Lemon Cake with Blueberry Icewine Compote

This cake was born out of necessity and availability. I needed a cake and I had a surplus of lemons and blueberries. It seemed like a good combo. 

Blueberry Icewine Compote:

• 4 C Fresh blueberries

• 1 C Granulated sugar

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 2 Tbsp(ish) fresh lemon juice (1 small lemon

• 1/2 C Icewine

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until blueberries break down and liquid is reduced until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat and refrigerate. The mixture will tighten up in the fridge.

Lemon Cake:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 2 tsp kosher salt

• 1 1/4 butter room temp

• 2 1/2 cup white sugar

• 6 eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

• 1 1/3 cup milk

• 4-6 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest

• 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a small bowl or measuring cup combine milk and lemon juice and set aside.

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In stand mixer bowl cream butter, sugar and lemon zest. Let this go for longer than you think is necessary....5 min! The mixture will be light and fluffy and your cake will be better!

With mixer on medium add vanilla bean paste, then add your eggs one at a time. Let each one fully combine before adding the next.

With mixer on low add milk and dry mixture a bit at a time, alternating between wet and dry, ending with dry.

Mix only until everything is well combined.

Divide mixture between 3 buttered and floured 8" cake rounds. For this cake I ended up using only 2 cake pans (around 700 g of batter in each). I used the remaining batter to make 3 little lemon cake loaves (great for testing butter cream colour and flavour later!!!)

I used a cake leveler to split the cakes in half giving me 4 thin layers instead of 3 thick ones.

Bake at 350 until done (around 40 min).

Remove from oven and allow to completely cool before turning the cakes out onto a wire rack. 

Assemble cake with blueberry buttercream between layers 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and blueberry compote to middle layer. Pipe a line of buttercream around the outside to contain filling.

Apply crumb coat of lemon butter cream to cake. Allow it to set up in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

For the flavoured buttercreams I just made my go-to vanilla butter cream, split it and added a few Tbsp of the blueberry compote to one and a splash of lemoncello liqueur to the other.

Apply final layer of buttercream, whatever colour and flavour you'd like, and decorate however makes you happy!