berry cake.

this past week sam & i went fishing at the dam in harmar. after about an hour of no bites (sam did catch a big dirty catfish ; )), i decided to explore the banks along the river. i quickly noticed a little patch of black berries right behind our fishing spot. i pulled them off & ate the small handful i found. they were delicious! i decided to keep walking in hopes i could find more, and i did. the entire hill side was loaded with black berry bushes. so, i ran back up to my car, grabbed my berry bucket, and got to picking. i got a pretty decent amount. i wasn't sure what to make with them. then i remembered a cake my mom always makes with fresh blueberries, and thought i could do something similar. it's a simple yellow cake with berries scattered through it, with a crispy, cinnamon sugar top. as soon as i got home i asked my mom for the recipe. this morning, i thawed out my berries & gave it a go.

i did a few things a little different than my mom's recipe calls for this time. i substituted maple sugar for about 1/2 of the sugar in the batter, which gave it a slightly less sweet taste. also, my mom has only ever made this with blueberries. i found the black berries didn't sink down into the batter the way the blueberries do. they mostly stayed on top, which is fine, but i think i would have added more berries after seeing how it turned out. still tasty! i think most any berry would work. it is really nice for more fragile berries such as black berries, because you don't have to do any mixing with them, which tends to smash & break them apart. laying them on top keeps them whole & looking nice.  

INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour.
1 1/2 cups sugar.
2 tsp. baking powder.
1 tsp. salt.
2/3 cups softened butter.
1 cup milk.
2 eggs.
1 cup (or more) blueberries (or any other berry!)

topping
1/4 cup sugar.
1/2 tsp. cinnamon. 

DIRECTIONS
in a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, butter, milk & eggs. blend at low speed until dry ingredients are moistened, then beat at medium speed for about 3 minutes. 

pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. arrange berries on top. combine sugar & cinnamon. sprinkle over top. bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. let cool & enjoy!