Blackberry Chocolate Cake
A great man once said, “If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day but if you teach a man how to bake with blackberries, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Right? It goes something like that. Like its berry brothers and sisters, the blackberry is incredibly versatile. I think. I love blackberries. I eat them all the time. On their own they are–excuse the language but–fucking delicious. I love them in berry pies and in ice cream and in cobblers and crisps. But… But I am having a heck of a time making them work in cake. First there was the seed dilemma–see my blackberry coffee cake post. Now there is this, yet another hiccup.
There I said it. I, Russell van Kraayenburg, am hitting some road blocks in my chase. The blackberry road is not easy. Or is it the road less traveled is not easy? Whatever the appropriate saying is, why can’t I get blackberries to work in a cake? Don’t get me wrong. This cake is delicious. The only problem is the blackberry is a very subdued note in this very chocolately, rich cake. Honestly, I love this cake. Maybe I just need to pile up the plate with blackberries and call it a day?
Let’s talk more about blackberries. We all know that the blueberry is the superman of fruit, but did you know the blackberry is also quite healthy. They’re loaded with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants and then loads of other big sciencey words that I am sure mean good things. And those somewhat annoying seeds, they’re loaded with omega-3 and -6 fats among a lot of other stuff. Also, did you know most blackberries come from Oregon? So if you’re a fan of supporting Oregon’s economy, you should pick up a few bushels–I don’t even know if that is true, it just sounded about right. Their close cousin, a favorite of mine, is the dewberry and grows like a weed all over the south. My neighborhood is inundated with them. That means I stock up in the spring and replace all my blackberry recipes with dewberry recipes. None of this helps me with my cake though. I’m stalling.
Yeah. So let’s recap. This cake is delicious. It has a lot of blackberries in it (both pureed and whole) which means this is a chocolate cake with a healthy kick–can you say that about cake? But somehow with the pounds of blackberries, it only has a little hint of blackberry taste in it. Can I, should I call it a blackberry cake? No probably not. I told a friend I’d give him a blackberry recipe (see my guacamole two ways and my jalapeño-pesto stuffed burgers) so while I am submitting this as a, hey I’m still working on this blackberry thing, I will be sure to come back with another blackberry recipe, a much better blackberry recipe. I want a blackberry recipe that screams, BLACKBERRIES YUM!
Until then, here is a recipe that screams CHOCOLATE YUM and whispers blackberries. You can serve this cake with chocolate ganache icing or powdered sugar or you can pour a pint of blackberries on top.
Blackberry Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
12 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
1 pound (about 2 cups) sugar
4 ounces (1 1/4 cup) good unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 stick melted butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup fresh brewed coffee
3/4 cup pureed blackberries, strained to remove the seeds
2 cups whole blackberries
Instructions
1. Butter and flour a bundt pan. Preheat an oven to 350F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda,
baking powder, salt) in a mixer bowl.
3. Mix the buttermilk, butter, eggs and vanilla together in a
sperate bowl. Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients slowly
while mixing on low.
4. Slowly add the coffee into the batter while mixing on low.
5. Fold in the blackberry puree and blackberries into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.
7. Bake the cake 45 to 50 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted
into the center comes out with a few crumbs handing on.
8. Let the cake cool a few minutes before inverting and removing
from the pan.
9. Let cool completely.
So there it is, my delicious misstep on the way to find the perfect blackberry recipe. Will I ever find it? I sure hope so! If the legend about not picking blackberries after Old Michaelmas Day is true, then I only have until October to get his down unless I’m going to wait for 2012.
What is your favorite thing to do with blackberries?
IN LOVE!!! That looks AH-MAZING! Holy moly…that is like seriously one of the best looking chocolate cakes I have ever seen. Where are the forks?! Scratch that, screw forks I’m going on bare handed! hehe ;-)
This looks incredible!! So moist and I love the flavor combo :-)
I find blackberries and raspberries to be very seedy… how do you deal with that in the cake or do you just have to accept the seediness and the resulting crunch?
For this recipe I pureed a good amount of the blackberries then strained them to remove the seeds. As for the whole blackberries tossed in there too I figured I’d have to just deal with it. It leaves a little bit of the somewhat-annoying seed bite but not a whole lot. You could definitely puree and strain all the blackberries to get rid of any and all seeds though.
I’ve never tried blackberries with chocolate but that cake looks intensly good!
I love love love blackberries. To be honest, I have never baked with them because they are so delicious plain and fresh. Your cake looks amazing though. I want to stick my finger in the chocolate glaze. And I am always getting those sayings confused. My husbands favorite past time is correcting me.
