Super Easy Blueberry Friands

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Whenever I am in a cafe in Australia or New Zealand, I head straight for the cake cabinet to see if they have my favourite afternoon tea treat. Blueberry Friands! These delightful little cakes are not as common as they once were, which is a real shame as they are so tasty and the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

The good news is that they are super quick and easy to make at home – you don’t even need a special friand tin. However, if you are a friand fanatic like me, it is totally worth buying one!

Table of Contents

Blueberry friands on a cooling rack with icing sugar and an espresso.

What are friands?

If you’re reading this recipe, you’ve probably tasted one of these moreish little cakes before, but if you are new to friands, you are in for a treat! Friands are a small, oval-shaped cake based on a French ‘Financier’. They are quite dense and buttery and usually have a little fruit, such as berries added.

Fun fact: Friands are oval as they were originally baked in a traditional French aspic mould!

Ingredients

To make my easy Blueberry Friand Recipe, you need the following main ingredients:

Unsalted Butter: It is best to use unsalted butter for baking so that you can control the amount of salt in the final product. If using salted butter, omit the pinch of salt from the recipe.
Powdered Sugar / Icing Sugar: This gives the friands their lovely cakey texture.
Plain Flour and Ground Almonds: These form the base of the friand batter. Self-raising flour is not suitable for this recipe as it will rise too much.
Egg Whites: Beaten egg whites act as the raising agent in this recipe as well as binding everything together. Be sure to save the egg yolks, they make a fabulous custard, mayonnaise or shortbread.
Blueberries: The star of the show! It’s worth getting juicy, fresh blueberries for this recipe, you don’t need too many so even though they are expensive it is worth it.
Lemon, almonds and vanilla: These flavours compliment blueberries beautifully. I like adding a few drops of bitter almond essence to max out the flavour.

Blueberry friand batter in a friand pan.

Instructions

Blueberry Friands are simple to make, perfect for an impromptu afternoon tea or an easy school lunchbox filler. There are 4 main steps:

Prepare your friand or muffin pans. Because friands are not baked in paper cases it is important to grease the pans well to avoid the friands sticking. I apply a double layer of butter for best results.
Stir together the dry ingredients, then lightly beat the eggs and mix into the dry ingredients with melted butter and flavourings.
Top the friands with fresh berries and nuts – you can even mix and match and have different friands all in one pan.
Bake until golden brown and well risen.

After that, all you need to do is eat them all up! They never last long in my house!

The complete ingredient list and detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page,

FRIAND PAN VS. MUFFIN PAN

In Australia, buying a friand pan to make these in is usually as simple as popping out to your local Woolworths or Kmart, not the case when you live abroad. I use and thoroughly recommend the Masterclass friand pan (this is an Amazon affiliate link) which is easily available online and of very good quality. It’s made of a heavy, sturdy material and the friands pop right out every time.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a friand pan! This recipe will work wonderfully using a regular muffin tin instead, which also gives perfect results.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do you make gluten-free Blueberry Friands?

Easy! Simply swap out the plain or all-purpose flour for a gluten-free equivalent.

Can I make friands with other fruit?

Of course! Try my recipe for Raspberry Friands (they are extra tasty with a little white chocolate added). It’s best to use a soft, tart fruit, so think of things like plums, berries, feijoa or similar.