Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt #BundtBakers

This Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt is a rich and buttery pound cake, filled with cream cheese and blueberries then drizzled with a lemon cream cheese glaze.

If you are a fan of Van Halen, you’ve probably discerned that my contribution for this month’s Bundt Bakers is a pound cake, so I'll elaborate further to say it's flavored with lemon and stuffed with blueberries. There’s also cream cheese and blueberry jam right up in there.

It’s not “an old time, long lost recipe” but one I adapted off of my friend Jenni’s blog, Pastry Chef Online, who in turn adapted it from an original recipe by a certain Miss Patsy. And while I don’t know Miss Patsy, I’m going to hazard a guess from her name that she is “home grown and down home, “ so the renaming of her pound cake is maybe appropriate, if you don’t think too hard about the rest of the Van Halen lyrics. As Jenni has proven myriad times, this recipe is easily adaptable and a great jumping off place for buttery rich pound cakes of various flavors.

This month our theme for Bundt Bakers is Hidden Surprises so, even after adding all the lemon, I couldn’t leave Miss Patsy’s recipe well enough alone; I had to try and put something inside. I chose blueberries and cream cheese, which sounded like a great idea, until the filling sunk. And that is when I added a glaze to the instructions because I had to hide it again. If you don’t mind the look of a blueberry upside down Bundt, leave off the glaze because it was delicious. Rather ugly actually, but definitely delicious. On the other hand, a lemony cream cheese glaze is never a bad thing. Your call.

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups or 285g flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups or 450g sugar
1 1/8 cup or 255g unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup or 60ml whole milk
1/4 cup or 60ml cream
1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice

For the filling:
2 1/2 oz or 70g cream cheese, cold
1 3/4 oz or 50g fresh blueberries, plus a few extra for decorating, if desired
1/4 cup or 80g blueberry jam

Optional lemon glaze:
1/2 cup or 60g icing sugar
1 1/4 oz or 35g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2-3 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by greasing and flouring it or using the non-stick spray that has flour already in it.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

Measure your milk, cream and lemon juice together in a measuring cup and stir well. It's going to kind of thicken and get all sour creamy/buttermilky and that's a good thing.

In the bowl of your stand mixer or with electric beaters, cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add in the vanilla and then the first egg.

Beat well until combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula and add the other two eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add in half your flour and beat well, followed by half your liquid mixture and beat until thoroughly combined.

Scrape the sides of the bowl well and continue beating, adding the balance of the flour and then the balance of the liquids, along with the lemon zest. Beat well.

Spoon two-thirds of your batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Use a spoon to make a very shallow channel in the batter.

For the filling, cut the cream cheese up into small chunks and mix lightly with the jam and fresh blueberries.

Spoon your filling into the channel.

Then top it with the balance of the batter and smooth it out.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until the top is nicely golden and the Bundt begins to just pull away from the sides.

Let the Bundt cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This is not a thing of beauty

The filling will probably sink to the bottom of the pan, which becomes the top of the cake, making an upside down blueberry cream cheese topping. Which, as I mentioned, while delicious, is not particularly attractive. At least in my opinion. If you’d like to hide it with a glaze, whisk all the glaze ingredients together, adding just enough milk to get it to the consistency you'd like, and then drizzle it (or use a piping bag) to decorate the top of the Bundt.

If you've added the glaze, top with a few blueberries, if desired.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our host this month, Anshie of Spice Roots for a great, if somewhat vexing, theme and for all the work it takes to host. Have a look at how the rest of our group handled the Hidden Surprises challenge:

• Almond Crunch Cake by Magnolia Days
• Balsamic Strawberry Filled Bundt Cake by Our Good Life
• Banana Maple Bundt Cake with Chocolate Star by Un Mordisco Un Pecado
• Black and White Surprise Bundt Cake by Patty's Cake
• Chocolate and Vanilla Polka Dot Bundt by Passion Kneaded
• Chocolate Bundt Cake with Oreo Cheesecake Filling by Recipes, Food and Cooking
• Chocolate Cheesecake Filled Peanut Butter Bundt Cake by Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Citrus Raspberry Bundt by Noshing With The Nolands
• Confetti Zebra Cake by Eat, Drink, Be Mighty
• Cookie Dough Bundt Cake by Liv for Cake
• German Mozarthupf by A Kingdom for a Cake
• Graham Cracker Bundt Cake with Key Lime Cheesecake Swirl by Brooklyn Homemaker
• KitKat Surprise Bundt Cake by Simply Veggies
• Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Orange and Strawberry Jam Bundt Cake by Baking Yummies
• Pear and Blue Cheese Bundt by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Polka Dot Bundt Cake by Brunch with Joy
• Raspberry Filled Lemon Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Real Deal Nutella Bundt Cake by Baking in Pyjamas
• Savory Monkey Bread Stuffed Bundt by Adventures in All Things Food
• Sour Cream Boozy Hazelnut Bundt Cake by Sidewalk Shoes
• Spring Break S'mores Cake by Tea and Scones
• Strawberry Cheese Cake Bundt Cake by Basic N Delicious
• Strawberry Twinkie Bundt Cake by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake by Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies
• Surprise Bundt by Mummy & Cute
• Surprise Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake by Media Ración Doble, Por Favor
• Surprise Inside Carrot Bundt Cake by Making Miracles
• Triple Lemon Bundt Cake by Baking and Creating with Avril
• Tropical Surprise Bundt Cake by Spice Roots

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Lemon Blueberry Van Halen Bundt! 

