Berry cake

I went to the farmers market at the sculpture park in Seattle and got 2 boxes of blueberries and 2 boxes of blackberries. That is a great little farmers market, I recommend it if you are in Seattle on Thursday afternoons. As I was walking back to my office I was trying to decide what I would do with all those beautiful berries and I remembered this awesome cake my Mom always made for potlucks when I was growing up. My Mom usually brought a blueberry cake and it was always gone super fast. She always used blueberries, but I have found that it is just an awesome berry cake with any berry. I decided to make a couple this weekend to bring to work. I doubled the batch and made 1 blueberry and 1 blackberry cake. I am totally in love with berry cake, and will make it at least a couple more times while berries are in season. You could also use frozen berries, that works fine.

Separate your eggs, yolks in one bowl, whites into your mixer bowl.

Add 1/2 cup sugar into the egg whites as they are being whipped into submission, 1 tbs at a time.

Here the whites are almost stiff enough, but we need them a bit stiffer, so keep going.

YAY! This is what they mean by stiff peaks. Place this in another bowl, and stick it in the fridge while you work on the next few steps.

Butter. So my Mom always used shortening, but I am a fan of butter in cakes, and well, I have to change something!

Add the sugar slowly.

Cream the butter and sugar, let this whip for at LEAST 3 minutes. Just walk away. I mean it. It's for the best. Walk away for 3 minutes.

After the 3 minutes, add vanilla.

Now add your egg yolks in, one at a time.

Get another bowl for your dry ingredients. In goes your flour.

Baking powder.

Salt.

Mix your dry ingredients together. you can use a sifter if you have one, I don't so I use a whisk.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the milk to the butter mixture. Start with the flour.

Then pour a little milk in. Alternate the flour and milk until both are Incorporated into the cake.

Get ready to fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter.

One spoonful at a time, fold the egg whites into the rest of the batter.

Keep folding...

(that's Duck in the background)

Until it looks like this!

remember I made a double batch, so I set half of this aside before adding blueberries.

(There he is again, getting ready to vacuum the stairs)

My beautiful farmers market berries!

Add 2 tbs flour to the berries.

Toss them to coat. This will keep them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Fold the berries into the cake batter.

(I am so lucky, look at him vacuuming while I bake cakes!)

Pour the batter into a greased 9x13 inch pan.

So close to yummyness!

Smooth the batter out so it is pretty even in the pan.

Here is my blackberry version! Might as well show you both right?

sprinkle 3 tbs of white sugar over the top of the uncooked cake. This will make a beautiful crunchy topping.

Same thing on the blackberry cake.

Stick it in a 350 degree oven and bake for 50 minutes.

Stick it with a toothpick, if it comes out clean the cake is done.

(this is the blueberry one)

Blackberry cake all pretty and done. Let these cool. Seriously hot berries will burn your mouth, Trust me!

Blueberry cake, all yummy and waiting for me to eat it...

Mmmmm. sweet and fluffy, with a terrific little crunch from the cooked sugar.

Blackberry.

This had a slightly tarter taste. I love blackberries, and think they are amazing in this cake!

If you like berries, this is so the cake for you!

Ingredients:

4 eggs separated

3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup sugar to add to egg whites

1 cup butter (2 sticks, softened)

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk

3 cups berries

2 tbs flour to toss berries with


Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat egg whites until stiff, adding 1/2 cup sugar a little at a time, while beating the egg whites. Cream butter and the remaining sugar (this takes about 3 minutes). Add vanilla and yolks and beat mixture until creamy. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold in beaten egg whites. Toss berries in 2 tbs flour then fold into mixture. Turn into well greased pan and sprinkle top with sugar
Bake @ 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.