DeDe Wilson's Brown Sugar Buttermilk Snack Cake with Blackberries and Caramel Walnut Drizzle Recipe

Blackberries are one of Autumn's most tantalizing fruits and they are packed full of vitamins (A, B, C & E), minerals (calcium & iron), fiber and juicy flavor. They dress up the simplest of desserts in the most delicious way. It is no wonder that DeDe Wilson-television host, author and contributing editor- chose these dark beauties for her Brown Sugar Buttermilk Snack Cake with Blackberries & Caramel Walnut Drizzle recipe. Sounds complicated, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. I think the hardest part of this recipe was waiting for the ingredients to warm up to room temperature!


Cake

• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• Heaping 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 cup fresh Driscoll’s blackberries
  
  

For the Cake

• Position rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square pan with nonstick spray.
  Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl to aerate and combine; set aside.
  Beat butter with flat paddle on medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in egg until well combined. Add the flour mixture in two additions, alternately with the buttermilk. Begin and end with the flour mixture and beat briefly until smooth. Scrape batter evenly into pan and smooth top with offset spatula. It will be a fairly shallow layer. Scatter blackberries evenly on top, reserving about 5 of them; do not press into batter. They will sink during baking.
  Bake for about 15 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick shows a few moist crumbs. The cake will just have begun to come away from the sides of the pan. Cool pan completely on rack. Cake is ready to decorate.

Icing

• 1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 3/4 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup toasted walnut halves, chopped

For the Icing
Combine brown sugar, butter and cream in small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Simmer for 1 minute, whisking frequently.
Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla and confectioners’ sugar until smooth and fluid. It will firm up very quickly and if you whisk or cool it too long, it will become too firm and sugary. Use a spoon to immediately drizzle about half the icing all over top of cake, then quickly sprinkle walnuts and reserved berries evenly over top while icing is still wet. Drizzle with remaining icing, which will set up almost immediately. Cake is ready to serve. Store at room temperature well wrapped in plastic wrap up to 1 day.

Tip
You might be tempted to add extra Driscoll’s berries to the batter, but they add too much moisture and will throw off the balance of the cake. The amount called for along with the shallow cake layer, are well proportioned as is. Also, when making the icing, make sure you stop combining the ingredients the moment the mixture becomes smooth. If it becomes grainy and sandy you have stirred too long and must start again. 


This recipe is just one of many taste bud tempting treasures that can be found in DeDe's new book, Unforgettable Desserts. This book features 150 recipes and over 300 pages. The recipe collection includes cookies, cakes, pies, tarts, custards, mousses, frozen desserts, candies and confections. The recipes sound absolutely delicious and you don't have to be a professional pastry chef to create them.

Recipe and Photo used with permission.