Blueberry and mascarpone loaf cake

While I was trying to get my gnashers round a giant, but highly delicious, doorstop sandwich filled with brie, honey, walnuts and figs and he a salt beef panini in a deli caff this summer my husband had already mentally moved on to desserts and was eyeing up the sweet treats. There sat a gorgeous looking mascarpone and blueberry loaf cake.

We didn’t succumb at the time (how disciplined was that? And how unlike me…!). However, I just had to try to recreate a similar cake it as it sounded like a fabulous combination of flavours. I don’t know what the original tasted like, nor could I find out the recipe from the staff at the time, but what I’ve come up with is a lovely cake indeed.

I’ve ‘pimped’ it up considerably from the benign but delicious title, placing honey and Cointreau in it too.

A little note: I’m currently off work nursing a recovering left hand, having had a minor op. As such, I can barely dress myself, let alone bake and cook. I knew I would be like this for a while as I had the same operation on my right hand last year. So, I stockpiled some recipes, photos and posts this summer in anticipation of being out of order for a few weeks and this recipe was actually prepared and written in mid September, just before I was operated on and has been scheduled for posting. I should be back to full capability (and back to the day job too!) before the end of October (2018).

Notes

• It’s moist, spongy and bursting with oozy blueberries
• The batter is very thick for this cake – rather more like a Madeira or pound cake than a typical sponge
• it will crack slight on top – I happen to think it looks really nice this way

Equipment

• Bowl
• Electric whisk or stand mixer (as the batter is thick it’d be rather heavy going with a balloon whisk)
• Spatula (a silicone one is best)
• Loaf tin (roughly 19cm x 10 cm)
• Baking parchment or greaseproof paper

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter (room temperature) – 80g
• Soft brown caster sugar – 75g (plus an extra tablespoonful for scattering)
• Runny honey – 2 tablespoons
• Large eggs, whole – 2
• Plain flour (I used 00 Italian flour, but any decent plain will do) – 230g
• Mascarpone – 210g
• Cointreau or triple sec (or any orange liqueur) – 25ml
• Milk – 25ml
• Lime juice – juice of half a lime
• Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
• Blueberries – a small punnet (about 130g)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 200°C conventional
2. Grease then line your loaf tin
3. Cream the butter, caster sugar and honey together in a bowl until fluffed up a little and turned paler in colour
4. Add the eggs, flour, mascarpone, Cointreau, milk, baking powder and lime juice and whisk in
5. Gently mix in the fruit (it doesn’t matter if you burst a few, this gives a nice contrast in the cake)
6. Fill the prepared tin with the mixture and level off as best as possible
7. Sprinkle over the additional soft brown caster sugar
8. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 55 minutes, testing with a skewer to see if it’s done (the skewer will come out clean when it’s ready)
9. Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack (the cake is very moist and may split if you are not careful with it – when fully cold it is more rigid)
10. Enjoy like any normal cake, but also works as a dessert with ice cream, custard or additional fruit

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