Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Cake

I had just a slight dilemma one weekend---a fridge full of berries (given graciously to Ben and I by his father) and no idea what to do with them!!!  Thankfully, one of my FAVORITE blogs posted a new recipe the next day (like a sign!): Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Cake.  It looked TO-DIE-FOR so I printed it and proceeded straight to the kitchen to get it started!

This cake combines my two favorites this summer: berries and lemons!  The cake is so unbelieveably delicious; it really does taste like summer!  This cake was berry-overload (something to do with adding more than the recipe called for), but I'd do it again in a heartbeat! 

No worries if you don't have buttermilk (or don't want to buy it).  I simply do this: mix 1 cup of milk with 2 teaspoon vinegar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes.  The milk should smell sour and be thick.  Easy!

Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Bundt

Makes 1 large bundt cake

Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt

1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk

3-4 1/2 cups mixed berries (depends on your taste---I loaded it to the max!)

Glaze

2 cups powdered or confections’ sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoon unsalted butter, very, very soft

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, either with butter or a nonstick spray. {If you have a nonstick Bundt, just a coat of butter or nonstick spray should do. However, if you have a regular Bundt, not nonstick coated, you’re really going to want to make sure every nook and cranny is well-coated with butter or even shortening (the solidity of both helps them stick to the cake walls), and then dust the inside with flour. Setting your cake pan in the fridge or freezer (to set the coating even further) while you make the cake batter will provide even more insurance.}
2. In a medium bowl, whisk or sift 2 1/2 cups flour (leaving 2 tablespoons back), baking powder and salt together and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and impossibly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add your eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in vanilla, briefly.
5. Add 1/3 flour mixture to batter, beating until JUST COMBINED, followed by half the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour mixture. Scrape down from time to time and don’t overmix!!!  Mix until JUST COMBINED--seriously!  You don't want a tough cake! 
6. In the bowl where you’d mixed your dry ingredients, toss the berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.
7. With a silicon spatula, gently fold the berries into the cake batter. The batter will be very thick and this will seem impossible without squishing the berries a little, but just do your best and remember that squished berries do indeed make for a pretty batter.
8. Plop cake batter in the pan in large spoonfuls because it’s so thick and spread the top smooth.
9. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 (to make sure it browns evenly). The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter.
10. Set cake pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, before inverting the cake onto a serving platter to cool the rest of the way. Cool completely.
11. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until smooth and very, very thick.
12. Spread carefully over top of cake, letting it trickle down the sides when and where it wishes.
13. Serve at once or keep it covered at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.

My family loved this cake so much they had it TWICE--when I first came over and then after we had lunch!  They told me I have their 'permission' to make it again whenever I felt like it.  **Music to my ears!**

Did I mention that it was easy to make?...  No?  Well it is!  So go forth and make cake!!!  (eat some too!)

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