berries...

disclaimer: my camera ran out of battery so all photos are crappy as they were taken off my phone :(


well im in napier for a mini break with T and besides being famous for its sunny weather (its currently raining and WAS thundering) and fish and chips (well according to me) its called the fruit bowl of new zealand (according to T) so i thought while i was down here i would take advantage of the ample fruit... in particular the berries!

i had a recipe i wanted to try out in my recipe folder at home but being in such a hurry to get to the airport i left it behind... so today with blueberries in mind i google image searched 'blueberry' cake (i like to see what they look like first) and came across a pretty yummy looking one and along with that a fantastic recipe AND blog!!


its called .....
Apple and Spice

and has fantastic recipes and interesting posts... im definetly going to spend a few hours on it when i get home...

anyway back to the cake... so i tracked down a place called the strawberry patch that stocked bluberries, fresh berry ice cream (which of course we had to sample :/ ) and also did pick your own strawberries at $4 a kg! yum ... unfortunately the day before i had already bought two huge punnets for $10 (which is still great value)... i also ate the majority of them and to be honest my stomach has been paying .... ....anyway enough said about that ! :o

ok so the recipe is here (original page and post ) or here....

Ingrediants
200g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp of vanilla
115g butter
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
240ml plain natural yoghurt
400g blueberries
65g natural marzipan

For the topping
1½ tbsp light soft brown sugar
2½ tbsp finely chopped hazelnuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 22cm 9inch spring form tin.
Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs on at a time, beating well between each one. Chop the marzipan into small squares and fold into the batter along with the vanilla and yoghurt.
Sift over the flour, bicarb and baking powder and fold in well, turning the bowl as you go until just combined.
Place half of the batter into the cake tin and then cover the surface with half of the blueberries.
Spread the remaining half of batter evenly over the blueberries and top with the leftover berries.
Scatter over the chopped hazelnuts and sprinkle on the brown sugar.
Bake between 1hr – 1hr 15minutes until springy and a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. (It will be wet if you hit a blueberry).
Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before removing from the in and allowing to cool before serving.
Tastes great eaten on its own, with crème fraiche or slightly warm with ice cream.

the recipe calls for marzipan which is different! blocks of marzipan in NZ supermarkets are around $8! so i went to the lolly/chocolate isle and bought a $3 log of chocolate covered marzipan and just scraped the chocolate off and used that....


yes... i AM cheap!

blueberries on top before adding the hazlenuts and sugar..... yum

 

i usually use a fan bake setting for my cupcakes but did this on a normal bake setting as it called for a long cooking time... the top didnt burn which was what i was most worried about! there is one thing to note of importance... this cake takes FOREVER to cool... im not sure why, maybe the heat in the berries? but it seemed very delicate and a bit crumbly while still warm so had to let it cool completely

out of the oven (terrible photo!) but you can see all the blueberries on the top and sides!

the inside of the cake (another bad photo :/)  might put more bluberries in the middle or do another layer next time!

 

Served it with fresh cream and strawberries... yum

as my baking journey continues i am becoming increasingly aware of the way ingrediants work and taste and think i am going to start experimenting with my own recipes or perhaps modifying or adding to existing ones! so standby for more fun and probably plenty of disasters!