Happy 4th of July!

How about celebrating with this Red, White and Blue Cream Cheese Poundcake, except I used blackberries instead of blueberries. The cream cheese makes this cake dense and moist, with the tang of the cream cheese, mixed with the sweetness of the berries and you can't resist another piece! This is another link that Beth sent my way and you can find the original recipe here.

Happy 4th of July!! Have a safe and fun day celebrating our freedom!

Red, White, and Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, but not quite room temperature

1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened slightly

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

6 ounces raspberries

6 ounces fresh blueberries---I used blackberries

lemon glaze (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray, and place on a cookie sheet.

2. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese. Pour in sugar and mix until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each is incorporated.

3. While ingredients are mixing, whisk together four, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.

4. Fold berries into batter.

5. Distribute batter evenly into pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes. Let cool completely. Drizzle with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar

juice of 1 lemon

2-3 tablespoons heavy cream

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Add more juice or cream as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

Raspberry Tea Cake

My friend over at the 3 B's made this a week or so ago and new that I had to make it. It is delish! She made hers with mixed berries, but I decided on just raspberries and I am so glad that I did! This recipe truly is simple and quick to throw together and it definitely worth it! I will be making this again, but maybe I will try cherries or blackberries...even blueberries would be great!

Raspberry Ripple Tea Cake

For the filling
1 (12 ounce) package frozen raspberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

For the batter
2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, sliced into thin pats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10″ round tart (I used two 4" spring form pans) pan that has a removable bottom; set aside.

To make the raspberry filling: in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine raspberries, sugar and cornstarch over medium heat; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.
Push raspberry mixture through a fine, mesh sieve, discarding seeds and pulp. Set filling aside to cool slightly; alternatively you may store airtight, refrigerate and use within 3 days.

To make the tea cake batter: in a large mixing bowl, stir together flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. *Measure and set aside 1/2 cup of this flour-crumb mixture and reserve for crumb topping. To remaining flour mixture add baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir well to combine. Make a well in the center of flour mixture to accept wet ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, beat egg; stir in buttermilk until combined. Add all at once to the well you just created in the center of the flour mixture. Stir gently until just moistened; batter will be thick. Spread two-thirds of this batter over the bottom and up 1″ of the sides of prepared tart pan, using fingers to pat into place if necessary. Next, carefully spread the prepared raspberry filling on top of this batter. In small, irregular mounds, drop remaining batter on top of filling, spreading ever-so-gently with fingers or back of spoon if necessary. Allow mounds of batter to rest atop raspberry filling without pressing into bottom layer of batter. Sprinkle entire cake with the *reserved flour-crumb topping.

In the center of a preheated oven, baked tea cake at 350 degrees F for approximately 30-35 minutes (I checked mine at about 25 minutes and they were done. Use your best judgement if you're not using the 10" tart pan) or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean (filling will turn toothpick red). The cake should appear lightly browned (baking times may vary from oven to oven, so keep a close eye on your cake after 30 minutes). When tea cake is properly baked, remove tart pan from oven and allow to cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. When time has elapsed, remove cake from tart pan and place on cake stand or serving plate.

CH July-Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese frosting!

For the month of July, Clara from I Heart Cuppycakes and Nikki of Crazy Delicious Food are hosting this month's challenge. Get this..Red, White and Blue. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, so this is what I came up with. I have made this cupcake batter before except that I used lime instead of lemon and this time I folded in the blueberries. Now, if you look really hard at the frosting, you will see red specks from the raspberries, instead of just pink.

Now, confession time. I really like this cupcake. I use it again and again. But, in my crazy head, sometimes, I tend to skip a few steps or add something....like using 2 sticks of butter instead of just 1. And only realizing this after they are baked and are like a muffin with melted butter. Don't get me wrong...I love that. If I eat a muffin, it has to be loaded with all that fatty butter, but...not really what I was going for in the cupcake. So, I just pretended that there was the only 1 stick and it was the fluffy batter that I love.

And let me just go on to say that I LOVE this frosting! You have the tartness from the cream cheese with the sweetness from the raspberries. I could have stuck my face in the bowl and licked the bowl clean! :)

Blueberry Lemon Cupcakes:
1/2 Cup unsalted butter, softened
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
3/4 Cup self-rising flour
1/2 Cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
4-5 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Cup Blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until butter is smooth. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping the bowl and beating until smooth after each addition.-Squeeze the lemon directly into a liquid measuring cup. Add enough milk to total 1/2 cup of liquid, whisk to combine.

In a medium bowl, whisk flours together to combine.-Add the flour mixture to the batter in four parts, alternating with thirds of the milk mixture and beating after each addition until incorporated. Add in the vanilla. Fold in the blueberries.

Divide batter among the 12 cups of a lined standard cupcake pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until cupcakes are just starting to turn brown and toothpick comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
3 oz cream cheese, room temp
1 pint of raspberries
2 lb bag of powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Cream together cream cheese and raspberries. I just put the whole berries in the mixer with a whisk attachment and creamed the 2 ingredients together. Add the vanilla and salt. Start adding the powdered sugar until you get the consistency that you want. You may not use the whole back of powdered sugar.