This is one fruit that I can get an abundance of locally. Besides jam and the occasional Blackberry ‘Rita (http://eliotseats.com/?p=4574) I have a hard time finding creative uses. I can only eat so much cobber. I am going to try this NOW. Thank you.
Russell!!!!! This cake is gorgeous! Believe it or not…I just recently discovered my taste for blackberries. I think you are underestimating the power of this blackberry my friend! I think adding certain fruit to chocolate is like adding a hint of coffee. You don’t really taste the coffee, but it enhances the intensity of the chocolate. So maybe without the blackberries…..this cake would be ho-hum!?! I think it’s beautiful and this is one cake I will DEFINITELY be trying! (If you are looking for recipes with blackberries…try one I recently made for a cocktail called Agave Negro.) : )
You have a great point there. I know the blackberries helped made this cake a bit darker too, which even if it is just visual, adds a nice touch too. And you got my ears perked with cocktail. I am definitely going to head over and check out that recipe. Thanks!
WOW!!! This cake looks incredible!!! Saving this for sure, I’d love a slice right now!! Great job!! :)
Looks delicious! I baught some blackberries a few days ago, they were soo tasty! Next time i’ll think about your cake, maybe i’ll make it.
This looks amazing! Beautiful cake and photos!
I love the idea of adding blackberries to chocolate cake! It looks fabulous!
This cake looks so decadent and beautiful! Love the blackberries in there as well.
Chocolate yum is good enough for me. But you know what? I’m going to wait for that blackberry yum recipe you promised for I know it will be a sensation! Love these photos here, they’re so dark and mysterious and they appeal to my darker side (we all have those, don’t we?) ;-).
PS. I made a blackberry bread pudding once, using bamboo charcoal bread. Now that was also a dark and mysterious combo!
Haha. I am hoping to blow my pants off with the next blackberry recipe. So if it is as good as I hope, it will be worth waiting for. And thank you. I had fun shooting this cake. I wanted something dark and mysterious to play off of the decadence and darkness of the cake.
Blackberry bread pudding?! Oh my gosh that sounds incredible! Im actually making bread pudding tonight. I’m tempted to try it with blackberries now. I’ve got some peaches that need to be used up too, maybe I’ll throw those in as well.
Oh that looks so tasty. I love the glaze on the top
I love blackberries and raspberries paired with chocolate and have used them often in cakes. A while ago I made a similar chocolate cake using blackberry preserve, which gave it not only a very moist texture but a lovely intense flavor.
That’s a good idea using blackberry preserve. I am going to have to try that next time. I wonder how different it will be from just using fresh/pureed blackberries.
How dark and moist and devilishly delicious that looks. I love berries and chocolate. Superb!
This sounds so good! Blackberries, chocolate, and cake, can’t go wrong there!
You had me at blackberries, chocolate is the added bonus. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I bookmarked it so I could make it later.
hi chasing delicious, your blackberry cake is chasing delicious alright..waoooooooooooow
i wish i can bake..am going to learn. will visit your blog again for sure. do visit mine , would love to read a comment from you too. have a nice day
Oh my! I wanted to jump through my computer screen and into your photos. If I could climb into that cake and eat my way out I would be a happy girl!
ps-Threw some Foodbuzz buzz your way!
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Wow! Cake looks wonderful.
Yum, that looks so rich and lovely.
Even if the blackberry flavor doesn’t hit you in the face, this still looks amazing!
We have a neighbor with domestic blackberry bushes. We normally get all the blackberries we can eat. Always looking for delicious ways to use blackberries in recipes. A great combination!
Wow! I’m in love. This cake looks sooo delicious.
Tried the Blackberry Chocolate Cake and it was delicious. I did use seedless Blackberry preserves as someone had suggested. So it got me thinking about blackberries and I needed to make a dessert for a women’s gathering. I made my favorite pound cake recipe and made a blackberry topping for the cake. Afterward I had some of the topping left and thought about what i should do with it. I made my favorite marbled cream cheese brownie recipe and swirled the blackberriy topping (berries cooked with sugar and corn starch) into the cream cheese mixture. They smelled so fabulous I couldn’t wait for them to cool. And they did not disappoint – moist, chocolatey, rich, and full of flavor. Thought I might inspire you with your blackberries.
Do you really put 1 pound of sugar in this cake? I really want to make it, but that amount of sugar sounds extreme.
Yes, that is what the recipe calls for. You could try substituting some agave nectar or reducing the sugar amount of reducing too much could affect the texture and baking time. Sorry, most of my recipes are not the healthiest options out there.
If you want it to “scream blackberries” try adding blackberry liquor to the mix. only take about 1/4 cup. Try it.
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