Blueberry sandwich cake

It seemed like too long since I’d made a good old fashioned sandwich cake.  Likewise anything with blueberries.  Likewise anything with curd.  Therefore I decided to incorporate all three and make a blueberry sponge cake sandwiched with blueberry curd and buttercream. 

Most of the components of this cake are adapted from other recipes I’ve featured on my site before – the new element is the addition of the natural yoghurt in the buttercream.  It adds a nice tang and helps to cut through the sweetness of the buttercream.  I was very pleased also with the blueberry curd; I’ve yet to meet a fruit curd I didn’t like (other than lemon, obviously!)

Adding some of the curd to the buttercream made it a wonderful colour whilst keeping it natural.  Regular readers will know that I’m not mad on adding colour for the sake of it (I will occasionally do so but it has to be natural), but here the curd adds flavour too; it was a particularly fruity buttercream!

I state in the recipe to have some extra blueberries for decoration.  I put some aside but then, barely ten minutes later, ate them having completely forgotten what they were saved for.  Luckily I had some wafer daisies in the cupboard!

Ingredients

For the blueberry curd:

225g blueberries
2 tablespoons water
140g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
35g unsalted butter

For the blueberry sponge:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk
150g blueberries

For the buttercream:

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
400g icing sugar
3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons blueberry curd

To spread on the cake: virtually all of the blueberry curd

To decorate the cake: handful of blueberries (I forgot why I’d saved some and ate them, hence no blueberries on my cake)

Method

Start by making the blueberry curd: place the blueberries in a saucepan with the water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the fruit has collapsed to a mush.

Pass through a sieve using a spoon (or sieving mushroom) to push through as much puree as possible.

Discard the pulp and put the puree either in a bain marie saucepan or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (the bowl mustn’t touch the water or you’ll get scrambled eggs).

Add the caster sugar, eggs and butter and stir until all the ingredients are melted and combined.

Continue to stir until the curd thickens – this can take a while so don’t panic and think it’s gone wrong; I usually find it takes about 15 minutes.

Once you can leave a trail on the surface of the curd it is ready.  It will firm up more as it cools.

Remove from the heat.

Spoon into a bowl or jar – I sieve it at this point just to make sure there are no lumps - and leave to cool completely before refrigerating.

Now make the sponge: preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Line two loose bottomed 20cm round sandwich pans with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – do not skimp on this stage.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if the mixture looks like it is curdling.

Fold in the flour and baking powder.

Stir in the milk.

Spoon the batter into the two pans and level the surface.

Scatter the blueberries over the top of both batters and press down gently.

Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the sponge comes out cleanly.

Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out the sponges and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container until you are ready to ‘build’ the cake.

Now make the buttercream: beat the butter until it is soft and whippy.

Add the icing sugar, yoghurt and blueberry curd and beat until well combined and smooth.

You are now ready to ‘build’ the cake: place one of the sponges on the serving plate.

Spread the blueberry curd onto the sponge and top with some buttercream.

Place the other sponge on top.

Cover the cake with the remaining buttercream.

Refrigerate until 45 minutes before serving.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.