The perfect melt-in-your-mouth blueberry cake baked in cast iron

Last Updated on December 29, 2019 by Michelle

The older I get, the more I bake, and the more I experiment with grandmom’s cast iron recipes, the more I’m realizing that the secret to amazing baking is simply going back to the way Grandmom baked. And boy, let me tell you, grandmom gave the perfect name to my favorite of all of her recipes: Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake.

For me this week, part of going back to the way Grandmom baked included harvesting the fresh-picked blueberries myself. I was extra elated to spend my birthday morning doing just that.

Delay gratification

While there are a lot of things I love about living in New England, mountain hikes with majestic views and the rewards of wild blueberries is definitely on the top of my list. (This week’s hike overlooked a harbor of the beautiful Lake Winnipesauke. I wrote about Winnipesaukee, one of my favorite lakes, in this post.)

As I picked the tiny blue berries in the morning mountain breeze, I thought often of the delicious moist taste of the blueberry cake that I hadn’t had for almost a year. And I wondered how much of the secret to baked perfection is also in delayed gratification. That’s something we don’t know much about today when we buy a boxed cake on aisle 18 of the brightly lit grocery story–a box that proudly announces its contents are good for 4 more weeks because it’s loaded with unnatural ingredients and preservatives.

Savor the memories

Bent down among the tall, itchy grasses and short wild blueberry stalks, slowly adding one tiny berry after another to my pail, I was thankful that this cake was a long time in the making. I wondered how often previous generations associated food with one particular day and looked forward to that deliciousness for another 364 days.

The last time I had enjoyed Grandmom’s Blueberry Cake was on Mom’s birthday, last July. She loved the cake as much as I do, so we had made it for her numerous birthdays before. While I feel empty thinking about not being able to celebrate with either Mom or Dad again on this side of heaven, beautiful thoughts of Mom are one more sweet association I have with my favorite cake.

So as I feasted on the sun-warmed sweet berries, placing every third or fourth one that I picked in my pail for later, I decided that this year–today–I would make my own birthday cake. And it would be grandmom’s Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake, mom’s favorite and my own.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links. 

Enjoy the secrets

So maybe all three things add up to the secret to the perfect Blueberry Cake…

Harken back to the way Grandmom baked, consider baking your cake in a cast iron pan like this one.

Delay the gratification a little, and take time to make the deliciousness just right. Really cream the ingredients well, instead of plopping it together, and carefully coat the tender berries in flour before adding them to the batter.

Enjoy all the memories your family has associated with the cake through the years. Each memory makes it just a little sweeter.

Regardless of what the secrets are that lead to this deliciously amazing blueberry cake, I promise you, you’ll be glad you made it.

And after you enjoy this amazing Blueberry Cake in cast iron, you’ll want to try this cookie, which may wind up being the best thing you’ve ever baked in cast iron.


If you’d like to try this cake with a less refined sugar and more all-natural goodness, snag the version made with all-natural maple syrup instead of refined sugar— over in my subscriber library.

Download a conversion chart to help you easily swap out maple syrup for refined sugar right here.

And get the details on baking with maple syrup in this article right here.


 

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Psalm 90:12 

 

Print Recipe
Melt-in-your-Mouth Blueberry Cake in Cast Iron
I discovered this gem on a tattered recipe card, in an antique recipe box, in my husband's grandmother's summer cottage a few decades ago. It's been my favorite thing to do with fresh-picked blueberries ever since.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Servings
pieces
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together 3 times.
  2. Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside.
  3. Cream butter. (See notes.)
  4. Mix sugar into butter.
  5. Add egg yolks to the butter and sugar, beating well.
  6. Add in dry ingredients, alternating with the milk.
  7. Fold in egg whites, lemon juice, and the floured blueberries.
  8. After scooping batter into a greased 10" cast iron pan, sprinkle top of batter with a 1/4 cup of mixed white and brown sugar.
  9. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Recipe Notes

Always start with butter at room temperature. And the bowl and beaters should be cool, to prevent the butter from becoming too warm as you beat it. To accomplish this easily, you could rinse both the bowl and the beaters in very cold water. Then make sure you cream the butter and sugar for 4 to 5 minutes until the mixture is truly light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Share this Recipe

 

>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<

 

For this recipe I love using my grandmom’s cast iron pan. Hers is an old, unusual size that I haven’t found anywhere. It’s labeled “10 5/8.” But a 10″ cast iron pan like this one would work very well:

These are the three sizes/styles of cast iron pans that I’ve found work best for baking cookies, like my favorite chocolate chip recipe. And I’ve tried a LOT of cast iron pans, from heirloom to new, from tiny to huge, from griddles to skillets. I mean someone had to do the difficultly delicious research. 🙂 You can trust me when I say these three styles/sizes of cast iron pans make the world’s best cookies:

Other cast iron products I love:

—-  | 

 

>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<

 

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschool, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

Pin this for later!

Just click this image to pin this post.–>

Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera and even purchase your own here.

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, enjoy musings about my centuries-old farmhouse, or glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades. I hope my focus always helps you keep it simple while being Souly Rested. Because simple joys require hard work.

As soon as you subscribe, you’ll have immediate access to my subscriber library of resources, which includes my maple blueberry cake and another one of my favorites of grandmom’s recipes–her Cheesy Egg Souffle recipe. It’s extra easy peasy and trust me this souffle is one of my favorite go-to recipes ever.

v  v  v  v  v  v  v  v  v  v  v

2 thoughts on “The perfect melt-in-your-mouth blueberry cake baked in cast iron”

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.