Hazelnut Buckwheat Blueberry Cake
hazelnut buckwheat and blueberry cake
I’ve been making birthday cakes for my kids for more than four decades.
When they were little they’d spend months prior to their birth date poring over the Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Book trying to decide what elaborate design they’d choose for their celebration cake. Their choice always entailed solid butter cake, lurid coloured icing and lots of lollies.
As they matured their tastes changed. For a few years I made strawberry cream sponge cake or berry mousse cake, flourless chocolate cake or cassata ice cream cake. As adults they prefer fruit, minimal wheat and no cream.
For a recent birthday celebration, after a lot of head scratching I decided to make a cake with blueberries. I’d been experimenting with buckwheat flour, using it as a substitute for wheat flour, and decided that the flavour profile would be perfect with hazelnuts and so this cake came to be.
It’s a deliciously moist cake with a dense texture, even a thin slice cuts cleanly and the nutty flavour complements the blueberries beautifully.
After singing “Happy Birthday” and humouring the 2 year old by letting him blow out the candles multiple times, we enjoyed our Hazelnut, Buckwheat and Blueberry cake with blueberry compote on the side.
I suggest you eat the cake within 3 days as I noticed that the flavour of the buckwheat strengthened with time until it over took the hazelnuts.
Store in an airtight container.
Hazelnut, Buckwheat and Blueberry Cake
180g butter
150g castor sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
4 eggs
150 buckwheat flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
150g ground hazelnuts
160g thick natural yoghurt
120g frozen blueberries
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 25cm ring tin and lightly dust with rice flour.
Melt the butter, and set aside to cool a little.
Use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients and lemon zest. Make a well in the centre.
Lightly whisk the eggs into the butter one at a time then whisk the yoghurt into the buttery mixture until smooth.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry then gently stir the dry until thoroughly combined. Spoon 1/3 of the batter into the base of the cake tin spreading it to the edges of the pan. Scatter over half the blueberries.
Add a second layer of batter, then the remaining berries. Top with the remaining cake batter.
Bake in the middle of the oven until the centre of the cake is cooked through when tested with a skewer, about 40 minutes.
Turn the cake out of the tin onto a rack and allow to cool.
lemon glacé icing:
3/4 cup of pure icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
Sift the icing sugar to remove all the clumps.
Slowly add the lemon juice mixing as you go to make a thick viscous icing.
Pour the icing into a squirter bottle and drizzle icing over the cake.
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30 comments on “Hazelnut Buckwheat Blueberry Cake”
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
This sounds so delicious! My youngest was just going through cookbooks planning birthday cakes for the next several years!
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One of the delights of childhood, a personal festival AKA birthday celebrations….Oh to be that young again…
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The cake looks delicious and moist. And a great capture too!
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Thanks Sumith, it’s a very moist cake
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I am late to the party but am adding this cake to my ‘to bake’ list. Looks fab. Have great memories of the good ole Womens Weekly cake book, what an icon it is.
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I’m really impressed by the way buckwheat flour handles, enjoy…
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I love the sound of this combination, Sandra. So interesting. Will have to try.
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Love to hear how it goes For you..
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Francesca is waiting for the ‘cooking fairy’ – I have been hopelessly waiting for the ‘baking fairy’ for decades !!! Oh, Ron is a dear friend: you should see all the stuff he is baking for his Swedish-American Thanksgiving on Saturday: bet his pie dough recipe works well . . . keep reminding him 🙂 !
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I will indeed, I’m always interested in using flours made with alternate grains and seeds
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My Mum had that book and we would do the same as kids! It was a really popular book in NZ as well.
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My grandkids love it too..
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The Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake Cook Book was a favourite of the children when I was a teacher/librarian in a primary school. They too would drool over the different cakes! I am not a cake maker, but this one looks so good that I might make an exception.
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My WW Birthday book has lasted 2 generations of indecisive kids
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That’s a great feat! My library copies had to be replaced family regularly!!
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That looks so lovely. Still waiting for the cooking fairy to visit.
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All in good time. It’s hard to get make into the daily swing of domestic life after such a long time away
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Great recipe ! Thanks for sharing !!
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Youre welcome Megala
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Nice memories of past birthday cakes, I can imagine the tradition being passed on to your grandson. This cake has a great flavor profile, I’ve been avoiding wheat for several months but haven’t experimented with buckwheat. Can you substitute it straight across in volumes for wheat flour?
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Haven’t tried a recipe that doesn’t have a lot of supporting ingredients for strength and texture other than pancakes so I’ll say yes with reservations. Some buckwheat flours are quite coarse and others much more refined. I use a fine mill for cake making
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Oh yummy, this is my kind of cake. As for buckwheat (Bovetemjöl in Swedish), I’m very familiar with it. We use it her for numerous baked goods. My fav is in pie dough. Thanks for passing the recipe.
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You’re welcome Ron. I’d love to see the pie dough recipe
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Sorry for the delay in getting this to you. I’ve been out of the loop for a few days. Here’s the ingredients for the buckwheat pie dough. Mix as you would any pie dough. I use this as a savory pie dough, but I’ve been told one can use it in sweet pie, just add sugar.
3 dl (1-1/4 cup) bovetemjöl (buckwheat flour)
150 grams (10 tbsp) smör (butter) room temp
2 tablespoons of potatismjöl (potato flour)
1 tablespoon of cold water
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No problem Ron. Very grateful for the recipe share, I can’t wait to give it to try. Thank you
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What a wonderful combination of buckwheat, hazelnuts and blueberries. I do like buckwheat flour, but you are right, it has a very strong flavour. I usually make crêpes with it (called galettes) – so very thin and the flavour isn’t overpowering so the filling (usually ham and cheese) shines. I bet a variation on this with chestnut flour might taste good, too.
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Chestnut flour is a good thought although I do find it quite heavy while the buckwheat I buy seems to be ultra refined and makes a light cake. The flavour developed in strength but when I make pancakes with it for immediate consumption I can barely taste it. PS Just had walnut toast for breakfast, yum! 😀
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That’s good to know about the different textures produced by chestnut & buckwheat flours. Glad you like the whole wheat & walnut combo in your sourdough. It is yummy!
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Sounds delicious Sandra. I’ve been off of all grains since July, except since it isn’t a grain, I can eat buckwheat. It’s a bit tricky to avoid all of them. Have dabbled with a bit of rice and corn lately and so far so good. Hope you are well.
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Hi Ardys nice to hear from you. I’m really well. I can just imagine how difficult it is to cut grains from your diet completely, I depend on rice and rice products enormously, although I’m using buckwheat more and more. Having said that I’ve also reintroduced wheat and as long as it’s been slowly fermented I’m OK with it. I’ve been following your movements on IG, Your pics continue to be glorious. Wishing you good health 😘
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