In spite of rainy, dreary, hot and humid weather, the black raspberry bushes are loaded with those beautiful berries. Is there anything better than walking outside in your 'jamas or shorts and picking breakfast?
Here's our family favorite this time of year; a lemony butter cake topped with spoonfuls of lightly cooked berry sauce. I like to use blueberries and black raspberries. You can, of course, scoop a fluffy pillow of whipped cream on top, but I like it just the way it is.
To make:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Butter a 9x12 cake pan.
The Cake:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
zest of two lemons
3 extra large eggs
3 1/2 cups King Arthur flour
3/4 t. baking soda
salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. nutmeg
Beat butter , sugar, and lemon zest in mixer bowl until creamy.
Add the eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, lemon juice, and nutmeg to bowl and mix until creamy.
Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake for one hour. The cake should be firm on top when you gently press it with your fingertip.
Scrape into prepared cake pan and bake for one hour. The cake should be firm on top when you gently press it with your fingertip.
Remove to cooling rack.
The glaze:
1/2 cup lemon juice, fresh
1/2 cup sugar
Mix sugar and lemon juice until the sugar has melted. Simmer a few minutes, then remove from heat.
Using a ruler, cut the cake ( still in the pan) into squares. Carefully remove cake pieces to a rack, then brush each cake piece with the lemon-sugar glaze.
The Berry Sauce:
In a small saucepan, mix:
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
3/4 cup fresh or frozen black raspberries
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 t. shredded fresh ginger, or dried ginger
3 T. sugar
Simmer all ingredients in saucepan about 15 minutes. Serve sauce on cake, adding a few fresh berries to the plate to garnish.
Enjoy!
Featured on TasteSpotting!
19 comments:
Your cake looks so tall and light and delicious! And, picking your own berries is such a treat. I wish I had berries in my yard!
Everything about this looks great..The lemons..the zest..the buttermilk and the fresh sauce..Summer at it's best..and if we are lucky..sometimes in winter.You have a lovely blog.
Thank you, lisa! Love that lemon cake with strawberries, too. As soon as the peaches show up at the farmer's market, I'm going to make a peach topping - won't that be wonderful?
I have only a few berry bushes here, but I've tucked away some "secret" berry patches to raid this week. That - or the PYO berry farms, in a pinch.
Oh, thank you, Nana! That sauce truly is summer , and berries are the best part of summer, at least where I live. It doesn't quite remove the envy I have for those Californians and their backyard avocado trees, but it's close:)
Hi Katrina ~ Oh, this look lucious!!! Lemon cake sounds devine and those berries! Really, this looks like the pure essence of summer!! (Are you having a summer in the northeast this year, or just a boatload of rain?)
This looks like a perfect candidate for Tastespotting to me!!!
hi Barb - well, boatload of rain is just about right:) The sun came out today for a while, then, yup. Rain, thunder, lightning. My poor zucchini are moldering in their pots, and first thing I do each morning is pick off the brown leaves from the geraniums. Summer is always different, it seems. But the black raspberries are trucking along, beautiful as ever!
Thanks, Sophie - glad you enjoyed! Everytime I look at the pictures, I get hungry for this wonderful summer cake - I'm holding off making it again until the kids are around - this is one cake I'd happily eat all by muself:)
We made a blackberry dessert last night that did not turn out nearly as delicious as yours looks! Yum!
Hi Michael and Jessie - thanks for the kind words! Isn't it awful when you put a lot of effort into a recipe and it's a FAIL?
Had a few this week myself - but this cake & sauce is thankfully foolproof!
That looks wonderful and easy! Perfect for summer!
Thanks, Maria! Glad you enjoyed this fruity summer dessert ( though it would be even more wonderful in the winter, wouldn't it?)....
So beautiful!!! Love how the juices soaked down into the cake like that. Mmm...lemon and berries. Such a great combination.
Q, I'm so glad you liked those photos! I debated doing a more structured photo without the juices soaking the cake, but honestly, that's one thing that makes it so wonderful. Thank you!
I just posted a lemon cake recipe too! Yours looks so delicious with the berries!
I made this cake for a Lammas celebration this weekend. It was a big hit. Thanks for the recipe. I will be making this again!
pigpig - I'll certainly be checking out your lemon cake! Thanks!
Angela - I had to go look up Lammas! Turns out to be a feast celebrating the gathering of the harvest, a tradition starting in 9th century England. Sounds like a wonderful way to enjoy this getting-to-the-end of summer! So glad you made it, and so happy it was a hit! Thanks!
i'd stand in line to get a piece of that!!! and i don't stand in line for much LOL
Suzi - you wouldn't have to stand in line if you made it, right? Many thanks and happy you enjyed this cake!
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