Red White and Blueberry Pound Cake

I’ve always been drawn to getting cutesy and creative when it comes to baking for holidays – as you’ve seen with my Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Nest Cookies this past April. With the 4^th of July holiday weekend finally here, I wanted to make something patriotic and different from the mainstream red white and blue sprinkle cookies and brownies. I’d baked banana bread the week prior and was reminded that desserts existed outside of what could be put on a pan in the oven (my flat in London was pretty restricting with its lack of kitchen utensils). I decided that by mixing blueberries and cherries into a pound cake I would be able to cut down on the artificial sweetness and instead enhance the patriotic colors and natural sweetness of the fruit. When you slice the cake open, you see that the red and blue colors have swirled together in the oven, just like the fireworks on the 4^th of July.

Let’s Get Started: (Makes 10+ servings)

½ cup butter
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
3 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup fresh cherries
1 cup milk

Let’s Get Cookin’:

Let butter and eggs stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. In a large bowl whisk flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until combined. Beat in eggs.

Stir blueberries and cherries into flour mixture by hand. Stir blueberry and cherry mixture into butter mixture, by hand. Slowly, stir in milk.

Bake in a greased 10-inch tube pan in a 325*F oven for 60-75 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Let’s Get Creative:

 Of course, any fresh fruit would go great in this recipe. Feel free to substitute fruit types! Just keep in mind that fruit will make the pound cake moist, and depending on the fruit you may need to reduce the amount of milk in the recipe.

If you’re into icing, I think a simple lemon icing would go great on top of this cake. I’ll be serving the cake this weekend warm, with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream – it doesn’t get more American than this! Xx

Stay Classy & Happy 4^th of July! xx