Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pound Cake

This is not a fancy cake when you can say, “Oh!I couldn’t take my eyes off”, unless you tastes it. I served it this Saturday to my gluten eating friends and they all loved the delicious mix of sweet and tangy in this lemon blue berry cake. I converted a regular lemon blueberry loaf recipe to gluten free which was published in Globe and mail and it said, “making the ordinary, extraordinary”. There is 100% truth in it. I loved the recipe instantly when I read it but the amount of sugar left me wondering, (((3 cups))), I believe it was a printing mistake and I used half the amount. The cake is deliciously moist and gets extremely moist when you glaze it. The ground almonds makes the texture more interesting. Plus, the fresh flavors of lemon and blueberries with the secret ingredient buttermilk are at their best. If you think that ground almonds will make the cake taste like almond flavoring then you are wrong. I have added just to give this gluten free cake, a great squidgy crumb texture. The cake can be stored, covered, at room temperature for three days and (because of ground almonds) it gets more moist than what you see in the picture below. So, its good to slide a piece of parchment paper in each slice for easy lifting later on. It freezes very well; wrap each slice in a grease proof paper and then store in freezer proof container.

Making almond meal is really easy. I freeze the raw almonds for 8 hours or overnite before processing them in food processor. Freezing avoid turning almonds into almond butter. You can use blanched almonds if you do not like your flour to be speckled. Most of the commercial almond meal is made from blanched almonds which has a more finer, lighter and pale yellowish texture. For light colored cakes or cookies I prefer to use blanched meal as you can see here.You can use any kind of almond meal regardless of what is asked in the recipe.

LEMON BLUEBERRY BUTTERMILK POUND CAKE
source: Globe and mail
Ingredients:
165 g (1.5 cups) almond meal
207 g ( 1.5 cups) brown rice flour mix
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
315 g (1.5 cups) white granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter milk (4 tbsp less)
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups blueberries
1.5 tbsp brown rice flour mix
Glaze
3 tbsp butter milk
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 1/4 to 21/2 cups icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325°. grease and flour two loaf pans.
2. Combine brown rice flour mix, almond meal, baking soda and salt. Stir in the zest and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a mixer,cream butter on medium high. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula.Add sugar and cream until fully incorporated.
4. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, one at a time, making  sure that they are fully mixed in before adding the next. Turn up the speed of the mixer and beat until fluffy.
5. Return to medium and beat in lemon juice and vanilla extract. Turn the mixer back up for a few seconds to fluff it up again.
6. With the mixer on low(stir) speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of buttermilk. Repeat, and add the final 1/3 cup of the flour and gently mix until just incorporated.
7. Pour about 1/3 cup batter in each loaf pan(to avoid blueberries sinking at the bottom and getting burnt, they will sink down though but will not burn). Stir brown rice flour mix in 1.5 cups of  blue berries and stir in the remaining batter and split batter into both the loaf pans. Sprinkle the remaining half cup of blueberries on top.
8. Place in the preheated oven and bake for60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.Let the cake cool in the pan for15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack.
9. Drizzle with the thin glaze while still warm (I used only half the recipe of glaze). let cool before slicing.

Glaze

Mix the lemon juice and buttermilk together. Gradually whisk in icing sugar until the glaze is sweetened to your liking.