Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Growing up, my mother used to make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for me for my birthday in November using carrots from our garden. My sister's birthday is in July, so she got a blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting for her birthday made with blueberries from our blueberry bushes. It's kind of funny now how much I took our fantastic yard and vegetable garden for granted growing up. We had so much fresh fruit and vegetables grown on our own property. The main drawback for me raising my girls in a city is that there is no way I can give them the experience of growing a lot of our own food. Our yard is just too small and too shaded.

I have no idea where the original recipe for this cake came from. I imagine my mother made a few changes and I've made a couple additions. Here's my version of the recipe:

Blueberry Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

zest from one large lemon

2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup whole milk

3 cups fresh blueberries, tossed with flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by greasing with butter or shortening and dusting with flour. Cream butter and brown sugar together. Add vanilla extract and eggs and beat well. Mix the flour, baking powder, lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Add the flour mixture to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture alternately with the milk in three additions. Fold in the blueberries. Bake for about 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Turn the cakes out of the pans onto wire cooling racks. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract together. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, beating until completely blended before each addition.

This is a sort of loose cream cheese frosting.  If I want it a little stiffer for frosting the sides of the cake, I'll put it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes and then stir it before frosting the sides.