Red, White and Blueberry Cake

Summer holidays and American celebrations began the tradition of potlucks. Whether you love or loathe them, most of us will inevitably find ourselves hauling in a bucket of baked beans, a heaping pile of potato salad or the infamous bag o’ chips. Of course, it’s not necessarily about ditching or overhauling the classic dishes. People tend to expect certain staples, and I would recommend not adding anchovies or chocolate sauce to the coleslaw. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t improve on old methods.

Take for example, that all-too-typical, iconic “Flag Cake”. You know that yellow cake with cool whip, strawberries, blueberries like the stripes and stars? As fun as it probably is to make with little kids, if your audience isn’t under the age of 12, I suggest a modified version: a cold blueberry cake with lemon icing. The end product is a refreshing, sponge-like sweet cake with a bit of tangy lemon on top. You don’t get bogged down by bites of just fruit or just cake. Fruit and batter unite to be baked together forever.

The recipe I used from All Recipe’s inspired me to add stiff egg whites to the cake for a lovely overall fluffiness. The icing was my own personal pairing, offsetting the sweet with the sour – turns out it tantalized the taste buds just as I had hoped.

Blueberry Cake

Ingredients:

½ c butter

½ c white sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1 ½ c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 c milk

2 egg whites

¼ c white sugar

2 c fresh blueberries

1 T all-purpose flour

½ stick butter, melted

2 c powdered sugar

3 T lemon juice

Lemon zest

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Grease and flour an 8 in square pan.

2. Soften butter, cream with sugar. Add salt and vanilla. Separate eggs, stir egg YOLKS in with butter mix. Set egg whites aside in separate bowl.

3. Combine flour and baking soda. Alternate gradually milk and butter egg yolk mixture to flour.

4. Coat blueberries with 1 T flour, add to mix.

5. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add ¼ c sugar, tablespoon at a time until stiff peaks form.

6. Fold egg whites into the batter.

7. Pour into pan, bake for 50 min, or until cake test done.

8. Meanwhile, combine last four ingredients to make icing – should be creamy, not too thick. Adjust measurements on icing as needed. Set aside.

9. Once cake has cooled, spread on icing. Store in fridge as long as it will last.