Receta #FestiveFoodies: Cherry Berry Buckle Cake
"Hmm." Was the first thing I thought when I saw that Ellen of Family Around the Table had created a Festive Foodies event called Red, White and Blue.
I had the same theme for the Improv Cooking Challenge last month and definitely struggled to find a recipe to make. You'd think there would be a plethora of red, white and blue recipes but I feel like I've already made a bunch of them. But then this recipe came up as I was randomly looking through recipes and I thought that it would be the perfect addition.
If you have a 4th of July party this week and still need something to make, I'd highly recommend this cake. It's easy to make, delicious and looks super pretty!
I had only vaguely heard of a buckle cake before but had no idea what made it any different than any other type of cake, so I took to the good old internet to find out. Apparently, a buckle cake is usually made with blueberries and a streusel which created a 'buckle' or rippled effect on top of the cake. The cake itself is very similar to a coffee cake.
Cherry Berry Buckle Cake
Adapted from: Wicked Good Kitchen
Servings: 8-10
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup sugar
- zest of 1 medium lemon
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 ½ cups frozen cherries
- 1 cup blueberries
- For the Sugar Cookie Streusel:
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 6 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 10 inch springform pan with baking spray, or grease liberally with butter and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the lemon zest and vanilla.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until fully combined. Add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. The batter will be very thick.
5. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the cherries and blueberries by hand.
6. Use the spatula to spread the batter into the prepared springform pan.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and salt needed for the streusel topping.
8. Add in the pieces of butter and bring together using a pastry cutter or two forks until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
9. Spread the streusel over the batter.
10. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until lightly golden and set in the center.
11. Place on a wire cooling rack and run a butter knife around the edges of the cake so it won’t stick when you try to remove it.
12. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then release the latch on the springform pan. Continue cooling the cake for 1 hour. Slice and serve!
The original cake recipe uses raspberries and blueberries, but I'm not a big fan of cooked raspberries so I decided to replace those with cherries. If you only have frozen blueberries, you can still make this cake. I'd just recommend tossing the blueberries in 1 tablespoon of flour before mixing them into the batter so they won't discolor the batter.
This cake is SO good! I was a little worried about it sticking to the pan but I didn't have any issues at all and then the slices even came off the bottom portion of the springform pan easier than most any other cakes I've made.
It's fully of juicy fruit and perfectly sweet with that sugar cookie topping. This was one of those cakes that I nearly debated saying that it didn't turn out and keeping it all for myself, but I definitely don't need to eat an entire cake. So I did my usual and took it into my coworkers who ate it all before the end of the day, as usual.