Blueberry Orange Butter Cake

Whenever I see blueberries, whether they are on special offer or not, I would be tempted to buy. Most of the time these blueberries are not sweet. They are either sourish or bland.

The other day when I baked a Blueberry Orange Zucchini Bread, I told myself that I must attempt a butter cake version. I admit that a regular cake tastes loads better than a quick bread version. That's my preference anyway.

With a butter cake, you will have to go through the process of beating the butter and sugar and eggs which means more washing up, though you could do it by hand. But I feel that an electric hand held mixer does a better job than I do.

Since I had three small oranges left in the fridge, I decided to make this an orange butter cake with the addition of blueberries. 

The blueberries I bought are large juicy ones and these were sweet. They come at a cost of RM10.90 per box of 125g. I bought two boxes to bake this very indulgent blueberry cake. 

I adapted the recipe from a cookbook that has been gathering dust on my bookshelf. This cookbook is Lovely Butter Cakes by Amy Wong and KS Lee. I have baked some lovely cakes from this book like this Banana Apricot Cake and Pumpkin Pecan Cake.

This recipe uses sour cream which I know will result in a moist cake with tender crumbs. I upped the orange aroma, using zest from the 3 oranges. When this cake was baking, whoa! the smell of butter and oranges was so nice. 

My cakes baked in a loaf pan are usually done in 50 minutes but this one took an hour due to the extra moisture. 

I loved the blueberries as they became sweeter and had a jam-like consistency. I was very happy with this bake. This is one expensive cake, the blueberries and butter alone set me back more than RM30 but since it is for my own stomach, it is entirely worth it hah..hah...

Blueberry Orange Butter Cake

Recipe source : Adapted from Lovely Butter Cakes (original recipe is Mango Butter Cake, hmm... must try!)

Ingredients :

- 227g butter (I used Kerrygold)

- 180g caster sugar

- 3 eggs

- 100g sour cream

- 250g self-raising flour, sifted

- 250g fresh blueberries (wash, pat dry and tossed with some flour)

- zest from 3 small oranges

Method :

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Add vanilla extract and orange zest and continue beating to combine.

4. Add flour in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream. I used a spatula to fold the ingredients until just combined.

5. Fold in the blueberries and tip batter into a lined 9" x 5" loaf pan.

6. Bake at 160C for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean.

Note : I tented the cake after 40 minutes to prevent over browning.