Eat: Blackberry Buttermilk Cake

Everybody needs a go to dessert recipe; one that is easy to whip up, delicious, and will get you all sorts of praises and recipe requests. 

This is my go to dessert, modified from this Bon Appetit recipe:

Ingredients:

 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan and parchment

2 1/3 cups cake flour plus more for pan

10 ounces fresh blackberries and/or raspberries (plus more for decor)

1/4 cup plus 1 1/3 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons orange juice (pulp is okay), plus more for icing option

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Powdered sugar (for dusting)

Equipment:

Springform pan (if available), parchment paper, oven (duh), ziploc baggie (icing option)

Steps:

Make sure the oven rack is in middle of oven and preheat to 350°. Butter pan (or use a PAM vegetable spray); line bottom with a round of parchment paper. Butter parchment. Dust with flour; tap out excess. Arrange berries in a single layer in bottom of pan; sprinkle evenly with 1/4 cup sugar.

 

Sift 2 1/3 cups flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl; set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat 3/4 cup butter and remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar in a large bowl at medium-high speed, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and zest. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture and beating just until incorporated. Pour batter over berries in pan; smooth top. 

Bake until cake is golden brown and cake bounces back when pressed gently with fingertip, about 1 hour 25 minutes for a 9" pan and about 1 hour for a 10" pan. Let cool in pan set on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then run a thin, sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen. Remove pan sides. Invert cake onto rack and remove pan bottom; peel off parchment. Dust top generously with powdered sugar  and extra berries and let cool completely.

traditional option (powdered sugar topping)

 

Icing option:

Instead of dusting the cake with powder sugar you can give it a quick icing instead:

Mix 1 tablespoons of orange juice with 1/4 cup of powder sugar in a ziploc bag. Use your hands to mix the juice and sugar to form and icing. Add more sugar or orange juice as needed to get the consistency you desire. Chill icing. Right before serving cake arrange extra berries on topand snip corner of icing bag. Drizzle icing on cake in a cross hatch pattern. 

Super cheat option if your super lazy (or in a hurry!):

Swap out the dry ingredients for this boxed cake mix (make sure it is the butter recipe!). Bake for 50 minutes.

icing option!

Hope you try this out!