Berry Buttermilk Cake

By Dawn Perry

Published May 20, 2020

Berry Buttermilk Cake
Yossy Arefi for The New York Times (Photography and Styling)
Total Time
1¼ hours, plus cooling
Rating
4(2,736)
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
  • ½cup/120 milliliters vegetable oil or other neutral oil, plus more for greasing the pan
  • ½cup/120 milliliters buttermilk or milk
  • 2large eggs
  • 1tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1cup/200 grams plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1½cups/190 grams plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1½teaspoons baking powder
  • ½teaspoon baking soda
  • ½teaspoon 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 1½ 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
2,736 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.

Tom

Just buy powdered buttermilk. The good brands are made from real buttermilk. Yu just add water.

KathyK

I made it with fresh berries (a mix of blueberries and strawberries), whole milk, and King Arthur gluten free-flour. Following others’ suggestions, I reduced the sugar to a generous half cup. The result: a delicious super light, almost fluffy cake. Plenty sweet, even if the berries were not the best. (I was using up grocery store berries before they went bad.) Plus, as others have noted, super speedy (pretty much put together just as the oven was finished pre-heating.) Oh, one last useful note: no need for the parchment paper (used a Pyrex square pan).

Mary Ann

Two bowls, two whisks. No creaming butter or separating eggs or sifting dry ingredients. And no mixer. Couldn’t be easier, faster, more delish. And still tastes great with just 1/2 cup sugar. I’ve got this cake in the oven now, with frozen cranberries. Can’t wait to try.

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