later I started smelling smoke and wondered who was barbecuing outside so early in the day. I wandered back into the kitchen, only to see in horror, smoke pouring out of the back burner. I cautiously opened up the oven door to see a small bonfire burning at the bottom of the oven where big globs of batter were spilling over from the cake pan above and burning away. Quickly I turned off the oven, hoping and praying I wouldn't have to call my colleagues from Fire Station 2 to make a house call, and waited for the flames to die down. I removed the cake, scraped out the bottom of the oven well then turned the oven back on and returned the cake with a cookie sheet safely placed underneath.

The cake was done after another 20 minutes with no more disasters.....or so I thought. Once out of the oven I immediately turned the bundt pan over onto a cooling rack and started shaking at the pan to release the cake. Why oh why didn't I heed the directions which clearly stated "wait 10 minutes before taking cake from pan?? The results below speak for themselves my dear readers.
Oh well, the bright side is the cake tastes fantastic. Okay so it certainly won't find itself on the cover of Bon Appetit Magazine but there were a couple of salvageable hunks I was able to cut off and share with my Mother-In-Law and Gladys and her family and The Husband doesn't really care one way or the other what it looks like, as long as it doesn't contain mushrooms!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake
(Adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzan)
1 pound butter
3 cups white sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract or lemon extract
1 Tbsp. baking powder
4 cups unbleached white flour
2 cups blueberries
zest from one lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a full sized bundt pan.
Cream together butter and sugar with an electric stand mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Remove from mixer and add sifted dry ingredients alternating with milk and vanilla combined, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly WITH A WOODEN SPOON just enough to blend without excess beating. Add blueberries and lemon zest and mix until combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake in oven (with a sheet pan on lower shelf to catch any drips - (PLEASE HEED MY WARNING ON THIS ONE!) Bake for one hour or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out dry. Cool cake for 10 minutes in pan (HEED MY WARNING ON THIS TOO!) before turning out onto a plate. Cool completely before slicing.