Berry Buttermilk Cake

By Dawn Perry

Published May 19, 2020

  • Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling)
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
1¼ hours, plus cooling
Rating
4(2,881)
Comments
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Buttermilk makes this stir-together cake super tender, but you can use any milk you have in its place. Same goes for the fruit: Use your favorite frozen berries, or a combination, but frozen cherries, mango or peaches work as well. Just cut any big fruit pieces into bite-size pieces before folding into the batter. And if you do happen to have fresh summer fruit around, that’ll work, too.

Featured in: 3 Summery Sweets You Can Make With Frozen Fruit

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Ingredients

Yield:1 (9-inch) square or round cake

  • ½ cup/120 milliliters vegetable oil or other neutral oil, plus more for greasing the pan

  • ½ cup/120 milliliters buttermilk or milk

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 1 cup/200 grams plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  • 1 ½ cups/190 grams plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 (10-ounce/285-gram) bag frozen berries (about 2 cups), any kind, any combination (large berries quartered)

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch baking dish or pan (square or round is OK) with oil and line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together ½ cup oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and 1 cup sugar. In a separate medium bowl, whisk 1 ½ cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt to combine. Whisk wet ingredients into dry until just combined. (Some small lumps are fine.) Toss berries on a plate with remaining 1 tablespoon flour. Fold into batter and transfer to the prepared baking dish.

  2. Step 2

    Sprinkle evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, 53 to 58 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving. Cake will keep, loosely wrapped at room temperature, for about 4 days.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
2,881 user ratings
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Comments

me

Can the fruits/berries be used frozen or should they be thawed and drained?

Julie Spencer

If you buy a quart of buttermilk to make this recipe, you can portion the rest of it in measured amounts in freezer bags. It keeps forever in the freezer and is really handy to have around.

Ned

Note the recipe says frozen berries, if you thaw first you will discolor the dough with all the liquid. Frozen berries dredge very easily with flour, add them last, fold them in gently and you will have little discoloration.

Karen H.

Can't even remember how many times I've made this. It's quick, easy and delicious. Added a bit of half and half to regular 2% milk. Trader Joe's organic wild blueberries are the perfect size.

Julia

I’ve made this cake several times. The times when I’ve used fresh fruit, the cake was mushy and the fruit not as flavorful as it is with frozen berries. I assume that is due to the long cooking time. I’ve tried adding lemon to the batter but I never taste it. I prefer to use 3/4 cup of sugar since the berries are sweet enough. It is nice with a cup of strong tea for breakfast.

Bibi

Loceky cake, followed the recipe (I normally don't) and it turned out great. Sorry, made two changes: used melted butter instead of oil and frozen cherries. In my oven, It actually baked for 60 min instead of 50. Delicious!

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