Cherry Blueberry Cheesecake Bundt for #BundtaMonth

While I was in Houston for a week visiting family, I decided that it would be a good time to bake my Bundt for April’s BundtaMonth because 1. Time would be short when I got back to Dubai and 2. I had been invited over for dinner and 3.  I found this lovely Bundt pan in my cupboard.

As I might possibly have said to my BundtaMonth friends, you know you have too many baking pans when you forget you own something as pretty as that!   (Disclaimer:  I will completely deny even possibly saying that if anyone brings this to my husband’s attention.  Because: One can never have too many baking pans.  Am I right?)

Our BundtaMonth hosts, Lora and Anuradha decided that our theme this month is cherries!  Since they are frankly hard to find fresh at this time of the year in Houston, I decided to go with dried cherries and add in some fresh blueberries to join them.  This Bundt has three layers:  Cream cheese pound cake batter, followed by a cream cheese filling based on the cream cheese layer in this great recipe from fellow BundtaMonth member, Anita from Hungry Couple,  and then another layer of the pound cake batter.  Then, to top it all off, a drizzled cream cheese glaze.  I took it over to my little sister’s house for dinner and her youngest son fawned over it lovingly until it was time for supper.  Then they all had healthy (not healthy!) slices for dessert.  I tell you true:  Like baking pans, there is no such thing as too much cream cheese.  

Yes, it was already cut!  Because I had to take photos.  I gave the cut slices to my elderly neighbor
who was sick with bronchitis and needed love and sugar. 

Ingredients

Cake batter:

2 cups or 250g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup or 225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

6 ounce or 170g cream cheese (at room temperature)

2 cups or 450g sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

Zest of a lemon

Cheesecake filling:

8 oz or 226g cream cheese (room temperature)

1 egg

1/4 cup or 55g sugar

1/4 cup or 30g flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup or 100g dried cherries plus a few extra for decoration

1/2 cup or 75g fresh blueberries plus a few extra for decoration

Glaze:

2 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup or 30g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3-4 teaspoons milk

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by spraying liberally with non-stick spray and then coating with a little flour.

The filling is very easy.  Add all the ingredients, except the cherries and blueberries, to your mixing bowl and beat until smooth and lump free.

Fold in your cherries and blueberries.  Cover with cling film and refrigerate until needed.

For the cake batter, in a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Add the sugar, either a third at a time, beating well after each addition, or in a slow continuous stream as you are beating.

Continue beating on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 - 5 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Add the vanilla and lemon zest and beat until incorporated.

Add in half the flour mixture and beat again.

Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Spoon on the cherry blueberry cream cheese filling and spread it around the pan.

Top with the remaining cream cheese batter.

Bake for about 55-65 minutes in your preheated oven or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 15- 20 minutes before trying to remove it.  It should start to pull away from the sides of the pan as it cools.

To remove it, place a wire rack upside down on the cake and invert the cake pan to release the cake.  Allow to cool completely before adding the glaze.

While your cake is cooling, chop your extra decoration cherries and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine your first three glaze ingredients and then add the milk, starting with just 1 teaspoon.

Continue mixing well and adding milk one teaspoon at a time until you reach drizzling thickness.  I ended up adding only 3 teaspoons to mine.

When your cake is completely cool, add the cream cheese glaze to a small baggie and cut the corner off.  Squeeze out the glaze slowly and drizzle it all over the cake.

Stud it with bits of cherry and whole blueberries to decorate.

Enjoy!

And check out my fellow bloggers beautiful cakes:

• Black Forest Mini Bundt Cakes by Kim at Cravings of a Lunatic 
• Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake by Anuradha at Baker Street
• Cherry-filled Bundt Cake with Chocolate Cherry Drizzle by Heather at Hezzi D's Books and Cooks 
• Cherry Bundt Cake by Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen 
• Cherry Kirsch Bundt by Tara at Noshing With The Nolands 
• Cherry Pecan Bundt Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days 
• Chocolate Cherry Bundt Cake by Lora at Cake Duchess 
•  Chocolate Cherry Coke Cake by Jennie at The Messy Baker Blog 
•  Chocolate Cherry Dream by Kim at Ninja Baking 
•  Coconut Cherry Chip Bundt by Anne at From My Sweet Heart 
• Lemon Cherry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze by Anita at Hungry Couple 
• Mahlab Vanilla Bundt Cake by Laura at The Spiced Life 
• Spicy Cherry Yogurt Bundt Cake by Paula at Vintage Kitchen 
• White Chocolate Black Cherry Yogurt Bundt Cake by Karen at In the Kitchen With KP

If you'd like to add your cherry Bundt for April, here are the rules:

- Simple rule: Use any cherries (or any part of the cherry) – and bake us a Bundt for April
- Post it before April 30, 2013.
- Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
- Add your entry to the Linky tool below
- Link back to our announcement posts.

Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from over 350 Bundt cake recipes.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins #MuffinMonday

Happy Monday, lovely people!  After weeks of excess and over the top muffins, it feels good to get back to simple, yet still delicious.  My daughters left Dubai to return to the US and university over the weekend, so you know I need some cheering up.  And there is hardly anything more cheerful than the smell of freshly zested lemons, am I right?

That’s why they put it in cleaning materials too, by the way.  It is part of the brainwashing program designed by marketing types to convince us that cleaning is fun and uplifting and we should buy more lemon-scented soaps and sprays.  But I tell you no lies:  These muffins are the real thing.  Get some in the oven and you will feel better in no time.

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Adapted from this BBC recipe.

Ingredients
For the muffins:
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 115g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 large lemon (for zest and 1/4 cup juice)
2 eggs
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
1/3 cup or 75ml vegetable oil
1 small punnet blueberries (about 125g or 4.4 oz) Reserve 12 for popping on the top of the muffins before baking, if desired.

