Berry Cake

Summer’s winding down, the lake is cooling off, and it’s berry time. My sous chef Elsa is now seven years old, and it won’t be long before she’s a master chef! To kick off Aunt Jane’s Cooking School, we made a berry torte, but I call it a cake because “torte” seems unnecessarily daunting.

This recipe is easy and can take any berries or fruit that you have on hand. Our good neighbor Ann Brown (famous for her key role in subduing our fire last spring — see the post Fire!) dropped off some sweet little peaches at the Bartlett house, which found their way onto our cake. Whip up some cream (with my secret — a dollop of cream cheese), and you’re ready to celebrate those late summer landmarks — the first day of school, or your big brother going off to college. (Bye-bye, Parker!)

Here are the ingredients ready to go. Elsa and I use a couple of systems to make sure everything is used (and used only once!). Weighing and measuring ingredients ahead of time, putting each container aside (or away) once an ingredient is measured, and double-checking the recipe at the end help avoid oopses such as a recent one of mine.

I had a zucchini that needed to be used (shocker, I know!) and decided to whip up a batch of zucchini bread. The bread didn’t rise or set properly. Nonplused, I tried to determine if there was something amiss with the recipe (maybe the baking powder and baking soda amounts were switched?), then I noticed three eggs sitting on my kitchen windowsill. Drat! (At least the chickens had a treat at the compost pile.)

Here’s the berry cake recipe that Elsa and I made for Parker’s going-off-to-college party. It’s mostly a King Arthur Flour recipe, but we’ve made a couple of changes/additions. (We made two cakes since they’re small and his friends might be hungry, being teenagers and all.) Don’t forget the two eggs!

For the cake:

1/2 cup butter (one stick), room temperature

3/4 cup sugar (5 1/4 ounces)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

finely-grated peel of one lemon (you’ll use the juice in the topping)

1 cup all-purpose flour (4 1/4 ounces)

2 cups berries, rinsed and patted dry (best not to use mushy berries!)

1 tablespoon sugar + 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (to sprinkle on top)

For the whipped cream topping:

1 cup heavy cream

2 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9-inch cake pan with vegetable oil spray.

Beat together the butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest until smooth. (There’s science behind adding the baking powder to the wet ingredients rather than the flour. I can’t explain it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it like Elsa did.)

Add the eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined, then add the vanilla. (The mixture may appear to be breaking apart at this point, but never fear! It will come back together when you add the flour.)

Notice Elsa’s technique. She cracks one egg into a small dish, checks for bits of shell (which she expertly removes), then tips the egg into the mixing bowl. Repeat with the second egg, and no worries!

Add the flour and mix into a smooth, stiff batter. Spread the batter in the cake pan. (A small off-set spatula sprayed with cooking spray makes this job super easy.) Arrange the berries (and fruit, if you’re using any) on top and sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar. Don’t worry about it looking spectacular like ours did. I actually wish I’d squeezed more berries on.

Tah Dah!

Bake for about 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake showing around the berries should be a light golden brown. Take care not to over bake it.

For the whipped cream topping, whisk together the softened cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice on medium-low speed until smooth. (A stand mixer with a whisk attachment is perfect for this job. If you do it by hand, you’ll need a lot of elbow grease!)

Gradually add the heavy cream and increase the speed to medium-high, then high. Whip until soft peaks form, then store the topping in the refrigerator until ready to use. (The cream cheese stabilizes the whipped cream, so it will hold for several hours.)

To plate the cake, top slices with the whipped cream topping and then gild the lily with some fresh berries. (I mix the berries with a bit of sugar and let them sit for a half hour or so, but that’s an optional step.)

This cake easily serves 10 people, assuming that you’ve had a meal and this is dessert!

One of the challenges about Cooking School is getting the finished product from my house down our steep, winding driveway or on the path through the woods without mishaps. (Do not bring up the subject of the banana pudding!) On this day, Stephen picked up Elsa on his four-wheeler and deftly strapped the two cakes onto the front tray with a bungee cord. Now that’s Yankee ingenuity!

Have cakes, will travel!