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Summer Berry Bundt Cake

Do you know what is great about summer? I'm not going to say the sun, because 1) I live in Los Angeles, it's always sunny, and 2) I'm not a sun person. So why do I live in Los Angeles?! I wonder that sometimes too!

No, what I love is cheap berries. Berries, berries everywhere! On sale! All the time!

I can buy so many that I don't feel guilty for not just eating them straight up. Because I do, strangely, have this weird guilt about that when they are so good by themselves. But if you find yourself with an excess of berries that will soon go bad before you can eat them all, please PLEASE make this cake!

It is seriously yum. Double yum, even.

I mean, come on. Look at it!

Summer Berry Bundt Cake
Printable Recipe

Cook time: 55-60 minutes

Ingredients

For the cake:
2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
Optional: zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 cups mixed berries
For the glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, very soft
Juice from 1 lemon (or 2 Tbsp milk)

Cooking Directions

Preheat your oven to 350F. Grease a Bundt pan, either with butter or nonstick spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk 2 1/2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside for now. In your mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest (if you're using it, I didn't) until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. On low speed, add each egg one at a time, scraping down the sides of your bowl in between each one. Briefly beat in the vanilla. Add 1/3 flour mixture to the batter, beating until just combined, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, another 1/3 of flour, the rest of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour. Scrape down the sides whenever necessary, and don't over-mix.
In your medium flour mixture bowl, toss the berries with your 2 Tbsp remaining flour, and gently fold them into the batter by hand (with a spatula, duh). It'll be thick, and that's good.
Spread the batter, or plop it, in your prepared bundt pan, and smooth out the top. Bake for 55-60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 so it brown evenly. Your cake will be done when a tester comes out clean.
Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter to finish cooling. Cool completely! I know you don't want to, but you must. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, butter and lemon juice (or milk!) until smooth and thick. Drizzle over the top of the cake, letting it trickle down the sides. Serve immediately or keep covered for 3-4 days.

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen

In photos:

Flour mixture. Hint: if you use dried buttermilk instead of regular buttermilk, add in 3 Tbsp to your flour mixture at this stage.

Butter and sugar get mixed until fluffy.

After the eggs and vanilla are added in. Sorry for the bad light.

Buttermilk and flour have been added now. Hint: if you use dried buttermilk, you will alternate between your flour mixture and plain old water to get to this stage.

Toss your berries in 2 Tbsp flour. This is so they don't all sink to the bottom of the cake when baking. Hint: You can use any berries you like. I used raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. But you could substitute blackberries or marionberries too!

Fold them into the batter. It's okay if they break up a bit. It's not a beauty contest, right?

Plop and smooth your batter into your bundt pan. Stick it in the oven for 55-60 minutes, making sure to rotate after 30.

It should look about like this when it comes out. Let it cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Plop it out onto your serving plate. Ooh, pretty berry colors!

After it's cooled all the way, whisk up your glaze. Yours should be thicker; I used a bit too much milk in mine, I suspect.

After you've glazed and oohed and aahed, it's time to cut that baby and go to town!

Enjoy!

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