Much Ado About Muffin Cake

The Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease & line with baking parchment 2 x 8” round cake tins.
3. Beat the sugar & butter with until light & fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at the time into the mixture, mixing between each one.
5. Whilst still mixing, slowly add the beer – it will look like its curdled, but don’t worry!
6. Once all combined, sieve the flour into the mixture & gentle fold together.
7. Divide the mixture between the 2 prepared tins.
8. Over the top of the mixture, add the blueberries. This will stop them all sinking to the bottom whilst baking.
9. Before putting into the oven, drop the tins on the work top a few times (from a small distance!) This will release any air bubbles for an even bake.
10. Bake at 180° for 40 - 45minutes until a knife comes out clean.
11. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the tins. Place onto a wire rack until fully cooled.

The Blueberry Compote

While the cake is baking, it’s time to make the blueberry compote.

1. In a pan on a high heat, add blueberries, beer & sugar.
2. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring occasionally, then reduce the heat & simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat & transfer to a bowl.
4. Refrigerate until chilled.

The Icing

1. Beat the icing sugar, vanilla & butter until smooth.
2. You can use food colouring if you wish as well. I used blue.

The Build

1. To assemble the cake, add one layer of cake to a serving plate.
2. Around the edge of the top of the cake, pipe some of the butter cream, about 2cms in. This will act as a barrier for the compote.
3. In the middle of the butter cream, add the blueberry compote, then pipe some more butter cream on top if you wish before adding the second cake on top.
4. Top the final layer of cake with butter cream & around the edges & smooth with a palate knife. The butter cream around the edge is optional. If you’d rather see the blueberries in the cake, just pipe some buttercream to the top of the cake. Fresh Blueberries can be used to decorate as well.
5. Chill until ready to serve.