Easy Blueberry Cake

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

Prepare the baking pan:

Generously butter a 9-inch/23 cm cake pan, well seasoned cast-iron pan, or Pyrex pie pan. If you’re using Pyrex glass, you may want to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees. I never do this when baking with Pyrex, but many cookbook writers suggest doing so. You know your oven and your bakeware.

Now sugar the baking pan. I do this over the sink. Using a measuring teaspoon, scatter a generous two teaspoons sugar over the bottom and sides of the pan, as if flouring it. Set pan aside.

Melt the butter:

I put the butter in a 2-cup Pyrex measure, microwaving it in 10-second bursts. Pay close attention, lest the butter explode. If it does, white vinegar is a smelly but safe cleaning method. You can also melt butter in small pan over low heat.

Set butter aside to cool slightly.

Pour the sugar into the bowl and add the eggs. Use a large wooden or metal spoon to blend.

Once the sugar and eggs are homogenized, add the extracts, salt, and flour. The mixture may seem dry.

Pour the butter over the flour mixture, stirring vigorously to blend. It may look like the butter won’t mix with the flour. Give it a minute.

Once the batter coheres, stir in the blueberries. Don’t overmix.

Scrape batter into baking pan and place in oven.

Bake cake 20-30 minutes. If your oven has hot spots, rotate cake at half-time to ensure even baking.

Check for doneness at 20 minutes. Cake is done when a tester comes out clean and the edges are pulling from the sides. In my oven, Easy Blueberry Cake needs close to 35 minutes, so don’t be alarmed if your cake needs the maximum baking time.

Cool on rack.

Easy Blueberry Cake keeps, wrapped, at room temperature up to four days. It will keep refrigerated 6 days. Freeze up to three months.

Notes:

I’ve baked this cake countless times, with countless variations. Any seasonal berry will work here, save strawberries, which are too watery. Raspberries, cherries, blackberries, apricots, apples-wash, pat dry, chuck ’em in.

Vanilla extract is the little black dress of baking; it goes with everything. Consider other extract flavors before adding them, and remember a little almond extract goes a long way.

Use 3/4 cup flour (170 grams) and 1/4 cup cocoa (30 grams) and you have chocolate cake. Leave out the berries, add chocolate chips, and the cake goes another direction.

Once the cake is cool, you can sprinkle the top with more sugar–plain or powdered (caster).

N.B. As somebody who began baking well into middle age, I highly recommend Dorie Greenspan’s books. You can’t go wrong with a Greenspan recipe–there’s no such thing as a bad one. Bake from a Greenspan book and you’ll soon understand why she is beloved worldwide.