Lemon & blueberry bábovka
Full of blueberry flavor and topped with citrus syrup,
this bábovka (bundt cake) will bring summer-time flavors to your kitchen year round.
Citrónová a čučoriedková bábovka
If you’ve explored some of the earlier recipes on my site, you will have met my mother-in-law’s classic bábovka (bundt cake) before. The chocolate-and-vanilla recipe was one of the first bakes that I attempted in the early days of this project. Today, I've traded chocolate and vanilla for one of my favorite flavor combinations: blueberry and lemon. Bursts of blueberry in a soft, moist sponge, plus that zing from the lemon syrup topping? Perfection.
Storing & saving
Once baked, the cake is best eaten within 2-3 days.
Yields
One 10” bundt tin
Baking note
To ensure that your cake comes out of the bundt tin, coat the tin very well with butter and a dusting of flour. With more intricate tins, use your fingers to press butter into every groove! Once the cake is out of the oven, allow it to cool before turning it out of the tin.
Ingredients
My Slovak recipe provides ingredients in grams. I have converted them here, but sometimes these conversions are not exact. If you do have access to a food scale, give it a try here using the gram measurements!
Dough Cesto
4 eggs 4 vajcia
200 grams/1 c sugar 200 g cukru
200 grams/1 1/2 c flour 200 g múky
1 spoonful vanilla sugar 1 lyžica vanilkového cukru
Zest of 2 lemons Kôra z dvoch citrónov
1 tsp baking powder 1 prášok do pečiva
100 ml/scant 1/2 c cold water 100 ml chladnej vody
100 ml/scant 1/2 c vegetable oil 100 ml rastlinného olej
75 g/1/3 c blueberries 75 gramov čučoriedok
Lemon syrup Citrónový sirup
100 ml/scant 1/2 c lemon juice 100 ml citrónovej šťavy
80 g/1/4 c sugar 80 g cukru
Separate egg yolks and whites in two bowls.
In a large bowl, beat together egg whites, sugar and vanilla sugar with a mixer.
Add the yolks and lemon zest and combine.
Slowly add oil and cold water.
Babka says: if you pour the two ingredients in quickly, they will not blend together.
Finally, add the sifted flour and baking powder. Gently stir to combine.
Preheat oven to 390ºF/200ºC and prepare the bundt tin with a coating of butter, then a dusting of flour.
Fill the bundt tin one third of the way up the tin with mixture. Add a small handful of blueberries (being careful to spread them apart).
Add another third of batter, and another spread-apart layer of blueberries.
Finish with the final third of batter, covering the blueberries.
Bake for 27-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a skewer; when it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
While the cake is baking, make the lemon syrup. Combine the sugar and lemon juice (squeezed from the lemons used for zest) in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally as it thickens (7-8 minutes).
Allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning out. Once out of the tin, brush with syrup.
Serve plain, or dusted with powdered sugar.
Get creative
The basic bábovka dough is versatile! What other flavor combinations can you think of to boost this bake? Keep in mind that in a delicate batter like this, add-ins do tend to sink to the bottom of the tin so the lighter, the better.
