I love using seasonal ingredients in my recipes, and this cake was made right after picking blackberries with my kids, so they were extra sweet and juicy. The perfect addition to this summer cake. This blackberry cake uses sourdough discard and has an airy and tender crumb that’s not too sweet, which makes it perfect to enjoy over the summer. Top each slice with a generous dollop of whipped cream, and you have a delicious and crowd-pleasing cake for your next backyard BBQ.
❤️ Why You’ll Love Blackberry Cake
This cake really highlights the beauty of using seasonal ingredients. This blackberry cake is a simple, but with the use of fresh blackberries, it not only brings a wonderful texture, but makes the cake a bit more special. That’s what this cake is – simple, special, and perfect for summer.
🍲 Ingredients
Sourdough Discard – Unfed, inactive sourdough starter.
Flour – Unbleached all purpose flour.
Milk – Whole milk, or any milk substitute you prefer.
Sugar – I like granulated sugar, but brown sugar would work just as well.
Baking powder – The leavening agent for the cake,
Blackberries – Fresh picked blackberries.
Butter – Melted butter is more convenient, but using softened butter also makes a delicious textured cake!
👩🍳 How to Make Blackberry Cake
- Melt your butter and set aside.
- In a small sized mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and set aside.
- In a medium sixed mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and sugar until combined. Slowly add your melted butter and sourdough discard until everything is combined and there are no streaks.
- Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there are no more dry bits of flour and everything is combined.
- Back in the smaller mixing bowl, toss your blackberries into 1 tablespoon of flour and fold them into your cake batter.
- Preheat your oven to 360 degrees.
- Pour your cake batter into a greased 8×8 baking dish and top with extra blackberries.
- Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour until the middle of the cake passes the toothpick test.
- Top with your favorite whipped cream and extra berries and enjoy!
🪄 Tips and Tricks
- If you don’t have an 8×8 baking dish, this cake can be baked in circular cake pans or a 9×13 baking dish with modified baking times.
- If you were to use a larger baking dish, the cake would be thinner and need less time to cook through. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
- In my opinion, tossing your blackberries in flour before folding them into your cake batter is a must because it acts like a glue and keeps them from sinking to the bottom of your cake while baking.
- Using softened butter in place of melted butter might require the use of an electric mixer, but it also results in a beautiful texture for this cake that I would encourage you to try!
🗒 Variations
Because I love using seasonal ingredients, there are many options to use as far as fresh fruit goes in this cake! Strawberries, blueberries, mulberries, even peaches can be used!
🗒 Substitutions
The first, and best way to make substitutions with this recipe is by switching the fruit out for whatever is in season at that time. You can also use softened butter instead of melted butter.
- Use any fruit that is currently in season.
- Granulated sugar – brown sugar
- Melted butter – softened butter
🗒 Best served with
- Summer dessert spread
- Backyard BBQ dishes
- More fresh fruit
👝 How to Store Leftovers
Store your leftover cake in an air tight container on the counter for up to 3 days. If you store it in the fridge it will get dried out much faster.
🤔 Common Questions
Yes! Just stir it down to release the air bubbles before using.
You can, but just like leftover wedding cake, it loses the lovely texture and flavor a bit by freezing it.
Blackberry Cake
Equipment
- 8×8 baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup sourdough discard
- 1 ½ cups blackberries
Instructions
- Melt your butter and set aside.
- In a small sized mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and set aside.
- In a medium sixed mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and sugar until combined. Slowly add your melted butter and sourdough discard until everything is combined and there are no streaks.
- Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there are no more dry bits of flour and everything is combined.
- Back in the smaller mixing bowl, toss your blackberries into 1 tablespoon of flour and fold them into your cake batter.
- Preheat your oven to 360 degrees.
- Pour your cake batter into a greased 8×8 baking dish and top with extra blackberries.
- Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour until the middle of the cake passes the toothpick test.
- Top with your favorite whipped cream and extra berries and enjoy!