Lemon Blueberry Cornmeal Cake

During the next few hours, the thought that I actually learned a lot in that class didn’t cross my mind once. I was shocked and extremely pissed. My perfect streak was broken! I epically failed, and my student status will now plummet down the ranks.

This recipe is matched with Chapter 1 of “The Asian Fail”, which describes my reaction to getting my first Asian Fail. That day I was feeling pretty down, so I wanted to pick a dessert that would have cheered me up. The lemon blueberry cornmeal cake is the perfect baked good for that. It’s easy to make, healthy, tasty, and just perfect for a blue day.

I came up with this recipe after experimenting with a bunch of different gluten free cornmeal cakes. The recipe contains all my favorite flavors: lemon, blueberry, coconut, and almond. The lemon and blueberry tastes contrast sharply with the soft and velvety coconut and almond flavors, producing a well-rounded dessert that brings me so much joy. Of course, not everyone loves the same flavors as I do, but no worries, the toppings on the cake are super customizable!

Recipe makes one 7-inch cake, and it’s gluten free!

Ingredients

Equipment

  • 7 inch springform pan (greased with oil or butter)
  • Two mixing bowls (one medium, one small)
  • Whisk
  • Rubber spatula
  • Scale and/or measuring cups (I like to use a scale for dry ingredients and measuring cups for liquids)

Cake

  • 2 large egg whites at room temperature1
  • 1 large egg at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (123 grams) lemon yogurt2
  • 1/3 cup (113 grams) honey
  • 1/4 cup (60 grams) vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract
  • 3/4 cup gluten-free flour3
  • 1/2 cup (78 grams) yellow cornmeal
  • 1 tsp (4.8 grams) baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt

Topping

  • 1 cup washed blueberries
  • Handful of slivered almonds
  • Handful of coconut flakes
  • Other things that you want to scatter on top of the cake (e.g. chopped chocolate, other nuts, dried fruit, etc.)

Instructions

  1. Preheat: preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Mix the wet ingredients: in a medium to large mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, egg, yogurt, honey, oil, lemon zest, and almond extract. Whisk together until evenly combined
  3. Mix the dry ingredients: in a smaller mixing bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Stir until ingredients are well distributed
  4. Add dry to wet: pour the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl containing the wet ingredients and fold together with a rubber spatula until all traces of flour disappear. The batter should be pretty runny and contain minimal clumps
  5. Final touches before baking: pour the batter into the greased springform pan. For the topping, sprinkle one layer of blueberries4, trying not to clump everything on top of each other. Sprinkle slivered almonds, coconut flakes, and other fun ingredients on top of the blueberries to your heart’s content
  6. Bake: bake the cake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes. The time range is pretty wide depending on how much topping you added. Check on it after 30-35 minutes and then keep checking every 5 minutes5. Once the almonds and coconut flakes start to brown, the sides of the cake appear medium to dark brown, and the cake has a slight spring when you lightly push on it, the cake should be ready!
  7. Cool: After you take out the cake, cool the cake to room temperature before opening up the springform pan and transferring the base of the pan onto a serving plate6

Tips and Tricks

  1. It’s easier to separate egg whites and egg yolks when the eggs are cold, so I would recommend getting the egg whites first and then letting it sit out to get to room temperature
  2. You can make your own lemon yogurt with lemon zest and juice. I love lemons, so I usually add around 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 2 tsp of lemon zest to the yogurt. Measurements don’t really matter for this step. Just add the juice and zest from one lemon
  3. I like to add 1/2 cup (56 grams) of almond flour and 1/4 cup (37 grams) of all-purpose gluten free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour). You could even use regular all-purpose flour if you can eat gluten
  4. Don’t worry about using up all the blueberries, just get a one spread out layer with some small gaps
  5. The toothpick test may not work since the blueberries are pretty juicy
  6. You can also try to remove the cake from the base, but be super careful since you don’t want to destroy the toppings if you flip the cake upside down. The colder the cake is, the easier it would be to move it. You can also try to use a large metal spatula to move the bottom of the cake from the base to a serving plate. Transferring cakes is definitely an art form that I’m always working on!