Buttermilk Cake with Meyer Lemon Blueberry Compote

On Wednesday, we had dinner at a friend's apartment. An apartment which also happens to be our old apartment. The experience of reentering a once-lived-in home was strange, but as the dinner got rolling I essentially forgot I was in my old dining room. Our friends made chana masala; it was just perfect. We brought dessert.

Fans of the M;4M facebook page may remember that only a couple hours prior to the dinner, I was polling them for recipe suggestions. The dessert needed to travel, and to be assembled in one hour or less with only ingredients I had on hand. I got so many wonderful suggestions, but was inspired by a suggestion Joe made for something berry-y. In my freezer are the remains of 10 pounds of Michigan blueberries I purchased off Blue Star highway last July. Berry-y!

I also had one meyer lemon and some aging buttermilk. So I set out to make a buttermilk cake with blueberry compote. It was done in one hour, transported in parts, and enjoyed by all, including our friends' fluffy cat.

Cake adapted from this recipe.

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
zest of one meyer lemon

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease a 10 by 2-inch round cake pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With an electric mixer in a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer speed on low, beat in the buttermilk and flour mixture in alternating shifts, beginning with the buttermilk. Fold in the lemon zest.

Spoon batter into cake pan. Drop pan once or twice on the counter to distribute the batter. Bake until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes.

While the cake bakes, prepare the blueberry compote.

2 cups blueberries (frozen are fine, no need to thaw)
1/8 cup sugar (or to taste)
1/2 cup water
juice of one meyer lemon

Reserve 1/2 cup of the blueberries. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries with the water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook until the berries break down, 3-5 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and reserved berries.

Serve cake with blueberry compote and a dollop of whipped cream.