Blackberry Cake (frozen fruit)

Now we're starting on the cake recipes I plan to use.  Up first is a blackberry cake.  Being a chocolate-cake person, I didn't realize these existed until Cousin Smurf's fiancé wanted one.  Unsure of the availability of fresh blackberries in late October in Virginia, I asked them to make sure the grocery store carried frozen and planned the cake recipe around that.

The recipe I tested is actually a variation on the strawberry cake recipe from My Cake School. I've been watching Preppy Kitchen on YouTube, and his strawberry cake used jam.  I found this to be a way out of buying extracts I'll never use again.  Plus, I couldn't find blackberry.  What I'm basically doing here is making an unstrained, lightly sweetened syrup to concentrate the flavor.  I suppose I could have bought jam, but since the purée here takes the place of milk, I didn't want to mess up the moisture content of the cake and have to develop a whole recipe on my own.

This also means you have to start the cake an extra day ahead, or at least four hours.  The purée has to cool to at least room temperature.  The mixture will also keep up to a week in the fridge, so you can make it whenever you have half an hour and deal with the cake another day.

If you do want to use fresh berries, I'm going to assume you can use the same weight as what I used frozen.  The moisture content may vary a bit, but you can fix that with water or further reduction.

I had never heard of a reverse creaming method.  It's pretty much the same as a biscuit method with more moisture.  The fats go in first to keep the glutens short, then you get everything wet and whip it light.  Considering some of the recipes I've read lately, I shouldn't be surprised that there's yet another way to make a cake.

All this said, the cake came out very dense, like a torte.  I'm pretty sure it's because of the reduced moisture content.  If I don't like the next recipe I try, I'll come back to this one and tweak it.  The taste was exactly what I was going for.  My guess is it needs a bit of milk and to swap in margarine for the butter.  There's a ton of baking powder, so that's not the problem.  Everyone at work liked it, so I guess I'm the only one with a hangup.

4 eggs, room temperature
2 10 oz bags frozen blackberries
1 tsp vanilla
violet food color, if desired
3 C cake flour
1-3/4 C sugar, divided
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 C vegetable oil
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1.  Defrost blackberries and purée in a blender.  If desired, strain out the seeds.  Pour into a saucepan and add 1/4 C sugar.  Bring to a boil and reduce to 1-1/2 C of purée.  Set aside to cool to at least room temperature.  Grease and line three 8" cake pans.

2.  Start preheating the oven to 350º.  With a fork, beat together eggs, vanilla, the blackberry syrup, and any food coloring you may want to heighten the color.

3.  In the stand mixer with the paddle, combine flour, remaining 1-1/2 C sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Stir for 30 seconds on low to combine.  Paddle in the butter and oil to make crumbs, scraping the bowl once.

4.  On low, add 1/2 of the wet mixture.  Increase speed to medium and beat for 1-1/2 minutes, into a thick batter.  Scrape bowl, add another 1/4 of the wet and beat for 20 seconds, add the rest and beat for 20 seconds.

5.  Divide batter between the pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until they pass the toothpick test.  Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and remove the wax paper.  Cool completely before frosting or freezing.

Makes one 3-layer 8" cake

Difficulty rating  :)