Easy Whole Wheat Blueberry Cake

A simple blueberry cake made with whole wheat pastry flour is a delicious end-of-summer dessert.

There was always dessert in our house. No matter the night, Sunday or not, we ended our suppertime meal with a sweet treat. In summer dessert often involved some sort of in-season fruit and a favourite was this blueberry cake. Mom usually served it with a brown sugar sauce or a basic white icing flavoured with a bit of lemon juice and zest.

My most vivid childhood memories of this dessert are actually of the brown sugar sauce that mom used to serve with it. Buttery and sweet, the sauce pooled around each piece of cake and we did our best to sop it up with the cake since tongues and fingers we not allowed to touch the plate.

Old fashioned recipes are often the best:

The recipe came from a friend of my mom’s sometime in the 1970’s. It was probably served at some sort of ladies bridge gathering and mom, knowing a good cake when she tastes it, asked for the recipe.

The cake is best made with wild New Brunswick blueberries that are so abundant this time of year. And of you freeze a box of berries you can enjoy this cake through the winter too.

Cakes are about the easiest dessert going. Simple to mix up and only one pan to wash afterwards, baking a cake is a lot faster than making a batch of cookies or muffins. This recipe doubles well and is delicious made with conventional flour but I always make it with whole wheat pastry flour or whole white flour.

Ingredients:

3 generous Tbsp. butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup milk

2 tsp. baking powder

1¾ cups flour

1 ½ cups blueberries

Instructions:

Grease and flour a 9” cake pan (round or square). If you double the recipe use a 9”x13” pan.
Beat the butter with the sugar and add the eggs one at a time. Beat well then stir in the milk.
Combine the baking powder with the flour and add to the wet mixture. Mix well then gently fold in the blueberries. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes.

Serve it on its own dusted with icing sugar or dress it up with this:

Brown sugar sauce

1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup butter, cubed
1/3 cup molasses
3 Tbsp. water

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves (a couple of minutes) and remove from heat. Serve warm with the cake.