Berry Buttermilk Cake

Are you wondering what to do with leftover buttermilk?  Well, as this is apparently a common question, I've now added a "buttermilk" tag to my blog and will be featuring a few different recipes in the upcoming days as additional ideas.  Surprisingly, I already had a good 6-7 recipes using buttermilk before this series of recipes but I generally used the trick of taking regular milk and adding a bit of vinegar or lemon juice to make it sour and curdle a little.  That's all fine and dandy but it really isn't the same as using REAL buttermilk.  And I had a giant half-gallon jug of it to use!  So come explore some recipes with me, my friends...

This. Recipe. Is. Awesome. 

Even better is that it is really really simple.  I whipped it up and was in and out of the kitchen in well under an hour INCLUDING baking and cleaning time.  It's a very light cake with a delicate crumb and the slight crunch of the sugar on top adds a nice contrast to each bite.  It's light enough to be enjoyed as a breakfast yet satisfying enough to serve as your dessert, too.  Chris' family ate it right up and we enjoyed it so much that I made it again that same week.  Now, I don't know if you've noticed or not but I tend to try a bazillion new recipes so anything that gets made multiple times is a keeper in my eyes!  (I'm sorry, the photo really doesn't do this cake justice!)

The original recipe was called Raspberry Buttermilk Cake but I didn't have any raspberries, I only had frozen blueberries (which were leftover from our Belgian Waffle Bar from Dinner Club...I still need to post those recipes...d'oh!).  Thankfully this recipe is very forgiving and you can use whatever the heck berry you want and I found frozen works just fine in this case.

So if you want a lightly sweet treat tonight that's relatively healthy (less than 200 calories a slice = 1/8th of the cake!), make this one.  You won't be sorry!

Berry Buttermilk Cake
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Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup plus 1.5 Tbsp. sugar, divided
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup well-shaken lowfat buttermilk
• 1 cup fresh raspberries (about 5 oz.), blackberries, blueberries, and/or strawberries*

*Note: If using frozen berries, add the berries to the batter frozen.
 
Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400, with a rack in the middle. Butter and flour a 9″ cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium-high until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, and then egg.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the buttermilk.  At low speed, mix until just combined.
3. Pour batter into a cake pan and smooth the top using a rubber spatula. Scatter berries on top and sprinkle remaining 1.5Tbsp. sugar.
4. Bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes and then turn onto a rack and cool to warm, 10-15 minutes.
5. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, if desired :).  (Sorry that will put you over the 200 calorie per serving mark...but it would taste so delicious!)

Source: Slightly adapted from Gourmet as seen on Elly Says Opa!

Nutritional Information for 1/8 of the cake: Calories: 196 / Fat: 6.7g / Saturated Fat: 3.9g / Carbs: 31.5 / Fiber: 1.5g / Protein: 3.1g