Blackberry Buttermilk Cake
From the kitchen of CarlyA tender butter cake studded with bright blackberries and kissed with orange zest. The berries settle into the bottom, creating a jeweled crown of tart fruit against the soft, pillowy crumb. Simple, elegant, and worth the extra step of room temperature ingredients.
Blackberries coated in sugar melt into the bottom of this tender crumb as it bakes, creating a jammy crust that hits you first when you flip it. The buttermilk and orange zest keep the cake moist and bright, never heavy. A springform pan and parchment flip make the reveal effortless, and that powdered sugar dusting looks like you meant it.
- Prep
- n/a
- Cook
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- Total
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- Servings
- 4
- Difficulty
- medium
Ingredients
4 servings
- 3/4 cupunsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan and parchment
- 2 1/3 cupcake flour plus more for pan
- 2 1/2 cupfresh blackberries
- 1/4 cupplus 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tspbaking powder
- 3/4 tspsalt
- 1/2 tspbaking soda
- 3 largeeggs, room temperature
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tspfinely grated orange zest
- 1 cupwell-shaken buttermilk
- 1Powdered sugar
- 1Use a 9"-10"-diameter springform pan.
Instructions
Set a rack in the middle of the oven and heat it to 350°F. Butter a 9 to 10 inch springform pan, line the bottom with a round of parchment paper, then butter the parchment too. Dust the inside with flour and tap out any excess. Lay the blackberries in a single layer across the bottom of the pan and scatter 1/4 cup of sugar evenly over them.
Sift together 2 1/3 cups cake flour, the baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl and set it aside. In a large bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter and the remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, scraping the sides occasionally, until the mixture turns pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Drop in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one, then beat in the vanilla and orange zest. Lower the speed and add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions, starting and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until each addition disappears. Pour the batter over the berries and smooth the top flat.
Bake until the cake is deep golden and a tester poked into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 25 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let it rest for 15 minutes, then run a thin sharp knife around the edge to loosen the sides before removing them. Invert the cake onto the rack, lift off the pan bottom, and peel away the parchment. Dust the top generously with powdered sugar and let the cake cool completely before slicing.
Tips from the kitchen
- Room temperature eggs and butter matter here, they emulsify faster and give you a finer, more stable crumb. Cold ones will seize the batter and you'll end up dense.
- Sift the flour before measuring, then sift again with the leavening. It sounds fussy but it aerates the flour so the cake rises evenly and stays tender.
- Brush the parchment paper with melted butter so it really sticks during that crucial flip, otherwise your berry crown sticks to the paper instead of the cake.
- Don't skip inverting the cake. That jammy berry bottom is the whole point, and it's your reward for getting the technique right.
Variations
- Swap blackberries for raspberries or a mix of berries, use the same weight and method, they'll cook down into a slightly lighter jam.
- Skip the orange zest and add a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter instead for a more classic, almond-berry pairing.
- Use white sugar instead of powdered sugar on top and it becomes a casual sheet cake you can eat from your fingers over the sink.
- Make it a two layer cake by splitting the batter, layering berries in the middle, and stacking with whipped cream between.
Make ahead and storage
Covered airtight at room temperature, the cake keeps for up to 3 days and actually tastes better the next day once the flavors settle. Don't freeze, the crumb texture gets mealy when thawed.