I’m obsessed w/ loaf cakes – always looking for new ideas & the best recipes. I like a slice of loaf cake next to my espresso cup in the afternoon or as dessert after lunch or dinner or accompanying my espresso nightcap … I think you get it.
Best is a loaf cake with some sort of icing keeping your cake moist – that’s the reason behind, however … it’s really hard to resist to just grab a slice & take a bite of this juicy & creamy or even chocolaty deliciousness.
… & the main point in the beginning is just: how to get a loaf cake soft & moist?
Loaf cakes are no new idea in the food universe – on the contrary they are part of the basics concerning baking. It’s more the diversity of ingredients which seem to come in the limelight today. When my mother baked a loaf cake it was simply “butter, sugar, eggs, flour & milk“ for the cake. (Ingredients like chocolate bits, raisins, candied orang peel etc. were on top!).
Today we can choose among butter, olive oil, sunflower oil etc., among milk, buttermilk, sour cream, yoghurt, ricotta, mascarpone, cream, cream cheese, crème fraîche etc. & work w/ all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, spelt flour, rye flour, oatmeal, almond flour, coconut flour etc. Well: all has to be combined according to their special characteristics resulting in using more or less fat, more or less liquid etc.
So baking a loaf cake might get really complicated …
So … what do we need today?
It’s only …
- all-purpose flour mixed w/ baking powder
- eggs
- butter
- sugar
- a pinch of salt
- Greek yoghurt
- zest of an organic lemon
- lemoncurd
- fresh blueberries.
We start w/ preheating the oven to 150°C fan.
Then we keep ourselves busy w/ creaming butter & sugar & adding the eggs. We add the freshly grated lemon zest & the flour. Then comes the Greek yoghurt & finally the lemon curd.
When all is said & done we fold in the blueberries – maybe rolled in some flour which should prevent the blueberries from crowding at the bottom of the tin.
Now we’ve got a fine batter which will be poured in the loaf tin clad w/ baking parchment. That’s important for getting the cake later out of the tin w/o stress.
In the preheated oven at 150° C w/ fan the cake will bake for at least 1 h (I left it for 1 h plus 10 min!) Then it’s fine.
However, we have not yet reached our destination!
I decided to bring together a cream cheese frosting – combining only 3 ingredients:
- icing sugar
- creamcheese
- butter
In short: the most important thing is to cream at first icing sugar & butter until fluffy. Only then you may add the cream cheese.
If you go otherwise the cream cheese icing will get runny … and ruin your cake.
At the end I had lots of icing for the cake … and some blueberries for decoration.
Enjoy!
- 150 g butter
- 125 g sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3 eggs
- 100 g Greek yoghurt
- 175 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- zest of an organic lemon
- 2 tbsp lemon curd
- 75 g fresh blueberries
- 50 g butter
- 150 g icing sugar
- 100 g cream cheese
- a loaf tin about 25 cm
- an electric handheld mixer
- Preheat the oven to 150° C fan.
- Line the loaf tin w/ baking paper.
- Clean & pat dry the blueberries; roll in some flour (if you like).
- Grate the lemon zest.
- Mix butter, sugar, salt & lemon zest w/ your electric handheld mixer until soft.
- Add eggs.
- Add flour mixed w/ baking powder.
- Add yoghurt – all w/ the electric handheld mixer.
- Now fold in lemon curd & blueberries w/ a spoon.
- Pour the mess in the loaf tin & bake for about 60 – 70 min.
- Make the famous test w/ the wooden pin …
- Let the cake cool in the tin; remove the tin after about 10-15 min.
- Let the cake cool down completely.
- Mix icing sugar & butter w/ your electric handheld mixer until well mixed & fluffy.
- Fold in cream cheese.
- Distribute over the cake.
- Add some left-over blueberries for decoration.
