Boysenberry, lemon and almond loaf – dense, citrussy and bright, and studded with juicy boysenberries. The perfect morning tea treat! Jump to Recipe
It is about at this point in the semester, with just under three weeks to go until “swot vac” (the worst kind of vacation) and exams begin, that everyone starts to get a little tired of university, tired of studying, tired of assignments, tired of being at college, and just wants to get out and go home. I am starting to reach that point as well. A proper break, with no looming assessments, is really what I want. However, that break is currently 5 weeks away, and, like a carrot dangling in front of my nose, is what will get me through this final push through to exams.
Renal physiology, a complicated balance of mechanisms keeping us all alive, is reeaaally doing my head in at the moment (my body is much smarter than I am!), while the Melbourne weather is making us all want to curl up in a sleeping bag all day – it has been hailing with snow down to 600m and freezing cold winds and torrential rain greeting us on our way to lectures. I’m pretty sure this is not normal for May – it isn’t even winter yet!
In saying all this…life is pretty good. Cafe trips, the college ball next week, birthdays, high pressure games of assassins on the floor at college, formal dinner tonight – we keep busy, and this blog has become my favourite outlet, or change of pace, from the intense workload and consuming nature of medical school.
However, life would definitely improve if I could have a slice of this Boysenberry, Lemon and Almond Loaf right now. Next year, when I will be out flatting and actually have a kitchen to bake in and people to bake for, cannot come soon enough. I know that food probably shouldn’t be linked so closely to my emotional state, but I definitely live to eat, not eat to live. You can’t deny that a good meal and better company can do wonders, right?
Perfect on wintery days, summer days, autumn days – anytime at all (thanks to frozen berries.!), this simple loaf will immediately make you feel a little better. A dense citrusy loaf, made moist and flavourful by the addition of almond meal, dotted with juicy purple berries, and dusted with icing sugar, it is a day-brightener and a people-pleaser. It also has the amazingness of being made in one pot, without any need to cream butter and sugar, and after whipping it up in about 15 minutes, you can sit back, clean your single pot and spoon, and enjoy the smells emanating from your oven.
You can easily replace the boysenberries with any other berries that you have lying around, and alter the orange/lemon ratios to make it more orangey or lemony to suit. I do like the tangy but still sweet mixture that the current amounts give, however.
So please, for me, and for your friends and family, make this loaf. It will make your day, and the next day as well when you can sit down with your coffee or tea and a warmed up slice of boysenberry, citrusy goodness for morning tea.
- 185 g butter
- 1 cup caster sugar
- finely grated zest of 1 orange and 1 large lemon (the firmer the orange, the easier it is to grate)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (make up with orange juice if need be)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup ground almonds
- ~42 fresh or frozen boysenberries (can also use blackberries, raspberries or blueberries) - if frozen, do NOT thaw as they will bleed into the batter
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- icing sugar for dusting
- whipped cream or greek yoghurt to serve
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Preheat the oven to 180°C, and grease and line a 23 x 12cm loaf tin with baking paper.
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In a saucepan, gently heat the butter, sugar, citrus zest and juice until the butter is melted and sugar has dissolved. It should not boil. Remove from the heat to cool.
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Whisk in the vanilla and eggs. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, and add the ground almonds. Whisk gently until smooth (try not to overmix).
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Pour about half of the mixture into the tin and dot with half the berries, gently pushing them into the batter. Pour over the remaining batter, spreading it to the edges over the berries, then place the remaining berries on top (don’t push them in this time as the loaf will rise up around them). Sprinkle the berries on the surface with the extra tablespoon of caster sugar.
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Bake for 50-60minutes or until a skewer inserted just comes out clean and the loaf begins to pull away from the sides. Cool in the tin.
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To serve, dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream or greek yogurt.
You play assassin at your college! Too fun! And that loaf looks like the perfect thing to nibble on while studying
Haha yes so much fun! Unfortunately I think I was one of the first to be killed this round..let my guard down too easily! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
Omg this looks amazing!!! I wish I could eat through my screen, seriously. Definitely pinning to try later!
Thank you! Would love to hear how it goes for you 🙂
Oh and good luck on your exams ;).
Hello Claudia
I wanted to let you know that I baked this cake for our Girlguiding planning meeting today, as I picked some boysenberries for the first time last week at a local farm in the UK.
The cake was absolutely delicious and I will definitely be baking this again – it’s a recipe keeper.
Thank you for sharing the recipe,which I found via Pinterest.
So glad you liked it and thank you for taking the time to let me know! I always love to hear when recipes go well for people! I have only ever made it with frozen boysenberries as fresh ones can be so expensive around here unfortunately, but I bet it would have been absolutely amazing with freshly picked berries 🙂
Claud, I made this tonight and it was delish! Also made the vietnamese chicken burgers mmm, and that slaw dressing is divine. Hope everything is going well, I plan on making as many recipes as I can from here because they all look so good! xxx
Aw thank you! So happy you like them, I can’t wait to move out of Mannix next year so I can do more cooking during the semester too! Would love to hear about the other things you try xxx
Consider me a FAN of your blog 🙂 Your pictures are all stunning!!
Thanks so much Whitney! So glad you like it <3
This looks so scrumptious and almost seasonless as you can grab whatever berry is in season. Yum!
Hi! I am such a huge fan of your blog. Your photography and recipes are amazing. This loaf is currently in my oven, but it has browned quite a lot and there is still up to 20 minutes left. When I checked with a skewer it was definitely underdone, so my query was, is the 180 degrees you prescribe fan-forced? And should I decrease the temperature (my oven is fan-forced)?
Hi Meg! So sorry for the late reply. How did the loaf end up going? The oven temperature was 180° regular bake, so that might be why – 180° fan forced is closer to 200°C regular, so the top would brown more quickly than the inside cooks. My recipes are normally all regular bake but maybe I should specify that – apologies! If that does happen though a good tactic is to cover the top of the loaf with foil to stop it from browning further. Hope it turned out ok!
Thanks for the ‘foil’ trick. I have never read that before!!
Thanks Cathy, it works super well when baking anything if the top is getting too brown!