I’m crazy about blackberries. I love to snack on them, smoosh them up and put them on ice cream and I love fresh blackberry margaritas.

Last week I was looking at a recipe on line and noticed a picture off to the side, of a slice of  purple cake. I had to find out what it was! It was just so pretty. Well, it was blackberry cake with cream cheese frosting. OMG! The site was Serious Eats. I knew that I had to make this cake right away. Well, I did make a few adjustments and made it.

This is a single layer cake. It doesn’t rise much. It’s good. But I have to say, it was better the second day. It was much more blackberry-ish. It doesn’t have a real intense flavor, but it’s there.  I do recommend frosting this cake lightly. Cream cheese frosting is pretty heavy and rich and you won’t want to take away from the flavor of the cake. The frosting is not the star of this show.

I did puree some extra berries to pour on top of the cake . Wow, I’m so glad I did. Amazing. It looks so pretty too.

Blackberry Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar|
1  1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cup cake flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1  1/4 cup fresh blackberries

Heat oven to 350. Spray an 8″  cake pan with a non stick cooking spray. Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Spray that too.

Smash the berries into a puree. You should have about 3/4 cup of puree. I left mind a bit chunky.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, at medium speed, mix together the butter, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg whites one at a time. Reduce speed to low. Mix in half of the cake flour and then the blackberry puree. Mix in remaining cake flour, until you no longer see any flour specks. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Check the cake for doneness at 25 minutes, by sticking a toothpick in the center. It should come out clean. Allow to cool for about 45 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Remove from pan, onto a plate. Allow to cool completely.  Frost. Top with berries or puree some berries to pour on top.

Frosting

4 oz of softened cream cheese
1/4 cup of softened butter
2 cups of powdered sugar

With a mixer, mix together the cream cheese and butter until creamy and smooth. Add the powdered sugar and mix well until creamy and smooth.