Sweet, sweet summer always passes in a flash. It is a funny time of year, as I am beyond excited about all of the incredible food that is in season and yet I am so busy enjoying it all that I don’t stop to document and share it here. I do manage to capture much of it with a quick snap on my phone over on Instgram. It is also a case of not really using recipes during these months.
Summer is all about simplicity, picnics, picking berries, dips in the ocean and laying on a blanket under a big tree. We eat sliced tomatoes with a drizzle of good olive oil, a scattering of fresh basil and sprinkle of flaked salt, apricots baked with a bit of honey and vanilla, ice cream, salmon on the bbq or a late summer succotash with butter, corn, fresh herbs and whatever bits are in the fridge. Delicious for sure but hardly worthy of a recipe.
As far as summers go, we have had one of the best ones I can remember. It has been week after week of beautiful sunshine. All this warmth means it has been a great growing season. Every time I turn around the cucumbers in my garden have doubled in size and the fruit has been off the charts sweet and juicy. I am hauling home boxes of peaches and apricots to preserve for the winter. I spent the afternoon yesterday picking blackberries with a friend and her girls. The day ended with big purple smiles and blackberries in the freezer.
I want to share this recipe for lemon blueberry olive oil cake before the blueberries are gone for the season. On our last trip to Victoria we stopped in on our way to town and picked blueberries with my parents. The bushes were laden with fruit and the rows were lined with buzzing bees and blooming Queens Anne’s lace. My kind of heaven.
On the last day in town, we wanted to make something with blueberries for afternoon tea. We turned to a trusty recipe we have been using for years, a citrus olive oil cake. The base for this cake recipe is one that has been continually adapted by my mom and then again by me. It is very moist, tender and not too sweet. It works well with different flours, sugars, berries or no berries.
I hope you are having a lovely summer of family, friends and food. As fall is slowly creeping in, here’s to soaking up these last few precious weeks of summer. Make that one last recipe with blueberries before biting into the first apple of fall.
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup unrefined cane sugar
- ½ cup olive oil
- ¾ cup milk
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup oat flour
- ⅓ cup almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 rounded cup of fresh blueberries
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9 inch spring form pan and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, milk, olive oil and lemon zest until well combined.
- In another bowl, mix together the all purpose flour, oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined. Fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepare pan.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the cake is golden, springs back to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Run a knife around the edge of the cake and let cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, remove the ring, dust with icing sugar if desired, slice and serve.
Ardelle says
Sweet memories with your lovely photos and one of my fav recipes xox
Melissa says
Thanks for sharing and continuing to improve the recipe!