A few years ago, I became e-talented in a recipe for an easy fruit-topped cake referred to as Cup o’. The electronic mail ended with, “I wager my mom made one thousand of those whilst we were children.” The instantly-up recipe begins with melting a stick of butter in the oven within the cake pan (less complicated to oil the pan), then pouring the liquid butter right into a bowl with a cup of flour, a cup of milk, and a cup of sugar, plus a perfect amount of baking powder. Once those elements are stirred together and scraped into the pan, a rebellion of summer fruit is dumped on top, and the cake bakes into both a puddinglike form, warm and gooey, or a more impregnable cake with properly browned edges, completely depending on the quantity of time it spends inside the oven.
I made the cake some times and flavored it nicely. It becomes near, but not the deal with I idea it can be. I was less keen on the pudding shape and greater entranced with the one’s crispy edges. I started working and made this cake my one, meant for the potluck table. In the past month, I doled out this cake to buddies, family contributors, workers, and shortly-to-be-friends, making a dozen versions until it reached, in my thoughts, its complete capacity.
From the outset, I knew I desired this to be a buttermilk cake. Buttermilk from my local dairy is thick and creamy and glugs out of the bottle. The buttermilk from the grocery store works as nicely for this cake, but the thicker model makes a cake with a barely wetter and softer crumb.
Changing from entire milk to buttermilk within the authentic cake supposed adjusting the leavening from baking powder to baking soda (unlike milk, buttermilk does no longer want the cream of tartar, an acidic element in baking powder, to set off the leavening), and I fiddled with the quantity of, properly, the whole thing else. I delivered eggs. I upped the flour. I modified the ratio of fruit to the batter. And I modified the pan size. The result is an extremely muffin-like cake, a little like an espresso cake, and reminiscent of pound cake.
I used whatever fruit became accessible to top the cake. I combined berries. I used white and yellow peaches. I stirred together candy and bitter cherries. Any fruit fits the invoice and smells the cake whilst it bakes. This is a cake that any baker will want to make their own. I understand because I gave the recipe to two pals, and they each changed it up. I use vanilla to further heady-scent the cake, but my buddy Gail used almond extract. When I brought cinnamon, I thought it crushed the taste of the fruit and the tang of the buttermilk, but Abbie introduced nutmeg and became satisfied. I assume cardamom might be delicious, too.
Here is your new pass-to-summer cake. Make it once, and I suspect you’ll make it over and over, as I have. Slice the cake into massive rectangular slabs; no one will complain if their piece has a scoop of ice cream snuggling up after it. Around right here, we’ve been calling it breakfast cake with surely no guilt. And if there is buttermilk leftover, it makes delicious biscuits, is a splendid brine for the bird, and is a superb sipping drink on a warm day, or so said my grandfather.
Buttermilk Sheet Cake With Peaches and Blueberries
15 to 20 servings
If you don’t have a stand mixer, a hand mixer and a large bowl will work just as nicely.
MAKE AHEAD: Cover the cake tightly and save it on the counter for about three days.
Sixteen tablespoons (226 grams; 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
three cups (360 grams) of flour½ teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
½ teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt or best sea salt
2 cups (four hundred grams) sugar
three big eggs, at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nicely shaken buttermilk, ideally full-fat three peeled, pitted peaches, sliced ½-inch thick (approximately 2 cups; see notice)
1 cup (one hundred fifty grams) blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a nine-through-13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, so the 2 shorter facets overhang a chunk (for lifting the cake out of the pan). Grease the paper with a little butter.
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl together
