Blueberry Pound Cake

This is a delicious pound cake recipe from the cookbook Baking Illustrated.  The original recipe was for plain pound cake, but I decided to brighten it up with lemon zest and a sprinkling of summer-fresh blueberries.  The blueberries sink to the bottom as they bake, which looks really cool when you slice into it.  Baking this cake takes a little bit of patience (and maybe a trip to the grocery store if you don't have cake flour), but it is SO worth it.   I made this in an 8 x 8 pan, but you could use a large loaf pan or 4 mini loaf pans.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs + 3 yolks, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups plain cake flour
• 1 cup blueberries, washed and dried

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a loaf pan or 8 x 8 pan.  For easy removal from the 8 x 8 pan, I recommend lining with parchment paper after spraying with cooking spray.  Beat the butter with a mixer at medium-high speed for 15 seconds until smooth.  With the machine still running, slowly add the sugar and beat for another 4 to 5 minutes, until light, fluffy, and almost white.  In a 2-cup measuring cup, stir together the eggs, yolks, vanilla, lemon zest, and water.  With the mixer running at medium-high speed, add the egg mixture to the butter and sugar in a very slow, thin stream.  Finally, beat in the salt.  Sift 1/2 cup of the cake flour over the batter bowl.  Gently fold it in with a spatula, scraping up from the bottom of the bowl to incorporate all of the flour.  Repeat with another 1/2 cup of cake flour.  Next, fold in the blueberries with the final sifted 1/2 cup cake flour.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the batter evenly into corners.  Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, 60 - 70 minutes if using an 8 x 8 pan or 70 - 80 minutes if using a loaf pan.  Let the cake rest for 5 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack so that it is right-side up.  (It will take an extra plate or cooling rack to accomplish this.)  Cool to room temperature and serve in slices, alone or with some sliced fresh fruit and whipped cream.  Enjoy!