Saturday, September 8, 2012

Blackberry bundt cake

Lester and I spent Labor Day afternoon picking a gallon of blackberries at Albany Bulb. Yes, a whole gallon of blackberries.


One quart was immediately made into 3 cups of blackberry juice, then into 2 1/3 c jam. Another quart was getting lonely in the fridge, so I worked from home the other morning to make this cake. That leaves two more quarts in the freezer for future blackberry fun!

This makes one rather large cake. My guess at scaling down the cake recipe from two 9" layers to one bundt cake--i.e., multiply by 3/4--exactly hit the capacity of my bundt pan, at least with the addition of all the berries. Folks at the office made quick work of it though, so don't worry about having a surplus of leftovers.


juice and zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1 c milk
1/2 c ricotta
1.5 t vanilla
3 c flour
3 T cornstarch
1.5 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1.5 sticks salted butter
1.5 c sugar
3 eggs
1 quart fresh blackberries, carefully washed

Preheat the oven to 350F and butter and flour a bundt pan. Mix together the wet ingredients (lemon through vanilla) in one bowl, and mix together the dry ingredients (flour through salt) in another. In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the wet and dry ingredients in several alternating batches, mixing until just incorporated after each addition. Pour half the batter into the bundt pan, cover evenly with the blackberries, and pour on the rest of the batter. This left a thick layer of blackberry goodness near the bottom of the cake; I think just mixing the blackberries into the batter would work at least as well. Smooth the top and bake for an hour until a tester comes out clean.