I have made this twice in the last two weeks; lovely comforting cake with a buttery, sugary fragrance that makes the house feel cozy. And when you are sheltering in place, that’s almost as enjoyable as having a slice of this thin, moist, light cake with a cup of coffee. Any berry will work well, or even a combination. If using those large first crop strawberries I would cut them into small pieces.
I found this recipe on Smittenkitchen, whose author Deb Perelman got it from the June 2009 Gourmet magazine. The wonderful thing I learned that will be valuable going forward is that you can make your own buttermilk! Maybe you already knew this, but I have had quarts of buttermilk hanging around unused in my refrigerator for weeks, after buying it for a small amount used in a recipe. Never again! Here is Debs recipe for “almost-buttermilk” : Add one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk and let it sit until it clabbers, about 10 minutes. Voila! buttermilk!
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tbs. sugar, divided
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional)
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees with rack in the middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla and zest, if using. Add egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined. Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over the top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 Tbs. sugar.
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate. Makes one 9-inch cake.
Note: I used more berries the second time, and think you should. Also after I inverted the cake I thought it actually looked better right side up! You be the judge of yours. Note the short baking time- 25 minutes was right for mine.
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