Bridezilla Bakes

Let me explain.

On Saturday, I took the GRE. I studied really hard (hence the blogging mini-break). And, I’m happy to say that I did pretty well. Well enough to have the GRE disappear — forever — from my life. Never again will I have to compare quantities that may or may not possibly be compared (what kind of question format is that, anyway??). Never again will I devote myself to memorizing long lists of seldom-used words while commuting on over-crowded and under-heated public transportation (CTA, I’m talking to you right now. Can you make the bus a little bit more like a library and less like… a bus? Some of us are studying, here…). All the stress and frustration… it’s over.

The moment it was over, my first thought was — “I’m going to go back to blogging!” Honestly! Because I missed it. Blogging got squeezed out of my life for a while because I had other priorities — I’m assuming that this will happen from time-to-time, and I am OK with that. But I genuinely missed blogging! I missed the challenge of writing new recipes. I missed writing the posts themselves. I missed connecting with readers and friends who read Bridezilla Bakes, and those who go so far as to make my recipes (these two posts from a new bloggie friend are especially fun!!).

But most of all, I just REALLY missed the attention.

Just kidding!! (Kind of… no really, just kidding ). All this is to say, I’m back. It’s going to be sporadic for the next couple of weeks, but I do count myself extremely blessed to have this creative outlet and forum to connect with others… and I’m not going to take it for granted!

Today’s recipe is a very summery, buttermilk-based and berry-laden cake, adapted from this lovely cake on the popular natural-cooking blog, 101 Cookbooks. If you haven’t yet visited this blog, now is a great time to head on over there, because Heidi’s cooking is all about seasonal, natural, healthful ingredients and there just isn’t a better time of year to take advantage of all the beautiful, in-season produce than right now!

I loved this cake because it was simple to bake, delicious to eat, and rustically beautiful. Even though I used a combination of whole wheat flour and whole wheat white flour (email me if you’re curious about those…) it was still cake-like, not bready or heavy. It’s sweet (but not over-sweet) and moist without involving much butter, thanks to the magic of low-fat buttermilk. If you look at Heidi’s version, you’ll see that she topped the whole thing with large-grain sugar and salt. I’m just not that fancy, and I was making this on an illicit study break, so I skipped that minor elaboration. But I did top mine with some table sugar, and it formed a lovely, sweet topping that was just crusty enough without being crunchy and weird (if you know what I mean).

And… ok… you’ll notice that there is something about the top of my cake that maybe goes beyond rustic and kind of looks… mistaken. Yes, after extolling the virtues of in-season ingredients, I caved and used frozen berries for this cake. This explains the odd purple rivers of berry juice running down the top and sides of my cake (this happens as the berries defrost in the oven while the cake bakes). Luckily, I usually keep an old cookie sheet on the bottom rack of my oven to catch the spillage from such baking mishaps, so no berry juice ended up on the bottom of my oven. Since I was baking while I was supposed to be desperately studying, I counted this minor setback as a net win for Bridezilla and her baking.

By the way, if you’re interested, by my calculations (which should probably be taken with some skepticism, even though I did do OK on that whole GRE math section), one piece of this cake (if you cut 12 pieces), has 213  calories, just under 5 grams of fat, 2 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of protein. Just FYI.

Very Berry Buttermilk Cake

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

• 1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup butter, melted and cooled a bit
• 2 teaspoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of berries (more if you like)
• 3 tablespoons large grain raw sugar (I used regular table sugar)

Preheat oven to 400F degrees, racks in the middle. Grease and flour (or line bottom with parchment paper) one 11-inch tart/quiche pan.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder, and sugar and salt in a large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl whisk together the eggs and the buttermilk, whisk in the melted butter, and then the orange juice and the vanilla. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the flour mixture and fold until just combined – it’s important not to over mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, pushing out toward the edges. Drop the berries across top. Sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until cake is set (or a toothpick in the center comes out clean), and a touch golden on top.

Serves about 12.

Tags: berries, cake, dessert