Cream Cheese-Filled Blueberry Cake

September 2021. Fall semester and the academic year beginning again. I am in my second year of the fellowship. The dissertation is proceeding. The blog continues. The Sunday dinners continue. The index cards continue. Life has the shape it has built into itself over the past five years and the shape is right.

Gloria turned seventy this month. I made the celebration dinner at her house on Sunday: the full spread, everything from her own recipes, the whole table that she has made for forty years. James made a toast, which he does not usually do, with sweet tea in a glass, and he said: seventy years of you is not nearly enough. She laughed. He said: I mean it. She said: I know you mean it. He said: I hope for forty more. She said: that is too many, James. He said: not for me. I sat at that table and listened to them and thought about being fourteen in that kitchen for the first time and not knowing what this was or that it would become mine.

I made a lemon tart for the celebration, from her mother pastry recipe on one of the cards, with a lemon curd filling I had made years ago but never gotten exactly right until this batch. The curd was bright and tart and set perfectly and the pastry was short and buttery and James ate two slices and said: that is a celebration tart. Yes. That is exactly what it is.

The lemon tart was the right dessert for that particular Sunday — bright and set and exactly what it was supposed to be — but the recipe I keep coming back to when I think about celebration baking, about the kind of dessert that earns a second slice and a toast, is this cream cheese-filled blueberry cake. It has the same quality that the tart had that night: it does not try to be more than it is, and because of that it is exactly enough. When you are making something for a table you love, for a person who has fed you for decades, that is the only thing that matters.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cake Batter
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp whole milk
2 cups fresh blueberries, divided
1 tbsp all-purpose flour (for tossing berries)
Topping
1 tbsp turbinado or coarse sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting, optional

Instructions

Preheat and prepare the pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
Make the cream cheese filling. Beat the softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat just until combined. Set aside.
Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.
Combine wet and dry. With the mixer on low, alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour cream, beginning and ending with flour. Add the milk and mix until just combined — do not overmix.
Toss and fold the berries. Toss 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries with 1 tablespoon of flour to coat, then gently fold them into the batter.
Assemble the cake. Spread about two-thirds of the batter into the prepared pan in an even layer. Spoon the cream cheese filling evenly over the batter, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Dollop the remaining batter over the top — it will not fully cover the filling, and that is fine. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup blueberries over the surface and sprinkle with the coarse sugar.
Bake. Bake for 42 to 48 minutes, until the edges are set and golden and a toothpick inserted into the cake portion (not the cream cheese layer) comes out clean. The center may look slightly soft; it will firm as it cools.
Cool completely. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before releasing the springform collar. Cool fully before slicing. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cream Cheese-Filled Blueberry Cake — The Kind of Cake That Asks for a Toast