For the topping:
Powdered or icing sugar to sprinkle, optional

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.  Butter your 12-cup muffin tin or line it with paper liners.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Grate in the lemon zest and mix.   Juice your lemon.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, milk, juice and oil.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until just mixed through.

Fold in all the blueberries, except 12, if saving.

Divide the mixture between the muffin cups in pan.

If you saved berries for the top, now is the time to pop one on the top of each cup.  (They might still sink, but I figured it was worth a shot.)

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Allow them to cool for a few minutes then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sprinkle with a little powdered or icing sugar, if desired, and serve.

Enjoy!

Meringues with Berries and Whipped Cream

Beautiful fluffy meringues make perfect sweet edible bowls for fresh berries. Top with whipped cream and you've got one simple but impressive dessert.

With as much moving around as we’ve done in our almost 25 years as expats, there is good and there is bad. The good is clearly the wonderful places we get to not just visit but to immerse ourselves in their culture and become friends with their inhabitants – natives and other expats alike. The bad is always the saying goodbye to that town, country, culture, those people, who have entered your heart and become a part of who you are and who you will become, even as you move onto the next country and culture and challenge. The way to make the good last, to prolong it, is to keep in touch with the special people who became family and touched your lives in a profound way you will never forget.

Carol and Greg and their sweet children are some of those special people. From Carol I learned, way back when, that people can really enjoy exercise. She was the first person I had ever met who told me she loved getting on her treadmill. It was a revelation and I thought there might be hope for me yet. (I am still hoping.)

Lately she has taught me that we are never too old to aspire to another career and that, with enough perseverance, and determination, that change of career is possible for those who want it and are willing to put in the time and effort it requires. Greg has long awed me with the example he sets as a supportive husband and, along with my own helpful, loving husband, he has shown me that good men do exist and has reinforced my sense that, while marriage for many is a push-me-pull-you proposition, it doesn’t have to be.

All of this is a prelude to another dinner invitation and another offer to bring dessert. Once again, during this time of fresh, sweet summer fruit, I had to go simple and fruit-oriented. This is one of my favorite desserts to make because it looks fancy but it isn’t difficult at all.

From Petit Mont Blancs – Delia Smith




Ingredients
For the meringues:
3 large egg whites
6 oz or 165g fine white caster sugar (not confectioner’s sugar)

For the filling – with plenty extra for just eating
2 lbs strawberries
12 oz blueberries
1/4 -1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

For the topping:
1 pint (16 oz) heavy whipping cream
1-2 pinches of cream of tartar

Method
Preheat the oven to 300°F or 150°C.

To make the meringues, place the egg whites in a large, grease-free bowl and, using an electric hand whisk (or free-standing mixer) on a low speed, begin whisking. Continue for about 2 minutes, until the whites are foamy, then switch the speed to medium and carry on whisking for another minute.




Now turn the speed to high and continue whisking until the egg whites reach the stiff-peak stage.



Next, whisk the sugar in on fast speed, a little (about a tablespoon) at a time, until you have a stiff and glossy mixture.






Now all you do is spoon the mixture on to the prepared baking sheet (I greased the pan with Pam and then put a sheet of baking parchment), spacing them evenly. (I ran out of space and ended up making seven.) Then, using the back of the spoon, hollow out the centers. Don’t worry if they are not all the same shape. Next, pop them on the center shelf of the oven, immediately reduce the heat to 275°F, 140°C, and leave them for 30 minutes.



After that, turn the oven off and leave the meringues to dry out in the warmth of the oven until it is completely cold (usually about 4 hours.) Since I knew I was serving these that night I was not so concerned about their drying completely out, and beside, I didn’t have time. Mine were probably in for just one hour after the 30 minutes with the oven on. 

If you are baking these ahead to be served much later in the day or even another day, do let them dry out and store them in an airtight container. Meringues can even be made ahead and frozen in an airtight container.

Meanwhile, prepare your fruit that will go in the hollowed out centers. Any fruit will do but our family favorite for this dessert is fresh berries. Today I chose 2 pounds of fresh strawberries and about 12 oz of blueberries. I know this is way too much fruit for the meringues, but fresh berries are so nice with whipped cream and I know they will get eaten when the meringues are gone. To just fill the meringues you probably could use half that amount. Anyway, hull your strawberries and cut the larger ones into smaller pieces. Little strawberries can be left whole. Rinse the strawberries and blueberries, drain well, then sprinkle them with the sugar.




Depending on the sweetness of your berries you may not need the whole 1/2 cup. Let your taste decide. I put as little as I think I can get away with! This time it was only the quarter cup. If you want to use Splenda or the like, that would probably work too. Add the balsamic and stir. Put this mixture in the fridge until it’s time to serve.

Another meanwhile. Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form, adding a pinch or two of cream of tartar, which helps the cream stiffen and make good peaks. If you have hand beaters, this is probably not a problem, but if you have a big hands-free mixer like mine, do not walk away and do NOT overbeat as your cream will start to turn to butter. Store cream in a covered bowl in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Assembling the Mont Blancs: Each person gets a meringue, topped with a heap of berries and a heap of whipped cream. Drizzle some of the juice over the top of the whipped cream. This is a feast for the eyes, and then the mouth, on a plate.



Greg was in charge of dinner and he barbecued succulent, tender beef ribeyes, along with grilled vegetables that would knock your socks off. We ate the leftover steak for breakfast (yes, this was a slumber party!) with buttered toast and poached eggs, courtesy of Carol. I can highly recommend the Nutter Bed and Breakfast. Love you all!

Enjoy!