Thursday 9 May 2013

Blueberry cream cheese butter cake

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Its been ages since I updated the blog, and even longer since I posted a cake recipe. I have half written posts in my drafts and loads of reviews to be done, but somehow my days have become really busy..ever since I started working part time. I love my job and its opened up a completely new world of baking and cooking and such for me. More on that later.

I am not going to ramble today, yes, time constrained, so I'll go straight to the recipe. Like I said before, I hadn't baked a cake in a looong time and so on a day I felt the need to eat something seriously unhealthy, cake was what came to my mind. My usual Google searches led me to this fab recipe, tried by 3 of my fav bloggers and so I knew it was going to be a winner. 
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Loads of butter, loads of sugar and loads of cream cheese is what nice things are made of. So by no means think that this is a low calorie cake...which I think is bull shit any way. There is nothing called low calorie cake. If you want to eat cake then go all out and eat the real thing is my motto! Which is also probably why I need to go on a crazy diet :O

I usually don't like to bake with butter, more so because the whole creaming it with sugar etc etc is messy and time consuming, as opposed to oil which is soo cool, you just pour it into the batter (and also I can be a teeny tiny happy its a bit better than butter). But once in a while I don't mind going all out and, although I cringed at the amount of ingredients needed, that's exactly what I did with this cake! The outcome was delicious. I mean really, really delicious. Its so moist, like melt-in-your-mouth moist, and the blueberries break down the sweetness at intervals. It so versatile, you can definitely make this cake plain or add any other flavouring like orange or lemon and it would be great. TRUST ME!

Recipe adapted from here (makes an 8 inch loaf cake + an 8 inch square cake)
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Caster sugar- 1 cup
Butter- 250 gms, softened
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Eggs- 3, medium at room temperature
Cream cheese- 250 gms
Milk- 1/3rd cup
Self-raising flour- 2 1/4 cups
Blueberries- 150 gms, fresh or frozen (I used fresh)
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I didn't have self raising flour so I made my own by sifting together 3 1/2 tsp of baking powder with 2 1/4 cups of plain flour. The ideal measurement is 2 tsp baking powder to 1 cup plain flour.
Pre heat the oven to 160C and line an 8 inch loaf pan and 8 inch square brownie  pan with baking paper
Beat together the sugar butter and vanilla extract in a free standing mixer, using the paddle attachment, till soft and fluffy. You can use your hand beater as well.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Change to the whisk attachment and add the cream cheese and milk. Whisk till the mix turns lump free and you get a smooth batter.
Add the flour and whisk just until mixed.
Using a spatula, fold in the blueberries.
Pour the batter into the lined pans till about 1/4th full and bake for about 50 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. My brownie pan took only 40 minutes to bake.
Once done, cool completely on a wire rack and before eating either dust with some icing sugar or have it plain.
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Notes: Original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Even for an ardent sugar lover I thought that was a bit too much, so i reduced it to 1 cup. It was pleasantly sweet.
I changed to whisk attachment half way through because i noticed that the cream cheese was still in lumps and not smoothening out with the paddle attachment. The whisk worked like a charm.
The cake keeps well in the refrigerator for about a week. I cling wrapped it properly and refrigerated it. It also freezes well.
Replace the blueberries with any berry of choice.

7 comments:

Laurel y Menta said...

Precious photos and presentation ! looks delicious

QembarDelites said...

Wonderful looking cake! I would love to try it someday!

Shruti said...

Cream cheese, butter and blueberries..love that combination

turmericnspice said...

Congratulations on the job... Busy is good. But I was missing you here, checked in twice or thrice and was about to message you on fb. Am glad u r doing fine and good busy kept you away.

Cake looks awesome and I agree, when u bake do the real stuff... I wish food was calories free. I need to get on a diet too :(

Jehanne said...

i've been waiting patiently for this recipe ever since I saw it on your FB Nisha, this is definitely bookmarked for some calorie obsessed binge weekend!
I love that antique shot with eggs and cutlery, superb.

Nammu said...

Absolutely loved the pics... I tried it & it turned out b awesome! Love ur blog!

Nammu said...

Absolutely loved the pics... I attempted baking & this turned out to b awesome! :D....thank u& love ur blog! :)