Eggnog Pound Cake with Eggnog Glaze #FoodieExtravaganza

Homemade eggnog adds richness to the tender crumb of this sweet pound cake and eggnog glaze with extra freshly grated nutmeg is the perfect icing on the cake. If you only have the store-bought kind, that would certainly work just as nicely.

The best laid schemes
When I initially signed up to contribute a recipe to this month’s Foodie Extravaganza eggnog themed event, I did it with a certain amount of smugness because I knew I had one Tetra Pak of Borden’s eggnog, still in date, that was left over from last year. So even if the new ones didn’t make it to the Dubai supermarkets in time. I was GOOD to GO.

But to paraphrase the poet, Robert Burns, “the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry." And I find myself, happily, willingly, extending my annual visit to Kuala Lumpur to help a dear friend and her family through a rough time. Except the Borden’s eggnog has not come in yet here. In fact, the store where I used to buy it when we lived here says they aren’t getting any this year. Say what, Ampang Mini Mart??

Needs Must
So here’s what I did. I made our family's favorite eggnog, my grandmother’s recipe, already posted here, but in a much smaller quantity, and I added in a little vanilla. (I’ll put the ingredient quantities below, for those who want to go all homemade too.) And THEN I baked eggnog pound cake and made eggnog glaze. It’s been a favorite at snack time all week and one piece has even been requested in a lunch box. Score!

Ingredients
For the eggnog:
Follow the general instructions here but use the following ingredient list if you are making your own eggnog, just for this cake. Then allow it to cool before starting the cake.
1 3/4 cups or 415ml whole milk
1 egg
1/3 cup or 75g sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The cake recipe has been adapted from this one From Chocolate, Chocolate and More. Joan's makes two loaf-shaped pound cakes.

For the cake batter:
1/2 cup or 115g butter, room temperature
1 cup or 200g sugar
2 eggs
2 cups or 250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml eggnog

For the glaze:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch salt
1-2 tablespoons eggnog

Plus extra nutmeg for sprinkling on top of the glaze, if desired.

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 10-cup Bundt pan by spraying it liberally with non-stick baking spray (the kind with flour in) or by buttering and flouring it.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream your butter and sugar together until they are light yellow and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

First egg going in. 

Add in the flour, baking powder, vanilla, salt and nutmeg.

Then pour in all the eggnog.

Beat until well combined. Once the batter is mixed well, turn the mixer up to medium high and beat for 2 minutes.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Remember, this is pound cake so it's going to be quite thick.

 Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a wooden skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and then turn the cake out onto the rack.

While it cools, you can make the glaze. Measure your first three glaze ingredients into a small bowl then add the eggnog a little at a time until you reach your desire consistency.

Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake.

Grate a little more nutmeg on top, if desired. (But I highly recommend it!) Let glaze set up before serving or storing.

Enjoy!

Are you a fan of eggnog? Then this is your season of joy as well as your Foodie Extravaganza month! Many thanks to our great host, Alexis from We Like to Learn As We Go.

• Banana Chocolate Chip Eggnog Coffee Cake - The Sweet {Tooth} Life
• Chewy Eggnog Cookies - We Like to Learn as We Go
• Eggnog Chocolate Chip Cake - Fearlessly Creative Mamas
• Eggnog Cookies - Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Eggnog Creme Brulee - The Freshman Cook
• Eggnog Cupcakes - Baking in Pyjamas
• Eggnog Fudge - Mrs. Penguin
• Eggnog Kringel - Passion Kneaded
• Eggnog Mexican Flan - Pantry Friendly Cooking
• Peppermint Eggnog Hot Chocolate - Trial and Eater
• Eggnog Pound Cake with Eggnog Glaze - Food Lust People Love 
• Eggnog Rice Pudding - The Joyful Foodie 
• Eggnog Waffles and Syrup - Making Miracles
• Fruity Eggnog Bread Pudding - Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Gingerbread Eggnog Cookies - A Day in the Life on the Farm
• No-Bake Eggnog Cookies - Rhubarb and Honey
• Nutty Nog Caramels - Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays or cook and bake together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday. If you would like to participate in the next Foodie Extravaganza, just go to our Facebook page to join. We would love to have you!