As the resident baker of my friend group, it’s not uncommon for me to get baking requests for special occasions. So, last week, when my friend Ashlynd asked if I might be willing to make the cakes for a baby shower she was throwing for her sweet friend, Clara, I happily obliged. After all, cake … baby shower … springtime … I don’t think you could find a sweeter combination than that.
My first question was what flavor of cake our mama-to-be would like, and Clara didn’t hesitate – blueberry. Perfect. I immediately knew I would opt for a blueberry lemon olive oil cake with lemon cream cheese icing. Luckily for me, one of my favorite recipe developers, Lauren Sephton of the blog “Bright Moment Co.,” had a blueberry lemon cake recipe on her website from a few springs ago (abrightmoment.com). I kept Lauren’s original recipe for the cake portion, but decided to add fresh lemon juice to her cream cheese icing recipe for some extra lift. I also added blueberry jam between the cake layers to make sure Clara’s requested flavor was front and center.
Ashlynd and I did some collaborating to decide how we would like the final cake to look, and we decided on a “naked cake.” This means that instead of covering the entire cake in icing or fondant, you only add icing to the tops of each cake and let the naturally formed cake layers shine in the final display. This type of design aesthetic works beautifully for super-moist and flavorful cakes like this one, because they don’t really need much icing anyway.
To help the cake layers really shine, I decided to bake them in my 6-by-3-inch cake pans instead of the standard 9-by-2-inch pans, which created extra-tall layers and revealed the beautiful blueberries polka-dotting the inside.
Our next roadblock was brainstorming the best way to get these cakes transported to the event. The baby shower wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, and Ashlynd was leaving for her road trip on Saturday. On top of that, the only day I had available in my week to spend baking was on Thursday. In an ideal world, I would bake and deliver the final cakes within 24 hours, but that just wasn’t going to be possible this time, and I was pretty worried about the cakes getting stale before the event.
After a bit of research, I ultimately decided to freeze the cakes after baking them. I sent them on the road with Ashlynd, frozen in a cooler, for her to transfer to the refrigerator upon her arrival on Saturday, where they could thaw overnight before the event on Sunday.
Most cakes hold up wonderfully well in the freezer, so if you’re ever in a time bind before a big event, just know that you could make your cakes days or even weeks in advance and freeze them. You just have to be sure you wrap them really well with plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. The day before you need them, move them to the refrigerator overnight so they can thaw. Somehow, as if by magic, they turn out to be as good as – or better than – they were on the day they were baked. Cakes that contain fruit or olive oil tend to taste even better after freezing because the flavors have had time to settle and meld.
Our last hurdle was figuring out how to execute the cake decorating. Since I wouldn’t be at the event and wanted to send the cakes unassembled for optimal freshness, that meant Ashlynd was going to have to put on her apron and take on the baker role in the final hour.
I sent her our inspiration photos, all the piping bags and icing tips she would need, and instructions for how to bring the cake to life, and she executed everything perfectly. The final cake was layered with blueberry jam, adorned with perfectly piped dots of lemon cream cheese icing and topped with fresh blueberries, mint and adorable edible wafer paper butterflies.
Clara loved her cake, and its modest part in her big moment was a huge success. So here’s to collaboration, cooperation and community – whether it’s between two friends trying to make a cake come together or a sweet mama and baby working hard to come into this world happy and healthy, we all need a hand sometimes.
BLUEBERRY LEMON CAKE
Ingredients:
Blueberry Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated cane sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons lemon zest, about 2 lemons
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, about 3-4 lemons
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed
Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice, about 1 lemon
For Assembly:
Bonne Maman blueberry jam
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
Fresh mint, for garnish
Instructions:
■ To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease three 6-by-3-inch cake pans with butter and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
■ In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
■ Toss in the rinsed and still slightly wet blueberries to mix just until combined. Set aside.
■ In a separate bowl, combine the olive oil, buttermilk, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla. Mix for 1-2 minutes, until smooth.
■ Fold in the flour and blueberry mixture just until combined.
■ Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans.
■ Bake for 20-30 minutes, until centers are set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only moist crumbs.
■ Let cool in the cake pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a baking rack to cool completely.
■ To make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the softened cream cheese and butter. Beat for 2-3 minutes, until smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula as needed.
■ Add the vanilla extract and lemon juice and mix for another minute until combined.
■ Add the sifted powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until fully incorporated. Taste the icing as you go until it reaches your preferred level of sweetness.
■ Beat at a high speed for 7-9 minutes, until light, fluffy and smooth. Adjust with more powdered sugar or lemon juice as needed.
■ To assemble, on the bottom layer of cake, spread a layer of icing around the center of the cake, leaving about an inch around the border. Then add some blueberry jam on top of the icing. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large French star icing tip about two-thirds full of the lemon cream cheese icing. Pipe a border of dots around the outside edge of the bottom layer. Then stack the second layer of cake and repeat. On the top layer of cake, pipe French star dots of the icing all over the entire top of the cake. Decorate with fresh blueberries and mint leaves. Serve and enjoy.
Kristin is a Columbus local and a graduate of MUW’s Culinary Arts Program. She lives downtown with her husband Jon and her naughty cat Sokka. In her free time she enjoys baking, making stained glass art and hanging out with her friends. If you see her in town, say hi!
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 45 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
