This post is basically yesterday's Gingerbread House's continuation. As I worked hard until the evening for the house, making this cake was left for the next morning. For the Gingerbread House's detailed instructions and recipe click here: "I Made A Gingerbread House With The Best Roof Tricks & My Worse Mistakes | Silent Vlog" 


I was initially planning to make an "Angel Food Cake with Blueberry Icing", however after watching several youtube videos and reading blog posts, I realised that I needed a special mould for the cake or at least I can't risk making something I've never tried before that day. I will try making the cake one day in the future.

But the lilac icing was a must-do, so I thought lemon goes well with blueberries. Being tired from yesterday's gingerbread house mayhem, I used my go-to cake recipe with a little twist: lemon juice and zest.

I already bought these dried red clovers for the lilac icing. Red clovers are used as a herbal tea and apparently it is good for many things although I purely bought it because of its colour. Hopefully, I will make a video about my tea collection soon, and this has become the newest addition.

It looks a little grey in the photo but if you watch the video, you'll see the icing's beautiful purple first and then light lilac colour. I was a little sceptical to make the icing full purple and now I'm regretting my non-courageous decision. So if you need a grey coloured icing, here is your solution: use fewer blueberries.

Next time, there will be a full purple icing over the cake, I promise.



Turkish cake recipes usually contain olive oil instead of butter. Olive oil makes the cake light and moist, and butter makes it moist and dense. I like both. You can twist this cake recipe by using different fruity and flowery flavours like rose water, lemon or orange juice and zest. If I make the cake with orange juice, first, I squeeze one orange and measure the juice if it's not a full cup, I fill the cup with milk. In this recipe, you need "1 cup of liquid" whether it's milk or juice. Since lemon doesn't have much juice, I just added a few spoons more flour.

In my opinion, chocolate and cacao or cinnamon and nuts always go well with the buttery recipes.



So here is my go-to cake recipe:

ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup olive oil
1 cup milk
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
3 cups all-purpose flour (plus 2 spoons if the batter is too liquidy)
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

for the blueberry icing

15 blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups milk
5 tbsp wheat or corn starch

method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-high speed, whisk the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
Whisk in olive oil, milk, lemon juice and zest, until blended well.
Reduce the speed low and add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth.
Pour the batter in a medium-sized cake pan and bake it for 40 minutes or so in a 180C heated oven.
Take the cake from the oven and turn it over a rack to let it cool.
For the icing;
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, starch and milk.
While stirring with a hand whisk, cook it over medium heat until it's boiling.
Turn it off the heat and let it cool.
With a hand blender or a food processor, purée the icing well in case there are any lumps. This will make the icing or as we call it in Turkish "the cream" silky smooth.
Pour the icing over the cake slowly.
Decorate it with the red clovers.