Blackberry and Sour Apple Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

I went to a birthday luncheon today! My dear friend Cathy was celebrating her July birthday with a bunch of friends and I was in charge of the cake ... my pretty plate was a blank slate!

I decided to make a single layer berry cake that has apples and blackberries included in the batter. While this little number has a raw sugar glaze atop it, as seen below, it was finished with a pretty raspberry cream cheese frosting and a fresh raspberry and mint leaf  'tiara' decking it out.

Blackberry and Sour Apple Cake

Ingredients:

1 c. flour
½ c. almond flour
6 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. cardamom
6 tbsp. butter, softened
6 tbsp. apple juice or cider
2 eggs
a few drops vanilla extract
1 c. fresh blackberries, halved
1 sour apple, Granny Smith is a good candidate, peeled, quartered, cored, and chopped into small pieces

raw sugar, for sprinkling

Making the Cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Lightly grease an 8-inch spring form pan and line the bottom with waxed paper. Lightly grease the waxed paper too. Set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder, cardamom, and sugar in a deep bowl.

3. Add the softened butter in chunks and beat until broken up and beginning to form a soft doughy consistency.

4. Add one egg at a time and beat well between each addition.

5. Add the apple juice and the vanilla and beat to a smooth batter.

6. Turn the apples into the batter and stir to incorporate. Pour one third of the batter into the prepared pan and dot with half the blackberries.

7. Pour the second third of the batter in and carefully spread over all. Add the second half of the blackberries.

8. Smooth the rest of the batter on top and sprinkle the surface generously with raw sugar.

9. Bake for 45 minutes until the top is a crisp golden brown and a cake tester comes clean when the cake is poked.

10. Cool on a rack for ten minutes, then run a knife around the edge and release the spring form rim. Continue cooling for another ten minutes and then flip the cake onto a rack and gently peel off the waxed paper.

11. Flip the cake onto a pretty serving platter and cool completely.

12. Your choice: dust with confectioner’s sugar, frost with a light layer of cream cheese frosting, or serve with whipped cream.

TAAAA- DAHHHH!  This is ready to go to our party luncheon!

This is the finished cake. I travelled with the cake wrapped in plastic on its serving platter, and the cream cheese frosting , raspberries, and mint leaves in a cold pack. Today, the temperature in New Hampshire was 98 degrees Farenheit. This cake needed to travel 50+ miles to the location of our luncheon. Hence, the icing was made and chilled in the early morning and then packed with ice packs for transport. Assembly happened when I arrived and then the cake was refrigerated until we finished slurping our Red Rooster summer cocktails (great name!), knoshing our grilled steaks and cool salads, and oogling over birthday cards and presents.