Blueberry Cream Cheese Loaf; not at all weird.

Do you know....Americans have this thing called coffee cake. No strangeness there you suppose; the very British coffee and walnut cake is a tea house staple and with lots of coffee buttercream, very good it is too. But there IS weirdness here because, you see, (and it did take a fair amount of Google-ing before I myself saw) American coffee cake has absolutely nothing to do with coffee until you, the eater of said cake, sit it next to your own steaming cup of, well, you know, coffee.

That is weird isn't it? I mean it's pretty much mandatory to accompany a slice of that old English fav Vicky sponge with a china cup of tea, but that doesn't mean we call it tea cake.Tea cake HAS TEA IN IT. 

See...weird. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being mean to ours friends across the pond. Come on now, they invented peanut butter M&Ms and have the endlessly charismatic Mr Obama on their side; they must have good hearts. Just cake naming issues. Though I suppose coming from the country of the 'fat rascal' and 'iced fingers', I guess we're in no position to judge.

So anyhooo, the recipe that inspired this loaf cake is American and classified as 'coffee cake', but I felt compelled to 'English it up a bit'. Hence, blueberry and cream cheese loaf cake. Eat whenever you want, with whatever you want. Though FYI it does indeed make the MOST delish, if a tad indulgent, breakfast. With Love and Cake.

Blueberry and Cream Cheese Loaf Cake.

Inspired by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.

A few notes:

• Of course, if bluebs aren't your thing, use any berry you fancy. Local rasps would be summer heaven.
• I haven't quite got to this stage yet, but I imagine, when this cake is a few too many days old, that it would be wonderful toasted and spread with something yummy.

Make one big loaf cake

You will need

1 large loaf tin, greased and lined

200g cream cheese, fridge cold

250g butter, at room temp

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

210g self raising flour

90g plain flour

4 tbsp milk

100g blueberries, fresh or frozen

• Ordinary first job...preheat your oven to 180°c.
• Now for the cream cheese; cut into cubes as best you can, though it will be more like blobs, and pop back in the fridge to firm up.
• Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar together until creamy and light. 
• Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, as well as a tablespoon of flour with each egg addition.
• Fold in the rest of the flour and then the milk so everything is well combined and you have a soft, but fairly stiff consistency.
• Finally, gently fold through the berries and cubed cream cheese so it remains in little blobs rather than getting totally mixed in.
• Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and get in the oven where it will need to bake for up to 1 1/4 hours, though check after 1 hour. At this stage if it needs longer but the top is browned enough, cover with a bit of foil.
• When it's golden and firm, leave to cool for a good while in its tin before turning out and leaving to cool completely...oooorr, I suppose, you could put the kettle on and dive right in.