Blueberry sponge cake with cream cheese frosting

 

It’s all very well being selfless and baking to please others but sometimes you just need to be selfish and bake something to please yourself!  This week I had a hankering for blueberries baked in a simple sponge with cream cheese frosting.  Et voila!  I think blueberries are my favourite fruit to bake in a sponge – I love the way they break down, bleeding their juice into the sponge and also the magnificent pop of colour you get when cutting a slice.  It’s particularly effective when the outside of the cake is so plain and pale.

The cream cheese frosting is my favourite as it’s so smooth and creamy.  It’s great to team with a crumbly sponge because you can take some on the fork and use it to pick up all the crumbs.  This is one of my tests as to whether someone is a true cake lover or not.  (It may also double as a test for greedy guts! If so, I am guilty!)  A true cake lover will always gather their crumbs and eat them – after all, they are just smaller versions of the slice of cake.  An occasional cake eater will eat the slice and leave all the debris on the plate – it’s a total giveaway that this is not my kind of person!

I think this cake looks really good and could easily take pride of place on the afternoon tea table; don’t however assume that means it is difficult or time consuming to make – it is neither.  The sponge recipe and method is as basic as possible, as is the frosting.  It’s an example of great flavours and ingredients producing something simple but delightful.

Foolishly, I made double the amount of frosting.  I cannot explain what possessed me other than a greedy stupidity that the amounts set out in the recipe below didn’t look enough.  Hence, I was left with a large amount of cream cheese frosting.  We always joke that cream cheese frosting is so lovely we could just eat it by the spoonful so, eyeing the strawberries and left over blueberries I had sitting in a colander I threw together an impromptu dessert.  Serve it with some crisp biscuits if you want to look fancy.  Bonus dessert....the best kind!

Ingredients

For the sponge:

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
150g blueberries

For the frosting (this is enough to cover the top and sides of the cake):

100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g cream cheese, at room temperature – I used Philadelphia

To decorate: 50g blueberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Start by making the sponge: beat together the butter and sugar until pale and whippy.  Don’t be tempted to skimp on this stage – it needs a lot of beating.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it’s curdling.  (NB. If you have beaten the butter and sugar for long enough it will not curdle – so if your mix does make sure you beat for longer next time)

Beat in the vanilla.

Stir in the flour.

Gently stir in the blueberries taking care not to burst them.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the frosting: start by beating the butter until it is pale and whippy.

Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth and well combined.

Add the cream cheese and beat until the frosting is smooth, thick and fluffy looking.  I like to take a small amount, place it on my tongue and then press it up against the roof of my mouth – if I cannot feel any sugar crystals and the texture feels smooth and uniform i.e. no blobs of cheese in there, then I know it’s ready.  If the beating has made the frosting too soft to comfortably spread refrigerate for 20 minutes or so.

Spread the frosting over the top and sides of the sponge cake.

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

Eat.