Growing up, there was a overgrown blueberry farm that mum would take us to nestled just on the outskirts of town. It wasn’t open to the public from memory, well not anymore at least. But somehow my mum had heard about this woman’s property, so we’d find ourselves there come summertime, ice cream containers at the ready, picking and eating as many plump blue berries as we could manage. I don’t know how many kilos we’d get every year, but given there were 4 of us kids to pick + mum, I’d say we got a lot. I remember the bags full of them in the freezer, which mum would use throughout the year, mostly to make her legendary cinnamon-sugar-sprinkled blueberry muffins.
It had been years, I’m talking like more than half my life-time ago now, since I’d been to a blueberry farm to pick my own. In Perth we had a beautiful big blueberry bush in a pot out back which provided us with bowlfuls of fruit every year, but I still relied on frozen berries most of the year. When my sister mentioned recently that she’d heard of a great place to pick-you-own, we organised a day out with the kids. With four kids in tow, we’d filled our buckets up in no time, which was just as well as they were all hanging out for the fresh blueberry ice cream they’d also heard so much about. Actually, Ada announced pretty soon after we started picking that the main reason she wanted to go was to eat the ice cream she’d heard her cousin talk about. Kids aye.
We brought just over 4kg of berries home to pop into the freezer (and I’m already thinking I really should go back for more before the end of the season!). These will be used over the coming months insmoothiesand baking such as this Blueberry, Lemon + Coconut cake, which I developed for Food & Wine last year.
More Blueberry recipes…
Vegan Blueberry Power Smoothie
Blueberry, Lemon + Quinoa Slice
Gluten + Dairy-free Blueberry + Almond Muffins
News:
-I’m cooking at this years Food Show!Christchurch 8-10 April | Wellington 20-22 May | Auckland 28-31 July. I’ll be doing a cooking demo each day followed by book signings (of my new cookbook!). Check outwww.foodshow.co.nzfor more info. I’ll be giving away 3 double passes to the Christchurch show on Facebook next week, so keep an eye out.
-There was a lovely article in Viva this week, featuring yours truly.
Blueberry, lemon +
coconut cake
This simple butter
cake can be topped with any kind of in season fruit you may have at hand. Try
strawberries in spring, figs in autumn or poached pears in winter. Here is my
summer version, bursting with fresh blueberries with a hint of lemon and
coconut. You can use either fresh or frozen berries for this cake, but don’t
defrost before using if frozen is all you have, or their juices will seep into
the cake batter. Best eaten on the day of baking, its lovely served with a generous
dollop of softly whipped cream or natural yogurt.
Serves 8-10
125g (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) softened butter
200g (1 cup) unrefined raw sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The finely grated zest 1 lemon
2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature
75g (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) desiccated coconut
105g (3/4 cup) fine brown rice flour
55g (1/3 cup) potato starch (often called potato flour in NZ/Aus)
1 1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
2 tablespoons coconut milk (or cow/almond/rice milk)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen + 1/2 cup extra to
sprinkle on top
approx. 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut, to sprinkle on top
Gluten-free icing sugar or coconut flour, to dust
Softly whipped cream or natural yogurt, to serve
Preheat oven to 170C (335F). Grease and line a 9 inch (23cm) round spring-form cake tin with baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy using either
an electric mixer or wooden spoon. Stir in vanilla and zest. Add eggs one at a
time, beating well between each addition. Add desiccated coconut and sift over
brown rice flour, potato starch and baking power. Stir until just combined
before adding coconut milk and 1 cup of the blueberries, fold in gently. Spoon
mixture into prepared tin, scatter the top with remaining 1/2 cup berries and
flaked coconut. Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when
inserted into the center. Cool in tin. Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar or
coconut flour (to mimic the look of icing sugar) and serve with natural yogurt
or softly whipped cream. Best eaten on the day of baking.
This recipe was first developed for and seen onfoodandwine.comby me in February 2015.
This is NOT a sponsored post, I’m just sharing info on the PYO farm as I’m sure any of you who live nearby would also love to go! If you live in the Waikato region I can highly recommend a trip out to Blueberry Country, Ohaupo. They’re not certified organic, but we were told they don’t use any sprays. Buying locally grown berries and freezing them is always gonna be better for you than buying imported frozen berries too.
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39 Responses
would love to try this recipe! im off dairy atm, would coconut oil be ok to replace butter?
Using coconut oil would produce an entirely different cake and I can't guarentee it would work. I would be more inclined to use this cake: https://www.mydarlinglemonthyme.com/2015/07/gluten-dairy-free-spiced-pear-and.html and use blueberries in place of the pear.
Hi! This recipe looks delicious – how would I make it with normal flour/ almond flour?
