Blueberries, Sheet Cake & Lemon Zabaglione

 

Blueberries, Sheet Cake & Lemon Zabaglione

Wild Ontario blueberries can cause sticker-shock, but their flavour is unbeatable. An ethereally light cake and rich lemony sauce do justice to every dollar spent on those treasures. The sheet cake here is made in a jelly roll pan, but if you don’t have one you can use a 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33-cm) baking pan—add 5 minutes to cooking time if that’s the case. For the yogurt, look for “stirred” on the label.
Ingredients:
Lemon & Olive Oil Sheet Cake
3/4 tsp (4 mL) baking soda
3/4 tsp (4 mL) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) sugar
Freshly grated zest of 1 large lemon
3/4 cup (175 mL) extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup (175 mL) stirred yogurt
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 mL) medium cornmeal
Lemon Zabaglione Sauce  
6 egg yolks
Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
2 tbsp (30 mL) lemon juice
2 tbsp (30 mL) limoncello or water
1/3 cup (80 mL) sugar
4 cups (1 L) wild blueberries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line bottom of a 10 x 15-inch (25 x 28-cm) jelly-roll pan with parchment. Grease sides.

In a medium bowl, whisk together baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add lemon zest, olive oil, yogurt, egg, egg yolk and vanilla paste. Beat until smooth.

Stir in flour, then cornmeal. Scrape into pan, spread to edges with a spatula and smooth top. Bake until cake is firm to the touch and light golden around edges, 20 minutes. Remove to a rack and let cool. (Cake may be made to this point, covered and kept at room temperature for up to 2 days.)

A couple of hours before you plan to serve dessert, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Bring a 2-inch (5-cm) depth of water in a medium saucepan to a gentle boil.

In a separate medium heat-proof bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, limoncello (or water) and sugar. Set over boiling water and whisk constantly until doubled in volume and thickened, about 8 minutes. Immediately plunge bottom of bowl into ice bath to stop cooking. Cover and hold at room temperature for up to 2 hours.

Cut cake into eight equal-size rectangles. Arrange on plates and top each with an equal amount of zabaglione sauce and blueberries. 

Serves 8   Serve With a Riesling IceWine

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