Summer Birthdays: Buttermilk Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Icing
To everyone who has a birthday this year: Let them eat cake!
I modestly claim that this is the very best birthday cake ever. I know! It’s subjective. I can’t help myself. Let’s talk about cake, yum!
The only ‘homemade’ cakes we ate at our house when I was growing up came out of a box, but at least we made a half-hearted effort. We made the icing from the recipe on the back of the Domino’s Powdered Sugar box: One box of powdered sugar, two sticks of butter, three tablespoons of milk, and vanilla extract. It was sweeeet! And to be honest, I was always more a fan of the cake than the icing, but that cake still said I love you way more than a cake purchased at the local supermarket.
My days at a girls’ summer camp in New Hampshire make me forever nostalgic about layer cakes. The cooks at the camp, Lillian and Henry Johnson, were beloved by the campers, but you wouldn’t dream of messing with Lillian. Lillian and Henry made blackberry ice cream every week, and Lillian ensured that every girl who had a birthday during the summer was treated to one of her special cakes. Hers was a 1-2-3-4 cake—one cup butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs—an old-fashioned but wonderful cake if ever there was one.
Like Lillian’s, this plain cake has a light and moist texture and the pure essence of vanilla, made with buttermilk. Buttermilk in cakes adds a tangy and rich taste. It keeps the cake from becoming too sweet, and the acid in buttermilk reacts with the leavening to help the cake rise and deters gluten development for a tender crumb. Who knew?
The real clincher in this cake however is the blueberry cream cheese icing. I first made it as an experiment for my son’s birthday. Since buttercream is not his favorite, I came up with a compromise, a kind of cross between cream cheese icing and whipped cream. It looks a lot like buttercream but has a softer texture when chilled; it’s also much more stable than whipped cream. Freeze-dried blueberries (not regular dried blueberries) are as dry and as light as popcorn and can be ground to a powder to impart an intense blueberry color and flavor to this icing with speckles of blueberries. You can look for freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries and exchange them for the blueberries if you like. (Find this and other summery recipes in The Blueberry Cookbook.)
I’ll grant you, for the occasional baker making a cake seems like a big project. Even though the time it takes is not overwhelming (about 1 1/2 hours total if I’m not sprinting), I prefer to make the cake and the icing a day ahead without assembling it, so I don’t feel rushed and exhausted from the effort. It’s fine to wrap the layers in plastic wrap and store them at cool room temperature and store the icing in the refrigerator.
In these days of hurry, hurry, wiki-wiki meals, a homemade cake is an anomaly. I say, go against the grain. Summer is a time to slow down, so why not take a few hours to make a cake? You’ll tell your loved one ‘you’re special’ on their special day. The people we love are the best gifts in our lives, let’s celebrate them!
Buttermilk Birthday Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese Icing Recipe
For the cake
Butter (for the cake pans)
Flour (for the cake pans)
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1. Center a shelf in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 350ºF. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, sprinkle them with flour, and tap out the excess. Line the pans with circles of parchment paper cut to fit the bottom.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until combined.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed, beat the butter and granulated sugar for 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed, until each egg is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Beat in the oil and vanilla.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until each addition is incorporated into the batter.
5. Divide the batter among the pans and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Place the pans on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
6. Slide a thin knife around the edge of each pan and invert the cakes onto the rack. Peel off the paper, turn the cakes right side up, and cool completely before icing the cake.
For the icing
1 1/2 cups (1.2 ounces) freeze-dried blueberries
6 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature
6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of fine sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1. In a food processor or blender, grind the dried blueberries into a fine powder.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed, beat the cream cheese, powdered dried blueberries, confectioners’ sugar, and salt until very creamy and smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the cream and mix until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to combine the cream cheese and cream evenly.
2. Switch to the whisk attachment. On medium-low speed, slowly stream in the remaining cream. Mix until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the icing thickens and resembles buttercream. On low speed, add the lemon juice. If not using right away, the icing can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.
To ice the cake:
1. Place a cooled cake layer upside-down on a plate. Spread with about 1 cup of the icing. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first and spread with more icing. Place the third layer, right side up, on top.
2. With an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of icing on the top and sides of the cake and pop it into the freezer for 15 minutes.
3. Use a generous amount of icing to cover the sides of the cake, and spread the remaining icing on top. Go around the sides of the cake with an offset spatula or bench scraper to smooth the edges. Place the spatula at a slight angle on the top edge of the cake and pull it towards the center to smooth the edges, going all around the cake until the top is smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
p.s. Ironically, I intended to finish this post three days ago. Procrastination and life’s messiness got the better of me so I’m posting it today, which happens to be my birthday! Happy birthday to me and to you, today and every day of the year.
Until next time…
XXOO
Sally
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Happy Birthday, dearest Sally!!
Happiest Birthday, Sally❣️🎂❣️