Blueberry Cake

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 275 g caster sugar
• 335 g plain flour
• 165 ml vegetable oil
• 400 g frozen blueberries
• 2 lemons, zest and juice
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 250 ml thick natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp butter, for the tin
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 200 ml double cream, softly whipped, or 200 g thick yoghurt

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan. Grease a 22cm cake tin with butter and line the base with baking parchment; the butter glues the parchment down and stops the batter creeping underneath.
2. Set aside a third of the blueberries for the top. Toss the rest with a tablespoon of flour, straight from frozen; the flour coat grips the batter so the berries hang suspended through the crumb instead of sinking to the bottom.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the caster sugar and eggs for a full 1–2 minutes until pale, thick and ribbon-like. This is where the cake gets its lift; undercook this stage and the crumb sits dense.
4. Whisk in the vegetable oil, lemon zest, lemon juice and yoghurt until glossy and even. The lemon juice does double duty here: it flavours the cake and reacts with the baking powder for extra rise, so don't skip it.
5. Sift in the flour, baking powder and a proper pinch of salt; salt sharpens the lemon and stops the sugar tasting flat. Whisk gently until just combined; a few small lumps are fine. Overwork it now and you'll knock out the air and build gluten, and the cake will bake tight and chewy.
6. Adjust with another small pinch of salt if it needs lifting.
7. Fold the floured blueberries through with a spatula in slow, deliberate strokes, just until they're evenly distributed.
8. Tip the batter into the tin and smooth the top. Scatter the reserved blueberries across the surface; these are the ones that will burst and stain the crust violet.
9. Slide the tin into the oven and immediately drop the temperature to 180°C/160°C fan. The initial blast of heat sets the rise; the lower temperature lets the centre cook through without scorching the top. Bake for 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 20 minutes, until deep golden, springy to a fingertip press, and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out with damp crumbs clinging; no wet batter. If the top is colouring too fast at the hour mark, tent loosely with foil.
10. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes; the cake is fragile straight from the oven and needs that time to firm up. Turn out onto a rack and let it cool a little more so it slices cleanly rather than crumbling.
11. To serve, set the cake on a plate, dust generously with icing sugar through a fine sieve, and slice into wedges with softly whipped cream or a spoonful of thick yoghurt alongside.