Now we’re back to buying blueberries by the bucket from the farmers market, I’m indulging myself by flinging them in or on all sorts of dishes – granola, pancakes, muffins, all benefit from their sweet tang. However, I think  they’re particularly lovely paired with lemon, and never more so than in this simple cake. It’s whizzed up in a food processor, and has a wonderful zingy lemon flavour which comes not only from the batter, but from a thin, lemon glaze that is brushed over it. It’s perfect for afternoon tea, and also makes a fantastic dessert served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

BLUEBERRY, LEMON & SOUR CREAM CAKE

3 cups (450g) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3 eggs

2 cups (440g) caster sugar

250g unsalted butter, in chunks

1 cup (250ml) sour cream

3 heaped teaspoons finely chopped lemon zest

2 1/2 tablespoons strained lemon juice

200g fresh or frozen blueberries

extra plain flour, for coating the tin and dusting the berries

Lemon glaze

1 cup (160g) icing sugar mixture, sifted

1/4 cup (60ml) strained lemon juice

30g melted unsalted butter

Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 160C. Butter and flour a 24 – 25cm bundt tin.

Whiz the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large food processor, until they’re well mixed, then tip them into a bowl. Put the eggs and sugar into the processor and whiz them for a minute. Add the butter and process the mixture for another minute until it’s thick and creamy.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and lemon zest and juice, then pour this into the mixture in the processor. Whiz the whole lot for 10 seconds, then add the reserved flour mixture and pulse with quick on/off bursts, stopping and scraping down the sides once or twice, until it’s just combined.

Toss the blueberries in a dessertspoonful of flour so they’re lightly coated.

Remove the bowl from the processor and use a rubber spatula to gently stir in the blueberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake it for 1 π hours, or until a fine skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When it’s ready, take the cake out of the oven, sit it on a cooling rack, and leave it to settle in the tin for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together all the glaze ingredients in a bowl until they’re smooth. Using a thin palette knife, carefully loosen the edges of the cake. Invert the cake onto the cooling rack and gently ease off the tin. With a plate underneath to catch any drips, brush the cake all over the glaze. Keep brushing on layers of glaze until there is none left – the cake will slowly absorb it. Leave it to cool completely.

To serve the cake, gently transfer it to a stand or plate and dust it with icing sugar. It’s wonderful eaten with a scoop of lightly whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream. Any leftover cake keeps well in an airtight tin for up to three days. It also freezes really well, and can be gently warmed in a microwave oven. Serves 12 -14.

Continental (cultured unsalted) butter is my all-time favourite butter, and I always keep a stock in the freezer. It has a delectable tang, and makes the best cakes, pastries, biscuits, puddings, and anything else you can think of that uses butter!

For more information on Belinda Jeffery’s recipes go to:  belindajeffery.com.au/home.html

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This Pistachio and Lime Syrup Cake with Pomegranate Seeds is such a lovely, simple cake, and one that I make again and again at this time of year when the first flush of limes arrives in the farmers market, and locally grown pomegranates start to appear. It’s surprisingly light, tangy and so eye-catching with its beautiful pistachio and pomegranate topping and pale-green hue.

Just a note about the pistachios for the cake batter – to grind them, I pulse them in the food processor with a tablespoon of flour from the recipe, as the flour helps prevent them becoming oily and forming a paste. Nonetheless, you do have to be watchful as they can go from being perfectly chopped to pasty in the blink of an eye.

Serves 6 – 8

Cake:

60g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g pistachios, finely ground

Finely grated zest of 3 large limes

120g almond meal

250g unsalted butter, room temperature

200g caster sugar

4 eggs, at room temperature

⅓ cup (80 g) pomegranate seeds, to decorate

Softly whipped cream or Greek-style yoghurt, to serve

Pistachio and lime syrup:

90g caster sugar

½ cup (125ml) strained fresh lime juice (from about 3 large limes),

90g pistachios, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven to 170C. Butter a 22-24cm round cake tin, line the base with buttered baking paper then dust the tin with flour. (I use a torte tin that I’ve had for years to make this – it has slightly sloping sides and measures 24cm across the top and 22cm across the base.)

