topic Re: Sinking Blueberries in Recipes

Sinking Blueberries

CelticCrafter — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:06:29 GMT

Does anyone have a tried and true method to keep them from sinking in the cake batter?

I tried tossing them in some of the dry ingredients, tried a bit of plain flour and neither of those worked.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

Katcat1 — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:19:44 GMT

If you rinsed the blueberries in water? If so, make sure they are completely dry using a paper towel to get off excess water. This is just a guess.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

cancun08 — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:28:46 GMT

I always toss them in a couple of tablespoons of flour & let em sit until I need to stir them into the batter. Just made a blueberry pound cake the other day and they were evenly dispersed. HTH.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

Mistreatedbycs — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:28:50 GMT

Do not blend them with the cake batter. Pour your batter halfway, add the blueberries, more batter and top off with blueberries.

They sink because the batter may be too thin or you incorporated too much air in your batter.

Don't forget to put lemon in your batter for a beautiful color, color changes with too much baking soda or too much dairy.

Yes, it's an art to get them perfectly spaced. Every recipe I have ever read said to add the blueberries to the batter and then pour in pan. The best way is to layer the berries, enjoy! Hope that helps.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

IamMrsG — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:41:35 GMT

@cancun08 wrote:
I always toss them in a couple of tablespoons of flour & let em sit until I need to stir them into the batter. Just made a blueberry pound cake the other day and they were evenly dispersed. HTH.

This works because the flour gets 'grabbed' by the batter and suspends the fruit instead of letting it sink to the bottom. That said, it wouldn't hurt to also pour the batter into the pan by layers, as suggested by Just Bling.

So, lightly coat your berries with flour (taking a spoon or two from the measured quantity in the recipe), pour in a layer of batter, sprinkle the berries around, then gently top with another layer of batter.

That should help.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

SusieQ_2 — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 20:55:44 GMT

This topic came at a perfect time for me. Well, almost perfect anyway. I didn't even know this was a problem since I'm not exactly Martha Stewart in the kitchen! I made banana-blueberry bread yesterday and most of the berries ended up on the bottom. Boo!

Yes, I rinsed my berries and they were sort of dry, but not completely. Now I know the solution. Next time I will thoroughly dry the berries and coat them in flour. I will also do the layering thing. These are awesome tips. I can't wait to try them out.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

Harpa — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 21:15:52 GMT

I've never done blueberries in a cake, but blueberry muffins, which I make all the time and never have any sinking.

I rinse the berries in my colandar. They are not even altogether dry before I transfer them into a bowl and sprinkle w/ a little sugar and some flour. I usually mix them w/ a butter knife so I do not crush the berries.

My muffin batter is kind of dense since I use heavy cream. I mix the dry ingredients into the wet, making sure not to over mix by hand (by whisk), and then at the last fold in the blueberries w/ that butter knife...just enough to spread around & not over mix.

Don't know if this helps, but these always turn out perfectly for me.

Re: Sinking Blueberries

sdcowboy — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 00:24:03 GMT

Try putting a life jacket on each one!

Re: Sinking Blueberries

KentuckyWoman — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 00:26:14 GMT

@CelticCrafter wrote:
Does anyone have a tried and true method to keep them from sinking in the cake batter?
I tried tossing them in some of the dry ingredients, tried a bit of plain flour and neither of those worked.

@CelticCrafter

I had the same problem and then several years ago, I saw Ina Garten toss blueberries with a couple of tablespoons of flour. She said that would keep the berries from sinking to the bottom of the batter. She also said you can do the same with pecans, walnuts, or any kind of nut you use in your batter. It worked for me!

Re: Sinking Blueberries

CelticCrafter — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 18:14:39 GMT

Thanks for the tip @Mistreatedbycs, it worked like a champ!

Re: Sinking Blueberries

Day1128 — Wed, 28 Jun 2017 22:16:20 GMT

I recently prepared a new recipe: lemon blueberry cake. It was delicious (made in a springform pan). The recipe called for layering the berries. Pour half the batter in the pan...put blueberries on top. Pour rest of batter on top of berries, then top with the remaining berries. All the berries stayed where they were supposed to!