Blueberry Pie Cake

This dessert was inspired by a recipe in BBC Good Food magazine for a Raspberry Bakewell Slice. I made their recipe and loved it, but I love to fiddle with recipes, plus I wanted to be able to share it with folks like me who like to bake using cups instead of grams. Oh, and I adore blueberries. Seriously adore them. So I spent a few hours playing in the kitchen, and here are the delicious results. My son Christened it Blueberry Pie Cake because it is part pie, part cake. 

This recipe uses ready-made pastry, which can be rolled to fit the pan, but do feel free to make your own pastry from scratch if you feel you want to.

I use a quiche pan for this - about 7 to 8 inches wide by 11 inches long. Here it is lined with the pastry.

To make one pan of squares you will need:-

1 package of sweet pastry

¼ cup blueberry jam

½ cup frozen blueberries, just thawed (or use fresh if they are available)

¼ cup flaked almonds

¼ cup apricot jam

1 teaspoon water

For the cake:-

1 cup butter, softened (plus some to grease the pan)

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1¼ cups ground almonds (almond flour)

¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 375℉ (about 160 to 170℃ for fan oven).

Lightly grease the pan. Roll the pastry out to fit and put it in the pan. Be sure to push it into the corners well. Prick it with a fork, and pop it in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes until it’s cooked, but not coloured. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit.

To make the cake mixture, cream the butter and sugar together in an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt and beat together.

To assemble, spread the blueberry jam over the pastry, using a pastry brush. Scatter the blueberries over top.

Gently spread the cake mixture over the blueberries and scatter with the flaked almonds. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden, watching carefully after 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool a little on a wire rack.

Heat the apricot jam with the 1 teaspoon of water and spread it over carefully top of the squares with a clean pastry brush to give a nice shiny finish. Cut into squares to serve. May be served warm or at room temperature, and is lovely with good vanilla ice cream.