The Cake Slice: Marbled Lemon-Blueberry Butter Cake

The Cake Slice Bakers choice for this month is a cake that features the classic pairing of lemons and blueberries. So delicious, a perfect balance of flavors and I thought all the components are portioned just right.

The cake was very easy to put together. My two alterations to the recipe: 1) I creamed the butter with a reduced amount of sugar (by a half cup), and 2) I doubled the lemon zest (since I didn't have lemon extract). Also, I've been wanting to not make a round cake for awhile now so I baked mine in a half-sheet pan (12 x 18 x 2) and cut into three rectangular pieces for the layers. I had some problems with pouring the blueberry batter needed for the marbling effect. I think I might have poured too much so they look more like splotches than swirls. Kinda reminds me of these. :)


I was a little woried that my lemon-blueberry preserves wont be substantial enough as a filling for the cake (even though I had yielded more than 1 cup) but found it was just the right sweetness (and zing due to the addition of ginger in the preserves) needed to offset the richness of the lemony butter cake.


And I almost goofed on the lemon buttercream frosting. I separated the yolks out and had started to whip the whites. I took a second look at the book for something and noticed the recipe asked for whole eggs! This was a first for me using whole eggs in the frosting. So I took the two egg yolks and placed them in the mixing bowl right away.

This frosting was good overall. I usually double the frosting recipes from the book since I always seem to run out. Probably because my boys always wanting to lick the spatula and beaters when I make them :) This time I'm not sure why I didn't so thinking I would run out I frosted the cake really thinly, like I crumb-coated the cake twice. It turned out to be a good thing since the cake was really buttery already. The thin coat of frosting was all it needed to put it all together, I thought.

This cake went out to my sister who celebrated her birthday last month. The cake was served for dessert after a simple birthday blowout dinner at a Chinese restaurant.


(On a side note: This was also the last solid food I ate before I went on a detox cleanse. That is probably the reason why it's been pretty quiet here in this lil' blog of mine. More on this later. Also, I was called to work for a couple weeks and just found out I am to report to work again tomorrow which will last another 10 days. I miss reading up on all my favorite blogs and hope to back blogging soon.)

Print recipe for Marbled Lemon-Blueberry Butter Cake