Tip the flour, baking powder, ground pistachios, lime zest and almond meal into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk them together with a balloon whisk for a minute or so, then set the bowl aside.

Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer (or use a hand-held electric beater) and beat them on medium speed for about 4 minutes, stopping and scraping down the sides occasionally, until the mixture looks creamy.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, allowing each egg to be absorbed before adding the next. (Don’t worry if the mixture looks a little curdled after adding the last egg – it will come together again when you add the dry ingredients.)

Tip in the flour mixture and mix everything together on low speed just until it is combined – be careful not to over-mix it, or the cake may be a bit tough. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake tin andsmooth the top.

Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes, or until it springs back when lightly pressed in the centre and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer it to a wire rack and leave it to cool a little in the tin.

When the cake is lukewarm, make the syrup. To do this, put the sugar and lime juice into a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the chopped pistachios, increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil.

Turn the cake out onto a serving plate and peel away the baking paper. Slowly spoon the hot pistachio and lime syrup evenly over the top, then leave the cake to cool completely. Just before serving, scatter it with pomegranate seeds. Serve with softly whipped cream or yoghurt.

See more of Belinda’s recipes on her website: belindajeffery

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Chef Clayton Donovan at the 2014 Madura Tea Estate Canstar Blue Taste Award presentation ceremony

How do you celebrate when you’ve just won a major tea award for the third year in a row?  With a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake, of course writes Candida Baker…

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day for Madura Tea Estates (maduratea) to celebrate the fact that they had just walked away with the Canstar Blue Taste Awards in the Tea Bags category for the third year in a row, beating competition such as Dilmah, Tetley, Twinings, Nerada and Lipton.  The sun was shining, and the rows upon rows of tea bushes positively gleaming when we turned up for the ceremony, held in a shady area near the peaceful creek that runs through the property.

A treat for the morning was the presentation by Indigenous chef Clayton Donovan, who ran the highly successful Jaaning Tree Restaurant in Nambucca Heads.  Donovan, who grew up on the mid north coast of New South Wales has had a stellar career – from washing dishes in his home town as a teenager, to working in restaurants around the world. During its five years of operation  The Jaaning Tree  won an Australian Good Food Guide Chef hat four years in a row. ) These days he has evolved the business to include media work, long lunches, pop ups and education, (jaaningtree) as well as of course, introducing a wide audience to Australia’s native food through the Wild Kitchen television series.

Clayton Donovan’s take on Rocky Road – Gravel Road – loaded with wattle seed.

It was certainly an education to watch him prepare his Australian version of Rocky Road, most aptly named Gravel Road.  This incredibly rich dish involved copious amounts of dark chocolate, marshmallow, coconut and lots of wattle seed – a stable in many Donovan dishes.  (Jaaning is the Gumbaynggir word for Acacia – so it’s a long-term favourite for Donovan.)  He entertained us with anecdotes from home: “I use dark chcoloate for this because I’m the only in the house that likes it,” he said cheerfully.  Once he’d prepared it, and put it in the fridge to set, he told us: “I’ve been waiting 20 years to say this – now, here’s one I prepared earlier!”  He pulled the Gravel Road out with a flourish, cut it up and it disappeared in the blink of a kangaroo’s eye.

Catering for the heat, the Madura team, out in force, had made not just hot tea but two beautiful iced-teas, including a lemon and ginger tea which just happened to go with the most amazing cakes prepared by Rose, one of the Estate staff, whose caramel cheesecake I have to say very closely rivalled Gravel Road in taste, texture and deliciousness.

Lemon and ginger iced tea

My vote for the best teabag from Madura’s best teabags – their amazing Pure Assam with its rich flavour, and dark red colour – a perfect post lunch pick-me-up.  Or even on this occasion, post cake…

maduratea

jaaningtree

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