Happy Birthday, America! : patriotic berry cake

Happy Fourth of July!  It's appropriately sunny and blazing hot here in Indiana so the logical thing to do is turn on the oven and bake a cake, well maybe not but that's just what I did this holiday afternoon.  My refrigerator is overflowing with fruit and there was buttermilk that needed to be used so a pretty little red, white and blue snack cake is cooling on my cooktop.  This is an adapted recipe from a foodgawker find courtesy of Sara.  I used whole wheat pastry flour and blueberries to up the nutrition a bit.  Use any fruit you like and serve it cold or warm for breakfast, snack or dessert.

It's America's 235th birthday.  I clearly remember wearing a red top and my denim bellbottoms with the vertical stars and stripes especially for the bicentennial.  That was apparently 35 years ago.  Not possible. Doesn't seem like yesterday, but 35 years ago?  So many burgers, hot dogs, beans and watermelons ago......


Have a great holiday!


Berry Cake

6 T unsalted butter at room temperature
1 C sugar
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour (or 1 C whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 C all-purpose flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C buttermilk
1 pound strawberries, cleaned and sliced
1 C blueberries, rinsed and dried
(raspberries, blackberries, plums, apricots or peaches would be good too)
2 T turbinado/demerara/raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 9 or 10-inch springform or cake pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In bowl of stand mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  While the mixer does the work whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl.  Go back to the stand mixer and beat in the egg and vanilla, using spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.  Alternately add a bit of the buttermilk and flour mixture until all of it is incorporated.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.  Top the cake batter with the fruit.  Sprinkle generously with the coarse sugar of your choice.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees and then lower heat to 275 degrees and continue baking an additional 50-60 minutes until the top is golden brown and firm to the touch and a tester in the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Run a sharp knife around the edges to loosen the cake.  Remove sides of springform pan or invert regular cake pan to finish cooling the cake.

here's what you need

ready to mix it all together

batter-up!

sprinkle the berries with sugar

just out of the oven

springform sides released

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