Buttermilk & berry slice

New week! New cake! This week I wanted something fruity that was relatively cheap to make and did not require me to buy tons of ingredients. I got the incentive to bake later in the day, so only picked up my ingredients at 8 pm and started baking at 9 pm so this quick fruity slice was perfect.

I altered a recipe from Taste

Ingredients

For the cake

150 g Unsalted butter, softened

220 g Caster sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

2 Eggs (Large), lightly beaten

250 g Self Raising Flour

160 ml Buttermilk

300 g Frozen Mixed Fruit

For the topping

2 tbsp Caster sugar

1 tsp Ground cinnamon

40 g Flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 13 x 9 inch traybake tin with baking paper, leaving the sides overlapping

2. Combine the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Alternately stir in flour and buttermilk, in 2 batches, until smooth.

5. Gently fold the berries into batter and spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon.

6. Combine the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle half over the slice, then scatter on the flaked almonds

7. Bake for 55 mins or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.

8. Leave to cool in the pan, then completely cool on a wire rack

9. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on the cake

The recipe was an easy one bowl recipe where you just chuck in all of the ingredients, combine and bake on one tray. Perfect for late night baking. A few commenters on the Taste website mentioned cutting down on the sugar as it was a tad sweet so I reduced the sugar from 275 g to 220 g. I also substituted the vanilla bean paste for extract. I did however, forget to save half the cinnamon sugar for after the baking, but it did not seem to make too much of a difference. Using frozen berries straight from the freezer was essential for the fruit to maintain their shape during baking. My berries were a mix of cranberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries, which was lush, but I imagine any berry combination would be a winner.

The recipe suggested baking at 180°C for around 55 minutes. I found 180°C was a bit too hot for my fan oven so I would suggest 160°C if your using a fan oven, and want to avoid excessive browning on top. Mine took around 45 mins to bake, and was cut in 16 slices but I did use a larger tin than the original recipe called for.

Verdict:

A lovely little treat! I served it with whipped double cream for a lovely midday snack. I think the whole slice could be elevated further by adding a bit of lemon zest or replacing the vanilla extract with almond extract. This is a cake that needs to be made regularly! I even got to offload a ton to my little brother when he visited our doorstep for a social distanced hangout! He gave them top marks!