I love baking cakes even though I am not an expert baker by any stretch of the imagination. But I really love to bake a special cake for the handful of celebrations that we have in our house every year! The whole process from planning to execution to celebration just gets me so excited! I actually love the initial planning stage the most as I keep browsing different types of cakes on pinterest to see what cake I should make. For my kids birthdays, the choice is easier since they mostly want something with chocolate. But for my husband’s birthday and for our anniversaries, I usually like to make something light and not so chocolatey! My husband and I both love fruits and / berries in our cakes! Other cakes I have made in the past include Strawberry Pound Cake (Gluten free, Dairy free), and also Lemon Maple Cake (Gluten free, Refined Sugar free) , Berry ‘Cheese Cake’ (Gluten free, Paleo, Vegan) , Mango Cashew Cake (Mango Cashew Pie)
I had been dreaming about making this blackberry cake for a couple weeks now as I began to plan for my husband’s birthday. A similar blueberry cake first caught my attention on Pinterest and I had it shortlisted. Then last week when I went to the grocers and found fresh blackberries that tasted so good that I quickly decided that it had to be a blackberry cake! The cake I had seen was a regular cake with all purpose flour. However I have had great success in the past replacing the gluten with gluten free flour blend (My preferred blend is King Arthur Measure for Measure) so I decided to give it a try. I had to modify the recipe a bit since I had to replace some other ingredients like vegetable oil with olive oil. The recipe also used buttermilk and I just replaced it with plain yogurt. My family does have dairy occasionally and since I wanted to make the whipped cream frosting which my husband loves, I decided to go with dairy for the milk and yogurt too.
Can you make this cake grain free?
- You can try replacing the gluten free blend with cassava flour. However I have not tried it.
Can you make this dairy free?
- Yes you can replace the yogurt and the milk with a dairy free alternative like coconut or almond yogurt and coconut or almond milk. For the frosting, you can try to use coconut cream or any other dairy free paleo frosting.
So here is my recipe which I is inspired from this Lemon Blackberry Cake recipe. I decided to additionally add a blackberry filling in the center of the cake. The white frosting and the purple blackberry filling made a very attractive cake! The cake was moist and spongy and the blackberry filling gave it some additional gooeyness. And the white shipped cream took it over the top! The family just loved it and the birthday boy (my husband) particularly liked the lemon blackberry combination! Success!
And for my AIP followers, I have good news for you too! I also tried a similar AIP recipe and I had success! So keep an eye out for my next post!
- 1 cup unrefined cane sugar
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup plain whole fat yogurt
- 1¼ cups gluten free flour blend (I used King Arthur Measure for Measure)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup whole fat milk
- 2 tbsps fresh lemon juice (from juice of one lemon)
- 1 cup blackberries, washed and dried and cut into half
- 1 tablespoon of gluten free flour (King Arthur Measure for Measure)
- 1 cup fresh blackberries (you can also use a combination of blueberries and blackberries)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- pinch sea salt
- 1 tsp arrowroot starch mixed in 2 tbsp cup water
- ¾ cup Heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup powdered unrefined cane sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Fresh blackberries for decoration
- Pre heat oven to 350 F. Grease a 6 inch by 2¾ inch baking tin with olive oil and dust it lightly with the gluten free flour blend. Keep aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, olive oil and eggs and beat until fluffy. Then add the vanilla and the yogurt and again mix for a few more seconds until creamy.
- In a large sheet of parchment paper, add the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Mix them using a spatula to blend well. Add this flour blend in portions to the egg mixture and keep blending. Add the milk and lemon juice too and blend until you get a thick cake batter. Keep aside.
- In a small bowl add the flour and the blackberries and mix the berries gently into the flour using your hands. Add this floured blackberries into the cake batter and fold them gently into the batter using a silicone spatula.
- Pour this batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake in the oven at 350 F for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Take the cake out of the oven and let cool for about 30 mins to 1 hour.
- While the cake is baking, prepare the filling. Add all ingredients except the arrow root starch slurry into a small sauce pan and heat on medium heat until it starts to boil. Lower the heat and cover with a lid and cook for 5-6 mins until the berries are all mushy and soft. Now add the arrowroot starch slurry slowly stirring the mixture using your other hand. Stir for 1 -2 minutes until the mixture achieves a thick loose jelly like consistency. Turn heat off and let it cool.
- While the cake is cooling, add all ingredients to a mixing bowl and using an electric mixer beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy. Keep aside.
- Get the cake out of the cake pan and horizontally cut it into two layers. (alternatively you can bake the cake in two 6 inch or smaller pans to avoid this step)
- Take the top portion out and keep aside.
- Take about 2 tbsp of the filling and place on the top of the first layer and spread gently using a flat spoon. Next place the top cake layer back.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake with the whipped frosting.
- Decorate with extra filling and fresh raspberries on top!
