Blueberry Cake

I have lately had a slight madness over layer cakes and old forgotten memories of cake. After hearing my cousin talk about it, I became inspired to make this blueberry cake, which I vividly remember "helping" to make when I was a child. The recipe is for a light optima sponge cake, sandwiched between layers of blueberry filling and fresh whipped cream.


It's a very airy, very ethereal cake which can be a pain to handle because when the sponge is truly well-made, it actually tends to sink in the middle and pull away from the cake tin rims. It's only when overbaked and slightly denser, that this cake actually holds it's shape and is easy to ice.

Instead of blueberry, you can fill the top with other berry fillings or a fresh lemon curd, or you can mix and match lemon curd and blueberry or add, as I do, chocolate rice on the sides. This has actually become one of my favourite recipes becuase it's so easy to make and it assembles easily in one bowl (I like easy-clean recipes, I hate having to wash out the KitchenAid mixer). I particularly like how light it is, how little fat there is in the recipe and how beautifully fluffy the batter looks folded into all that stiff egg white.


After acquiring a turntable (best $8 I ever spent!), icing these cakes also became much easier, though I've become slightly fanatic about achieving a really smooth white snow run of cream icing. Good thing Z likes blueberry cakes, apparently they were his default birthday cakes when he was a child, so he happily eats my experiments.