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Honored Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-09-2010

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. 

Honored Contributor
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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.  

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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.

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Respected Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

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.

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@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. 

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Esteemed Contributor
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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! Smiley Sad

 

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.  Smiley Happy

Esteemed Contributor
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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

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.

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Try putting a life jacket on each one!

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@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!

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,278
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

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