September 17

I went to stay at someone’s cabin this weekend and my first thought was that it was the perfect opportunity to bake a cake. I haven’t had very many social situations lately where it would make sense to bring baked goods, so I thought this would be a pretty good excuse to whip something up. Unlike cookies or loaves I never think of freezing cake, so I am always waiting for an opportunity to share the goodness with others (a.k.a. not eat the entire thing by myself within 3 days). I am generally drawn to slightly sweetened, moist cakes topped with fruit (or chocolate- never discriminate against chocolate).



This recipe form Joy the Baker (who I just recently discovered and whose blog is thoroughly entertaining to read and beautiful to look at) was super easy to make. I think the bane of my baking existence is needing to ‘cream’ butter and sugar together. The consistency of most of my baked goods that require this step are always questionable (i.e. the majority of cookies that I have attempted to make). I am never patient enough to wait for the butter to be the exact right temperature and consistency and my hand blender always sprays little chunks of butter and sugar all over the place. That said, when a recipe calls for melted butter, I am more than happy to move ahead with it.


The cardamom flavor (which is something that I haven’t experimented with very much) was very subtle and delicious. In the past, I wasn’t sure if I liked cardamom because I have mostly had it in very heavily spiced, overly-sweet deserts. If you are averse to the flavor, I would suggest replacing it with some ground nutmeg or ginger. Cinnamon would work well too! However, if you’re open to trying it, I think this would be a great place to start.

I chose to top the cake with the last of the season’s peaches and blackberries and some ground hazelnuts. For a wintery version pears or apples would be tasty. Pushing the fruit partly into the batter makes the batter around the fruit exceptionally moist and flavorful. I am curious how this would turn out if you doubled the amount of fruit and actually mixed half of it through the batter. I bet it would be delicious.