Cooking with Manuela: Moist and Flavorful Blueberry-Lemon Poundcake with Lemon Glaze

Rich, dense and moist pound cake bursting with sweet blueberries and drizzled with zesty lemon glaze

I know, I know. One more sweet recipe with blueberries.
You might be wondering, what's up with Manuela's obsession with berries?!
What can I say. Some things just can't be explained.
It might simply be my love for these healthy and delicious nature's wonder ... Or maybe it's the fact that they were on sale at my grocery store. And I just can't pass up a great deal!
While waiting in line at the check-out line, I was brainstorming about my next berry creation. I've posted recipes for blueberry muffins, blueberry crumble bars, blueberry and peach upside-down cake ... So how about a moist and flavorful blueberry pound cake?!? Oh yeah, look at this baby!

And there are not just blueberries in this handmade goodness. But blueberries AND fresh lemon juice and zest. These two work so well together. A scrumptious sweet and sour combination.
This buttery and perfectly dense cake is fantastic on its own, but even better with a flavorful lemon glaze, bringing the zesty to a whole new level.

This dessert can be dressed up with more berries, ice-cream or whipped cream. Or not. You decide.
I guess it really depends on when you plan to serve it.
If you should know what happened to the pound cake in these pictures - I devoured a big chunk of it for breakfast with my coffee. More specifically, dunk in a creamy and steamy Italian cappuccino. Mmmmm. So good. And a great way to jump start my day!

Here are a few things to keep in mind when making this recipe.
You need to be patient when creaming the butter with the sugar, and mixing in the eggs and vanilla extract. Take your time. Blend well, and scrape the sides. I used a handheld blender, but anything works. Just take your time and mix until the mixture is light and super fluffy.
When you combine the dry ingredients to this mixture though you want to do the minimum amount of mixing. I used my blender at low speed and just enough to combine the flour.
Add the blueberries, and fold them in with a spoon. Coating the blueberries with flour before adding them to the batter can help avoid them sinking to the bottom of the loaf when in the oven. I didn't do it this time. Shame on me! The result was not too bad, with the exception of one edge which could have used fewer blueberries :)
Here is the video recipe for you. And recipe below.

Other Sweet Breakfast recipes you might like:

Vanilla and Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake

Almond-Poppy Seeds Muffins

Italian Lemon Plumcake (Pound Cake)

Extra-Moist Banana Bread with Greek Yogurt, Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

Cruffins

Orange Poppyseeds Muffins

Bakery-Style Blueberry MuffinsThis recipe first appeared on Cooking with Manuela in September 2016

INGREDIENTS:

YIELD: 1 loaf (9x5 inch - 23x12.5 cm)

- For the pound cake:
  - 2 cups (300 gr) of all-purpose flour
  - 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  - pinch of salt
  - 8 oz (225 gr) unsalted butter, softned*
  - 1 1/2 cups (300 gr) of sugar
  - 4 eggs
  - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  - 1 large lemon, grated zest and juice
  - 1/2 cup (125 ml) of milk
  - 10 oz (280 gr) of fresh blueberries, about two full cups
  For the glaze:
  - 3/4 cup (85 gr) of powdered sugar
  - 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  - zest of half lemon (optional)
  *Remove from the refrigerator about one hour before starting with the recipe.

PREPARATION:

Preheat the oven to 350° F (175° C). In a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside for later.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter with the sugar.

Blend in the eggs one at a time.

Add the vanilla extra, lemon zest and lemon juice. Blend some more.

Add half of the flour mixture to the bowl. Combine.

Add milk and mix some more.

Finish with rest of the flour. Mix until combined. In this last two steps you don't want to over mix.
Wash the blueberries, and toss in one tablespoon of flour. Add the blueberries coated in flour to the mixture. And fold gently with a spoon.

Line a 9 x 5 inch (23 x 12.5 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper (or grease with butter and flour like I did). Pour the batter into the pan, level with a spoon.

Bake in the middle part of the oven for about 60 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum paper after the first 45 minutes if the top is getting too brown and the cake is still not fully cooked. Test with a toothpick in the middle of the cake to make sure it's fully cooked.
Let it cool down before removing from the pan.

Prepare the glaze: In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar with the lemon juice. It should be thick, but not too thick that you can't pour. Add more lemon juice or more sugar as necessary to obtain the right consistency. Add grated lemon zest if desired.

Drizzle over the pound cake.