Whew! I'm back from vacation but I'm still stuck in vacation-recovery mode -- buried in unpacked bags and unprocessed photos. Hundreds and hundreds of un-processed San Francisco photos. This post-vacation period is just like sitting around with a fat stomach after a really good meal. You're happy, but nobody better not expect too much from you beyond sitting around with a big fat grin on your face.
But I did manage to bake a cake. A cake I read about here at wikstenmade, a blog I love for its creativity and honesty. She read about it at another blog, and that blog read about it at another blog, and the author of that blog got the recipe from a magazine I meant to buy but never got around to doing so... You know how these things go... she has a cherry pitter... I have a cherry pitter. She loves this cake... I love this cake. These blogs are excellent sources of good recipes. Case in point:
That's my new potholder up there -- my new ikea potholder, purchased on vacation along with a whole lot of other loot for the house.
I have just enough post-vacation energy to tell you that you need some of this cake. You can use any old berry you like. There's sugar sprinkled on top before you bake it -- have I mentioned that yet? That's the clincher for me.
Cherry Buttermilk Cake
9" cake or 6 servings
Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla. Add egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.
Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.
Hurrah! You're back, and with what looks like a very tasty cake indeed. I'm trying to clear the freezer at the moment, and I think this is the perfect place to nestle all those frozen berries from last summer.
Can't wait to see from SF photos!
Posted by: Rebecca | July 13, 2009 at 11:30 PM
YAY! She's ALIVE! :) I was just about to send out a search party!
The cake looks wonderful and just know that normalcy after vacation isn't all it's cracked up to be. Ease into it!
Posted by: Jennifer | July 14, 2009 at 01:30 AM
Oh girl, feed me some cake! How do you think red currants would do?
Posted by: Siri | July 14, 2009 at 04:25 AM
Red currants are a good idea. I have some frozen from last year, in fact. Maybe I should make another cake.
Posted by: Molly | July 14, 2009 at 08:13 AM
Yum! Sounds wonderful! I've got raspberries coming out of my ears in my yard and wild Alaskan blueberries are starting to put on...Hmmmmmm mix blueberries and raspberries? I might try that
Posted by: Midnight Sun Mamma | July 18, 2009 at 04:35 PM