Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake
If you’ve spent anytime at all around this site, you may have found that I have a thing for “everyday cakes”—you know, simple, homey cakes that you whip up for no particular reason at all, other than that you need cake and have convinced yourself that it’s perfectly ok to push off all your other work in order to achieve your ends! This Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake straight from the genius of Dorie Greenspan definitely falls into that category and with berry season in full swing and it being the first of August and time flying by and all, there is no time like today, an ordinary Thursday (unless it happens to be your birthday—have a happy one you know who!) to whip up this winner.
Like all everyday cakes, this blueberry beauty comes together easily without a lot of fussy ingredients, except for the buttermilk. I don’t mind having a container of it around—it has a pretty long shelf life and I always find that when I have it hand, I find ways to use it, like with these biscuits or this ranch dip or this coleslaw. But if the idea of buying buttermilk makes you twitch, you can always make your own. All you do is add about a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or distilled white vinegar to a cup of whole or 2% milk and let it stand for about 10 minutes, until it looks kind of curdled. Easy-peasy!
Either way, it’s so worth it because the buttermilk makes the crumb of this cake so tender and gives it a slight tang too which totally balances out the sweetness of the berries.
When you invert it from the pan, you’ll thrill at that artsy blueberry pattern going on.
You can either serve it as is or dust a little powdered sugar on top to make it a little more festive, yet still very much everyday.
It’s the kind of cake that likes to hang out on the kitchen counter waiting for someone to come by and snag a little slice and just as right for a simple after-dinner treat, as an afternoon snack or for a semi-indulgent breakfast (think giant blueberry muffin!). No matter when you serve it, it’s going to make “every day” you eat it, so much better!
And one more thing, as I was talking about everyday cakes and my love for them and scrolling through just how many of them I already have on the site (a shocking 24 to date!!), I realized that maybe they deserve their own little category, to make for easier searching, so here it is.
Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake
Makes a dozen servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes; Bake Time: About 1 hour
Ingredients
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon unbleached, all-purpose flour, divided (and a little more flour for preparing the pan)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 pint fresh blueberries
11/4 cups sugar
The zest of 1 lemon
1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons) cut into chunks, room temperature, plus extra to butter pan
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup buttermilk (shake well before measuring) and then bring to room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting on baked cake (optional)
The Recipe
1. Make sure rack is centered in oven and preheat to 350ºF. Butter a Bundt pan well, making sure to get in all the crevices and dust with flour. Tap out the excess and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the 2 cups flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Place the berries in a small bowl and toss with the remaining 1 tablespoon flour (this helps them not to sink to the bottom of the cake.)
4. Place the sugar in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Grate the zest into the sugar and use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar so that the oils of the fruit get dispersed into the sugar. Add the butter and salt and beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until well mixed. On low speed, add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg is added and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Beat in the vanilla and then the oil. On low speed, add the buttermilk.
5. Add in the flour mixture all at once and pulse the mixture a couple of times to blend, then mix on low speed beat only until there is no trace of flour left. Fold in the berries coated in the flour.
6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top so that it is evenly distributed. Bake for about 1 hour until the sides of the cake begin to pull away from the pan and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the center. If it comes out with moist crumbs, bake it a little longer and then test again.
7. Transfer cake to a wire rack and let cool for about 20 minutes. Then carefully invert onto the rack—the cake is a bit delicate. Let cool entirely and then dust with the powdered sugar, if using and cut into wedges.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Everyday Dorie by Dorie Greenspan.
