Blueberry Walnut Cake

It's been very difficult to find blueberries here, in India, and so I asked an aunt to look out for some dried blueberries abroad. And lucky me, she brought me a pack of dried blueberries. I was so excited to bake this blueberry walnut cake. I did miss the plumpness of fresh, juicy blueberries as the dried berries had the texture and feel of raisins.They tasted very much like fresh blueberries though. So now, for all I care, I have blueberries in my pantry all year round and don't have to go hunting places for them.


It was a neat bake and and I was pretty happy with the result. A fairly easy recipe.
A moist cake with crisp walnut and chewy blueberries. This can be served plain or with fresh fruit.

Ingredients:

• Butter( at room temperature) - 1 stick( 115 gms)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Eggs(large) - 3
• Pure vanilla extract - 1 tspn
• All purpose flour - 1-1/4 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tspn
• Baking soda - 1/2 tspn
• Salt - 1/8 tspn(optional)
• Milk - 1/3 cup
  
• Walnuts - 1 cup (chopped)
• Dried blueberries - 1/4 cup
  

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F( 177 C)
• When the oven is preheating, put walnuts on a baking sheet into the oven. This will toast the walnuts. Remove after 3-4 mins. Set aside to cool. Once cool, give walnuts a rough chop.
  
• Butter an 8" round cake pan or line it with parchment paper. Set aside
• Seperate the eggs. Put egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside. Put the egg whites in a large, clean, dry bowl and beat the to stiff peaks and set aside.
• Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Add vanilla extract and mix well.
• Now add the flour mixture and mix. Stir in the milk until batter is smooth. (Do not over beat the cake batter as it will result in a hard cake).
• Add the walnuts and the blueberries. Mix.
• Fold in the egg whites gently into the cake.
• Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Do the toothpick test to see if the cake is done.(See note below).
• If the cake is not done, reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees F(135 C) and bake for 8-10 more mins.Repeat tooth pick test.
• When the cake is done, let it rest in the cake pan for 10 mins.Then remove the cake from the cake pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
  

Note: Take a tooth pick or a knife or a bamboo skewer and poke it till the bottom of the cake.If it comes out clean the cake is ready.If it comes out with wet cake batter, it needs additional time to bake.

Luv 'n' luc'
Smitha