Blueberry Cake — The Baker Who Never Stops Practicing

Fourth of July. The annual. The tradition that is now nine years deep and feels like it has existed since the founding of the republic, because nine repetitions of elotes and fireworks and Camila singing and Diego explaining the chemistry of pyrotechnics is enough repetitions to constitute a constitutional tradition, and the constitution of the Gutierrez family is unwritten but binding.

Luis Jr. brought Andrea. They are wedding planning — the venue is confirmed (St. Patrick's Cathedral, April 20, 2024), the guest list is started (Andrea's binder has a tab for guests, a tab for catering — which will be us, obviously — and a tab for flowers, and the tabs are multiplying the way tabs do in wedding binders: exponentially, inevitably, until the binder requires its own luggage). I am making the wedding cake. This has been decided. Not by Andrea, not by Luis Jr. — by me. The wedding cake will be tres leches, four tiers, decorated by Sofia, and it will be the most important cake I have ever made, and every cake I have ever made has been practice for this one.

Diego flew his drone at the fireworks — filming the explosions from above, the camera capturing the bursts from an angle that no one in the crowd could see. The footage was extraordinary: fire blooming against the black sky, the city below lit by the falling sparks, the Rio Grande visible as a dark ribbon between El Paso and Juárez. He showed me the footage and I saw, for the first time, the border from above — not as a line but as a seam, a place where two countries are stitched together by a river and a bridge and a bakery named for a woman who crossed from one side to the other and never went back. The footage is the most beautiful thing I have seen since the ocean, and the beauty is the same kind of beauty: vast, humbling, the beauty of seeing the whole picture from a height you have never been to.

I made elotes — year nine, the corn, the mayo, the cotija, the chile. The tradition. Concha the dog ate an ear of corn that fell from the grill, cob and all, and the eating took four minutes and the veterinary concern lasted twelve hours and the outcome was fine (the dog is fine; the dog is always fine; dogs that eat corn cobs from bakery grills are the sturdiest dogs on earth).

Diego’s drone footage is still on my phone — I keep going back to it, the fireworks blooming from above, the seam of the river below — and every time I watch it I think about how the most beautiful things are the ones you can finally see whole. That is what I am trying to do with the wedding cake: see the whole picture before I build it, tier by tier, practice by practice. This blueberry cake is not the wedding cake. But it is Fourth of July, it is red and white and blue in the way that only a baker thinks about colors, and it is mine — made the same night Concha ate a corn cob and Diego filmed the sky and the Gutierrez family constitution held, for the ninth year, without amendment.

Blueberry Cake

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 55 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream or plain whole-milk yogurt
• 2 cups fresh blueberries, divided
• 1 tablespoon flour (for tossing blueberries)
• Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Lightly flour the sides.
2. Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together the 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and mix until combined.
5. Alternate wet and dry. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the sour cream in two additions, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until no dry streaks remain — do not overmix.
6. Fold in blueberries. Toss 1 3/4 cups of the blueberries with 1 tablespoon flour to coat, then gently fold into the batter with a spatula. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Scatter the remaining 1/4 cup blueberries over the top.
7. Bake. Bake 33–38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 25 minutes.
8. Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 285 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 11g | Carbs: 43g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 175mg