When grandpa counts blueberries
* blueberry cream cheese cake *

Uups, I kinda got lost in my real life but I am back with a story and a recipe…

Back when I was a child we were all (my cousins, sisters, parents and grandparents) eagerly waiting until the first blueberries where ripe and could be picked in the forest. It was such an effort to actually have an entire glass full and when we picked them they usually didn‘t end up in the jar. So in the end only my grandpa worked while we were goofing off in the forest looking here and there and turning every leaf around and being awed by nature. He could tell you if they where bigger than last year or not. We never believed him but asked how he knew. He actually counted them. Yes he did. He always knew how many blueberries fitted in a jar. It‘s not the only thing he did count – mushrooms, walnuts, potatoes… – he always told you what he harvested or picked in the forest. I guess that comes with working in the tax office – it must be a habit to count everything and make statistics.
Edit: While eating the cake he told me that a glass jar of blueberries usually holds 800 berries. Wow!

My favorite times are sitting at grandmas table and having my most favorite meal „Hefeklöse mit Blaubeeren“ yeast dumblings with blueberries. Oh what memories. My sister and I fought big battles who could eat the most dumblings and who ended up with the darkest and bluest tongue. I always won the tongue contest. And knowing how much time my grandpa put into the picking of the blueberries it‘s amazing how many times we had blueberries at my grandmas.

So when I had a day off and it fell right on my grandpas 89th birthday it didn‘t really take me too long to figure out what kinda cake I was going to make. It needed to be soft (chewing is an issue) not to sweet (diabetes) and something special (HA blueberries).

I ended up mixing together three of my recipies. I am a bit proud how it turned out.

So here it is: Grandpas special Blueberry Cream Cheese Cake

First of all I am giving away my aunts secret and best recipe for any biscuit dough there is. I never use any other:

125 g butter
125 g flour
125 g sugar
2 eggs

Mix all together and make sure there are no lumps. Put in a round cake pan (diameter 28 cm) and bake 15-20 min (circulating air mode). Let the biscuit cool completely and cut lengthwise into half so you end up with two cake bases.

For the cream cheese filling:

400 g cream cheese
600 g yoghurt
200 g whipping cream
150 g sugar
12 squares of gelatin, white

Combine cream cheese, yoghurt and sugar until you have a smooth mixture. Prepare gelatin according to instructions on the packaging and fold into cream.

When the cream starts to set fold in whipping cream. Now spread half of the cream on top of one of the cake bases. Put the second cake base on top and repeat the cream spreading process. Now it needs to get into the fridge for at least 4 hours – better overnight.

Now lets get some color into the cake and prepare the Blueberry Topping:

1 jar of blueberries
6 squares of gelatin, red

Heat up the juice of the blueberries (if using fresh ones use approx 500 ml of red juice of your choice) and add spices of your liking. I used a vanilla pod and a pinch of cloves. Let simmer for about 20 min and then cool off – you could easily leave it overnight so the juice can soak up all the spices.

Now prepare gelatin as said on packaging instruction using the blueberry juice. Once it starts to set add the berries and wait just a bit longer until the juice mixture can still be poured but is almost set. Add on top of your cake. Make sure to use a cake ring otherwise the blueberries are everywhere but your cake ;-) Let cool until mixture is completely set.

I know it‘s a bit of an effort to make this cake but it is so worth it. And you can buy the blueberries if you want. I did.

Let me know how you cake turned out. And did you ever go blueberry picking or am I the only one with such an childhood memory?