G : BLUEBERRY VANILLA CAKE

I shall ever remain indebted for this recipe to Moumita. It not only remains special to me because it was the first cake I baked, but also because it was the first thing I had ever baked. Some recipes are vague and leave a lot for the cook to be puzzled over or spend hours figuring out, but her ingredients were in the exact proportion needed to produce a perfect, rich cake. Moreover, it turned out so perfect at the very first attempt that I had to pinch myself to find out whether I might incidentally be dreaming !

INGREDIENTS :

Butter, 1/2 cup

Sugar, 1 1/4 cup

Eggs, 2

Flour, 2 cups

Baking powder, 1 tbsp

Salt, 1 tsp

Milk, 3/4 cup

Vanilla, 1 tsp

Fresh blueberries, 1/2 cup

METHOD :

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy in a bowl.

Add the eggs and beat the mixture well.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Add the flour mixture slowly to egg- butter mixture, beating well.

Then add the milk and vanilla.

Preheat the oven at 375 degrees F.

Fill the mixture in a greased, floured baking pan .

Sprinkle the blueberries with flour and scatter them on the surface of the cake mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 35 mins until cake springs back when lightly touched near center.

TIPS :

You can replace the blueberries with other items like cherries or nuts or pineapples or strawberries. I even use fruits from jams, which worked out quite well too.

Last words :

Sudeshna Di gave me a huge surprise by first asking me to email the details of the recipe to her, and then actually getting it published in The Telegraph, Kolkata (Salt Lake supplement) for me. I had absolutely no idea what she was upto, so you can imagine how speechless I was when my mother and sister congratulated me !

The scanned article (from The Telegraph) :