Red White And Blueberry Cake

Once upon a time, a very long time ago… I worked in a kitchen.

That’s right, I was a dishwasher but believe it or not, I didn’t just wash dishes!

Actually the fact that the rest of the business readily referred to us as “dishwashers” was entirely derogatory. There were many facets to our role that no one outside of the kitchen ever considered or appreciated and all of our dish and not dish doing duties had to be performed on a mercilessly tight time schedule in boiling heat.  But that’s probably a rant for another day.

The reason why I bring up my kitchen role is because one of the cooks used to make a flat pan blueberry cake topped with whipped cream that I found myself missing recently.

I figured that since so many summer berries were in season and cheap, I’d try to make one but I was also feeling 4th of July festive so I put a little red white and blue spin on my blueberry cake and I’ve provided the recipe below!

Ingredients: 

100g Self raising flour

100g Caster sugar

100g Butter

2 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla extract

600ml Whipping cream or double cream

Powdered sugar

Blueberries

Strawberries

Raspberries

Blackberries

Preheat the oven to 180c or 350f.

The first thing you need to do is make the cake batter up. This will work just as well with a cake mix but I went with the old fashioned way this time.

I basically just used the Victoria sponge method which is equal parts (100g) butter, sugar and self raising flour and 2 eggs.

To make the batter you first cream the sugar and softened butter together until it’s light in color and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract with a little bit of flour and once that’s mixed finally fold in the remaining flour. The amount of batter this produces is going to look like it’s not enough but trust me… it’s enough.

Next split half of the batter between two 9 inch cake pans or just do half now and half later because you only own one cake pan (like me).

Before you pop it in the oven scatter a layer of blueberries on top and bake it for 20 minutes.

If the batter doesn’t want to spread out in the pan for you to scatter your blueberries pop it in the oven for a minute and take it out again and it should relax enough to cover the bottom of the pan and allow you to pop in the blueberries.

When the cakes are each finished allow them to completely cool on a baking rack and as they’re cooling you can whip the cream.

I prefer whipping my own cream because that means I can get it to the exact consistency I want. You are welcome to use store bought whipped cream but stay away from cool whip and canned cream because they’re too wet and not very stable (for sticking berries in).

If you’ve never whipped cream before it’s as easy as putting it in a bowl and applying the electric mixer to it until it goes stiff. Be careful not to over-whip (which can sneak up on you fast) and when it looks like it’s just starting to thicken add in some powdered sugar (maybe a tablespoon to start) and taste it, then add more if  you want it sweeter. Then continue to beat the cream until it’s to your desired consistency.

The next steps are the easiest. Put one cake on a plate…

Cover it in cream…

Sandwich the other cake on top…

Cover everything in more cream…

Decorate with berries….

Admire the awesome berries…

Drool a bit… (away from the cake)

And serve!

My husband and I cut into this as soon as I was finished decorating it and it was good but we found that on the next day after it had been sitting in the fridge for 24 hours it tasted SO much better. I would highly recommend that you make this cake in advance so that you get that 24 hours later awesome flavor boost, but I understand if you just can’t wait.

Enjoy!