Berry Bundt Cake

Berry Bundt Cake

1 c butter softened
2 c sugar
3 eggs
4 T lemon juice, divided!
zest of 1 lemon
2 1/2 c flour---divided!
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz Greek yogurt
1 1/2 c berries
1 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375° and prepare pan

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time beating between each. Add 2 tsp of lemon juice.

Add 2 1/4 c flour, baking soda, salt, lemon zest, and mix.  Add yogurt blend till mixed.

Toss the other 1/4 c flour with the berries.  Spread batter into pan and layer berries into batter.  or  you can fold berries into batter before spreading batter.  Try not to break up the berries or you batter will become the color of your berries.

Reduce oven heat to 325° put cake in center of oven and bake for 60min or till toothpick comes out clean.  Cool about 20-30min then mix powdered sugar with 2 T lemon juice and drizzle onto cake.

I used blueberries but any berry will work, strawberries would need to be sliced or quartered.

Fruit Bars

Using a basic crumble type pastry these are delicious and so easy.  You can adapt them with most any berry if you want to change it up as the berries begin to ripen in your area.    What a great treat to take on a picnic, serve for brunch, tailgate party, dessert.........

Fruit Bars

1 C sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3 c flour

1 cup butter

1 egg--beaten

zest & juice of 1 lemon

2 c blueberries

1/4 c sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350° butter 9 x 13 pan  (you can double this and make it in a rimmed cookie sheet if you want to feed a crowd)

With pastry blender in large bowl mix sugar, baking powder, flour, lemon zest, butter (I use cold butter and grate it with a box grater for quicker blending), egg....mix till crumble looking texture forms.

Press 1/2 of mixture into 9 x 13 pan reserve the rest for the topping.

Mix berries with lemon juice, 1/4 c sugar and cornstarch and distribute evenly into pan.  Top with rest of crumble mixture and bake on middle rack about 50-55 min or till topping begins to brown.

Let cool completely then add:

juice & zest of 1 lemon mixed with 1 c confectioner sugar add a bit of water for desired consistency then drizzle over cooled bars, let set then cut into equal sized squares.

Great served for brunch or  with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

alternate berry ideas:

raspberry & almond
raspberry & white chocolate chips
strawberry & orange in place of lemon
blackberry & orange in place of lemon
apples with the orange in place of lemon

also cinnamon is a nice addition

Any other suggestions for fruit combinations I should try?

Mix blueberries with cornstarch, 1/4 c sugar & lemon juice.

use pastry blender to mix crumble mixture

press into pan

layer blueberries then top with rest of crumble

bake till golden brown

YUM!

Blueberry Coffee Cake

Nick & Mallory

We traveled down to DC to celebrate an early birthday with Mallory.  We enjoyed dinner at "Ripple" in Cleveland Heights, a visit with Nick, Mallory, their new puppy Darcy and a Blueberry Coffee Cake for birthday cake. This cake has a nice flavor and could be made with whatever berry is in season, a very moist, light cake.

Darcy

Blueberry (Birthday) Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened

2 c sugar

4 eggs (med-large)

juice & zest of one lemon

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

8 oz plain greek yogurt (I used one 6 oz pkg)

fresh blueberries (or berry of your choice)

1 c powdered sugar

2-3 T lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°, grease & flour tube or bundt pan.  Mix flour, soda, salt & lemon zest.

In mixer bowl cream butter & sugar, add eggs one at a time then add lemon juice.  Add flour and yogurt mix till just blended (don't over mix).  Toss the berries with a little sugar or flour to keep their color from running into the cake then fold them into batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan, reduce oven temp to 325° and bake for about 1 hour check  for toothpick to come out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool about 20 min before removing from pan.  When cool mix 1 c powdered sugar with lemon juice to desired consistency drizzle over cake.

Berry Trifle

This was a big hit and so easy to make.  We had it for Easter but it is going to be great all summer with fresh berries.

Berry Trifle

Baked cake or pound cake (I used a white cake mix)
Berries
For cream layer:  8 oz pkg cream cheese
                          1 c confectioner sugar
                          1 c cool whip thawed

rest of thawed cool whip for top

prepare cake or purchase a cake and cut into small cubes

clean and cut up berries into bite sized pieces

mix cream layer ingredients with mixer

layer in glass bowl, top with remainder of cool whip and chill at least 8 hours