Citrus blueberry cake (with buckwheat flour) and a piece of advice

You guys know that I don’t really need an excuse to bake a lemon cake – if I didn’t like trying new recipes so much I would probably have a lemon cake sitting on my kitchen counter every weekend. :)

As silly as it might sound, having baked goods on my kitchen counter is one of the things that make me really happy. :)

When I saw this beautiful recipe for an orange cake freckled with blueberries I decided to add lemon to the mix, making it a citrus cake instead. The cake turned out delicious – both oranges and lemons are wonderful paired with blueberries – very tender and also pretty from being baked in a tart pan.

I did, however, used a pan 1cm smaller than the one called for in the recipe – do I like living dangerously? I wonder – and for the first 20 minutes in the oven I kept checking to see if the batter had overflown. Luckily it didn’t and the cake turned out fine, but if you don’t want to worry like I did use a slightly larger pan – or... :)

Citrus blueberry cake
slightly adapted from Margaret Fulton Baking: The Ultimate Sweet and Savory Baking Collection

250g all purpose flour
50g buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon table salt
250g granulated sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
¾ cup (180ml) whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 1 orange
finely grated zest + the juice of 1 lemon
130g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
200g fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a deep 22cm round loose-based flan pan or cake pan*, line the bottom with a circle of baking paper and butter the paper as well. Dust it all with flour and remove the excess.
Combine the flours, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the eggs, milk, vanilla, zest, juice and butter and mix until combined. Spoon into the prepared pan. Top with half of the blueberries and bake for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle over the remaining blueberries and bake for another 20 minutes (my cake needed 35 minutes in the oven after the second batch of blueberries were added).
Cool in the pan for 25 minutes, then carefully remove the outer ring of the pan. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

* the tart pan I used is 21x4cm and the batter almost overflew – I recommend using a slightly larger pan

Serves 8

Almond, lemon and buckwheat tea cake and weekend plans

I think you guys should know that I managed to keep the plans I’d made for the weekend: I watched more than just one movie (one of them probably for the tenth time) and I also baked and cooked a bit – the cold days are a great excuse to keep the oven on. :)

I find it almost impossible to switch channels when some of my favorite movies are on, and yesterday one of the channels had a Godfather marathon: all the three movies were being aired in a row. I don’t care for the third movie, but I love The Godfather and The Godfather II and ended up watching the first movie once again (a couple of glasses of wine kept me from watching the second one). :)

Another thing I find almost impossible to do is to resist the urge to bake lemon cakes: as much as I try to vary – and sometimes I succeed, you know that – I always bookmark the lemon cakes in the cookbooks I buy, and this beauty was no exception: there are tons of wonderful recipes there and the first recipe I tried from it was a recipe for cookies, but after those I could not wait to take the lemony route, and here it is.

I used buckwheat flour instead of all purpose flour and loved the result – it’s not a very tall cake (mine turned out just as the one on the photo of the book) but it’s packed with flavor (and gluten free).

Almond, lemon and buckwheat tea cake
slightly adapted from the oh, so beautiful The Baking Collection (The Australian Women's Weekly)

½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
125g unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (35g) buckwheat flour
pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
120g ground almonds
2 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature
2 tablespoons flaked almonds
2 tablespoons pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 180°/350°F. Lightly butter a 5-cup loaf pan, line it with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
In a large bowl, rub sugar and zest together until fragrant. Add butter and using an electric mixer beat the ingredients together light and creamy. Add the three eggs and the vanilla, then beat until incorporated – scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Sift the buckwheat flour, salt and baking powder over the mixture, add the almond meal and milk and stir to combine. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, smooth the top and sprinkle with the almonds and pine nuts.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully unmold onto the rack. Cool completely, then peel off the paper.

Serves 6-8

Mini buckwheat pancakes

For some people, retail therapy means lots of clothes, shoes, DVDs... To me, it means ingredients for my recipes. :)

After buying this beautiful book, I went crazy and started buying lots of different types of flour: buckwheat, barley, rye... Time went by and I haven’t baked with them as I should have. Not good, Patricia. Not good.

Buckwheat flour begging to be used + Bill Granger’s recipe + my obsession with teeny-weeny food = these pancakes. :)

Mini buckwheat pancakes
from bills open kitchen

1 cup + 2 ½ tablespoons (165g) buckwheat flour
6 tablespoons (60g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons caster sugar
pinch of salt
4 eggs, separated
2 cups (480ml) buttermilk
butter, for greasing the pan
to serve: yogurt, maple syrup, honey, fresh fruit or jam

Preheat the oven to 120°C/248°F. Place the buckwheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Place the egg yolks and buttermilk in another bowl and stir well to combine. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour and mix lightly until just combined. A few lumps are fine, so do not overmix. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush with a small portion of butter. For each mini pancake, ladle 1 tablespoon of batter* into the pan and cook for 30-40 seconds or until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Turn the pancakes and cook for another 20-30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven while you make the remaining pancakes.
Serve with whatever strikes your fancy.

*to make larger pancakes, use ¼ cup of batter per pancake

Serves 4