I would try 160g plain flour in place of the brown rice + potato flour in this recipe. I've not tried it myself though…
can you just send me this? that would be great 🙂 thanks!
🙂
yummmm…. where do I get potato flour from Em? It's not one of the regulars in my pantry and it's the only one the list that I don't have right now (or is there another starchy substitute?)
In Australia you can find potato flour at most healthfood stores or bulk bin type stores. You can also find it at Asian grocers where it will be labelled potato starch. I think you can even find it at most supermarkets too. Potato flour + potato starch are the same thing in Australia/NZ, however for my US readers, potato starch is what you are after (actual potato flour is a whole other thing and something we don't have in Australia/NZ).
I successfully subbed tapioca starch (flour)) for the potato starch, as that is what I had on hand. Great recipe. And just as good the next day!
yum! I love the look of this beautiful cake. now, I'll just wait patiently for summer here in the US…
Using Lemon in Cake is quite new to me… I must try to prepare cake in this way & obviously taste it… food delivery in Mumbai
Regards from Food Mumbai Blogyum, the cake looks delicious, I love lemon & blueberry!
I have all of the supplies for this in my fridge (including frozen wild blueberries from last summer!). I think I know what we'll be having for dessert for Valentine's Day 😉
Enjoy! xx
I love PYO, the fruit always tastes so much better. It is still winter here in the UK so I am going to try and give this recipe a go with pears like you suggest. Looks delicious (and lovely photos) x
Thanks heaps! xx Emm
So gorgeous, Emma! I love the sound of this cake. And blueberry picking. I'll have to look out for a place to go pick this summer here in the states, I miss it from my childhood too! Your cookbook is arriving in the mail tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited (!!!). Hope you have a wonderful weekend, lady! <3
Yay! Enjoy x
I've not once been to a blueberry farm (or any berry farm, for that matter), but you've got me thinking I need to change that, STAT. This cake is so gorgeous, lady! And I love that you made it with rice flour + starch instead of almond flour.. because that means it'll be so much easier for me to veganize. 😉 XO
Berry picking is super fun and a waaaaay cheaper way to eat berries 🙂
Emma, this cake looks so temptingly rich and buttery! I still have blueberries frozen from last summer so I think I'll be baking a cake soon. Happy weekend to you!
I have a problem with coconut catching in my throat and find a lot of gf recipes use it. Do you have any suggestion for an alternative please?
You could use almond meal/ground almonds in it's place.
Thank you – will try that – so many gf recipes use coconut.
Hi,
For some reason I am finding it hard to find Potato Flour. Is there a substitute I could use?Firstly, read my comment above. It might help you to track some down. You could try cornflour (corn starch) in it's place, but it might give slightly different results as potato flour (or actually potato starch as it's known in the US if that's where you're from?) gives way more moisture to baked goods than cornflour (starch). Hope that helps!
Hi, a great article in Viva and I have just finished reading your article in the March edition of the UK magazine 'Vegetarian Living'. Congratulations
Oh how cool! I haven't seen that UK article yet xx
Blueberry picking is something I dream about and look forward to all year long. This cake looks absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to try it! Beautiful photos!
Thanks so much Lauren xx
oh wow! i can't wait to try out a version of this cake (subbing ghee for butter cuz I'm allergic to lactose). That should work, right? But DUDE it sounds so good! Might make it for my dad because he loves blueberries and coconut so much. also, thank you so much for including me in your inspiration link list! it means so much to me. you're totally an inspiration and i've been following your work for years. xo
Hey love, you're so welcome!
If you can't eat butter I'd be tempted to adapt my Spiced Pear + Almond cake (https://www.mydarlinglemonthyme.com/2014/12/fried-egg-tortilla-with-cucumber.html) instead of using ghee in this one. I've not tried this myself, but I'd sub in coconut in place of some (maybe half?) of the ground almonds (almond meal) and then top with blueberries instead of pears. Or use this recipe, but use the method of the Spiced Pear cake, beating the eggs with sugar and then drizzling in cooled ghee instead of creaming the butter/ghee and sugar. xx
Great article,great attitude:)
I'll try this with poached pears and regular flour as I'm not sure where to get hold of potato starch in France…I've never been on a blueberry farm, thanks for sharing the photos!
This cake looks great! I have a a couple gluten free family members that I have been trying to please – I will try this one next time!
Nothing feels more sweet and comforting than a home made blueberry pie, and this one is one of the loveliest I've seen!
Love everything about this post!! I've been picking blueberries once, and it's one of my dearest childhood memories. Wishing it was blueberry season here now, so I could go and pick + stack the freezer too and make the most delicious things with them, like this amazing cake!!
yummy this cake is delicious, nice with a big pot of tea, thanks for sharing.
Simon
Love your books & blog! Sounds super tasty, Would this work ok with Feijoas?
