Berry Berry Cake

Cookbook Adventure #5 - "Simply Heaven, Volume 2"

I wanted to use up some home-made cream cheese so I checked out my free cookbook from Philadelphia (think Kraft, not the largest city in Pennsylvania) and found this quick and easy recipe that didn't rely too heavily on the fact that my homemade cream cheese probably had quite different properties to the Philadelphia version.

My cream cheese, was simply made from "hanging" home-made natural yoghurt in the fridge for a couple of hours and letting all the whey drip out.  For more on the science of cheese making see: http://hubpages.com/hub/Easy-to-make-Cream-Cheese.

Originally called Cherry Berry Cake, I didn't have any cherries so used extra berries, hence the name!  Here's a link to a very similar recipe by Philadelphia but which is double in size to the one in the cookbook: http://www.philadelphiacreamcheese.com.au/recipes/Desserts/Cherry-Berry-Cake-with-Marsala-Cream.aspx

And here is my version in Thermotalk:

Ingredients 
125g butter
125g cream cheese
140g sugar (I used raw sugar)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
150g self raising flour
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tbs of milk
160g fresh or frozen blueberries
icing sugar for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 160C. Line a 22cm x 12cm loaf tin with baking paper.
If you don't have any icing sugar for dusting, then make this first. Place 100g of white sugar into TM bowl and grind for 20 seconds on speed 9. Set aside.
Place sugar into TM bowl. Grind to caster sugar for 3 seconds on speed 9.
Add butter and cream cheese. Mix for 30 seconds on speed 5. Scrape down sides and then mix again for 30 seconds on speed 5 or longer until smooth.
With TM on speed 4 add the eggs one at a time until combined.
Add flour, rind and milk and mix for 10 seconds on speed 3.
Add blueberries and fold gently with the spatula.
Pour mixture into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake in oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from tin. Cool. Dust with icing sugar.

I don't know what it would have tasted like had I used Philadelphia cream cheese, but it sure tasted good and was lovely and moist with my homemade version!

Thrifty tip: once you have removed the majority of the cake mix from the TM bowl, spin the blades for 2 seconds on speed 8 and you will find all the mixture flying to the sides which makes it easier to remove and gives you a little bit more cake! Do the same when making dips.