Blueberry Lemon Tea Cakes
This recipe card read, “family friend, Sue Potochney, 1916 recipe”. I don’t know who Sue Potochney was but thank you for sharing this recipe.
While reading my latest recipe card and bake testing, I couldn’t help but to feel that I was honoring a part of history. Somewhere in the distant past, Sue Potochney lovingly wrote out her recipe for Blueberry Cake to probably a very dear friend (one of my family members, obviously). At least I assumed they were good friends, why else would you share one of your precious recipes. I don’t know when this recipe was last made, nor do remember anyone in my family making it ever. I was actually shocked that I had a recipe this old in my family collection. My next thoughts were filled with extreme sadness for the recipe. At 106 years old, it had been forgotten by time. I felt compelled to bring it back, I needed to bake Sue Potochney’s recipe. So like a deranged home baker version of Dr. Frankenstein; I went into the kitchen, put on my apron and vowed to renew this once loved Blueberry Cake recipe. I would not let it be forgotten again!
Upon even further inspection of the recipe card, I noticed that it was titled “Blueberry Cake” but it was not described as being baked like a typical cake. It was more like a blueberry quick bread. This led me to be a tad confused and wondering how it would actually turn out, I had serious concerns. But I trucked on and tested the recipe.
The experience was definitely interesting, to say the very least. While making it I was puzzled by the way it was coming together. The batter consistency was cake like yet when it was baking it looked like a loaf of bread. Then when I cut it, it cut like cake but then it tasted like cake bread. Needless to say I was confused and kept going back and forth with what it actually was. Was it more cake? Was it more bread? I wasn’t quite sure. Then I realized it reminded me a lot of an Irish Tea Cake. I don’t know if this was the original intention but this was my result. With this new epiphany, I ultimately decided to rename Sue Potochney’s name for this cake recipe. That it way it could have a name that would be fitting and be able to describe it a bit better.
Some of my thoughts were, maybe when this recipe was originally being made, at the time, it would have been considered to be more of a “cake”. With today’s standards and definitions I didn’t think the name quite fit anymore. It was a hard decision but I decided to honor this recipe’s new life with a new name. The Blueberry Lemon Tea Cake was born and will now never be forgotten.
Blueberry Tea Cakes *Makes 4 small loaves
Lemon Sugar Icing (optional)
½ cup powdered sugar
½ a juiced lemon
½ cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp kosher salt
2 ¾ cup All-Purpose Flour
1 cup of blueberries 1 TBSP of flour
Zest from one lemon
Grease and line 4 small loaf tins with cooking spray and parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Put it to the side.
With a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until butter is fluffy. Add egg until fully incorporated, add your vanilla.
On low speed, mix in buttermilk, and flour mixture a little bit at a time, alternating both ingredients until it’s all incorporated. The batter will be thick and fluffy.
Fold in blueberries that have been dusted with flour and your lemon zest.
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. A cake tester should be able to come out clean.
Let sit in the loaf pans for 5-8 minutes then lift the cake out of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
Icing:
While your cakes are cooling, make your lemon sugar icing. Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Whisk until it’s a loose icing consistency.
When your cakes are completely cooled, drizzle the icing on top of all four cakes.
*Notes: Having the berries dusted with flour is an important step. The flour keeps the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cakes.
If you don’t have small loaf tins you can use muffin tins if you want small cakes or you can easily make a large cake in a standard loaf tin.