Funfetti & Blackberries Cake

It’s that time of year! The calendar has officially turned from Summer to Fall. There are bins of pumpkins overflowing outside every grocery store I frequent, retail decor is ranging from Halloween to Christmas, and Trader Joe’s is an explosion of Pumpkin Spice EVERYTHING.

Meanwhile, Karl The Fog has taken his annual vacation (or seems to be thinking about it at least), which means it is finally SF Summer, which means I’m coming at you today with blackberries! And sprinkles!

(I love fall, but if I can’t wear sweaters yet then nobody gets pumpkin anything from me.)

I made this cake twice. The first time, I was supposed to make it for my friend Mercedes’s baby shower, but then she unexpectedly went into labor the day before, and so I was off the hook, but still kind of had it in my head that I wanted to make a cake. So I made a tiny taste-test version for myself, and then, when I saw Mercedes a couple weekends ago, I made her a bigger version, because I felt that after having a baby, especially after that, she still deserved a cake!

I’m really happy I had multiple opportunities to test this one out! I knew I wanted to combine funfetti with blackberries, exactly the way Salt and Straw did it with their Birthday Cakes and Blackberries seasonal flavor earlier this Summer. It sounds weird, but the tart blackberries really compliment the sugar high of vanilla and sprinkles, and together, they make magic.

But which funfetti recipe to use? Claire and I made the Milk Bar recipe for our royal wedding viewing earlier this year, and it was so, so good, but I’d also been wanting to make the other funfetti cake that broke the internet, and try out Molly Yeh’s recipe. So I tried both! For the first taste test version, I made a mini version of Molly’s cake, but using with swiss meringue buttercream to cut down on the sweetness and real vanilla extract. For one, I couldn’t find any clear imitation vanilla in the store (but I did find butter extract. Excuse me, WHO is using this???) and I also thought that maybe real vanilla would pair better with the blackberries. It was tasty, but fussier to make, with the need to separate eggs and bake the layers in separate pans.

So, for the second version, I went back to the Christina Tosi cake, baking up the batter in a quarter sheet pan, then stamping out the layers with a 6-inch cake ring. I used the milk soak she calls for, and the swiss meringue buttercream again, but this time I flavored everything with clear imitation vanilla (which I now own a full 32 oz of, if you know anyone who needs some). I LOVED this one! The milk soak keeps everything moist, the imitation vanilla gives you exactly that nostalgic funfetti flavor we all remember, the frosting isn’t too sweet, and the blackberries zipped right through everything.

The result was festive and summery and full of both jammy and fresh berry flavors. It’s a new favorite for me, and I was going to use the leftovers in my freezer to hang on to Summer as long as the weather stayed hot,* but then the weather cooled down. And also, I ate all the cake.

*AKA, mid-70s. Sorry, I am ruined.

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Funfetti & Blackberries Cake

Cake layers adapted from Christina Tosi.

For the cake:

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temp

• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening

• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3 tbs, tightly packed, light brown sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1/2 cup buttermilk

• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil

• 2 tsp clear imitation vanilla

• 2 cups cake flour

• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 3/4 tsp kosher salt

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs rainbow sprinkles (see note)

For the swiss meringue buttercream:

• 4 egg whites

• 1 1/4 cup sugar

• 3 sticks butter, unsalted, room temp

• 1 tsp clear imitation vanilla

For assembly:

• 1/4 cup milk

• 1 tsp clear imitation vanilla

• blackberry jam, good quality

• blackberries, for decorating

• sprinkles, for decorating

1. Bake the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a quarter sheet pan with cooking spray and line with parchment. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, shortening, and sugars and beat on medium-high for 2-3 minutes, scraping down as needed, and then add the eggs and beat another 2-3 minutes on medium-high.

3. Turn the mixer to low and pour in buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. With speed on medium-high, beat for 4-6 minutes, until the mixture is very, very pale, almost white, and almost doubled in size. When you see no more streaks of fat or liquid in the batter, it is ready for the dry ingredients. Add the cake flour, baking powder and salt, as well as the 1/4 cup of sprinkles, and mix for no more than a minute, just until everything comes together.

4. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared cake pan and then sprinkle with remaining sprinkles. Bake 30-35 minutes, until puffed and no longer jiggling in the middle. Cool cake completely in the pan, on a wire rack.

5. Make the frosting: Set bowl of mixer over a pot of simmering water, and add the egg whites and sugar and whisk to combine. Continue whisking until sugar dissolves and mixture is very warm to the touch, or reached 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

6. Transfer bowl to stand mixer and beat egg white mixture with the whisk attachment on high speed to stiff but not dry peaks. Continue beating until fluffy and cooled, 6 minutes.

7. Switch to the paddle attachment and beat on medium-low speed, adding the butter a bit at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and then beat on low speed for about 2 minutes more, to reduce any air bubbles.

8. To assemble: with a 6-inch cake ring, cut rounds out of the cooled cake, one at the top left corner and one at the bottom right corner. Then cut two half circles as large as possible out of the scraps. Dab a bit of frosting onto the center of a 6-inch cake board, and place in the cake ring. Place the two semi circles in the ring, then fill in the gap in the middle with some of the remaining cake scraps. You want to pack it tight so it forms a sturdy base layer.

9. In a small bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla, then brush 1/3 of the mixture onto the cake layer. Spoon a layer of frosting over the soaked cake, then a few small spoonfuls of the jam. Top with the next cake layer and repeat. Top with remaining cake layer, brush on remaining milk soak, and then frost the cake as desired. You should have enough frosting to fully cover and do some fun piping if you want. Top with fresh blackberries and more sprinkles and enjoy!

Notes:

• When shopping for rainbow sprinkles, go with the bright, neon, artificially colored ones. This is not the time for natural sprinkles. Also? Check the ice cream aisle! You will probably find much bigger containers of sprinkles, and cheaper than the little vials sold in the baking aisle. But check both! I’ve found the same large tub of rainbow sprinkles in both aisles in the past.

Hushpuppies on the River

For the long Labor Day weekend, I flew east to join my sister and brother in law for a trip to visit my grandparents in Virginia. Their house is one of my favorite places, the familiar red brick and cedar perched between railroad tracks on a bank of the New River. I spent a good chunk of my childhood summers there, fishing, playing, catching fireflies, gardening, and most memorably, eating. The fruit trees are a full blown orchard and the flower gardens are gone now, but even still, the trains whistling by at night are comforting rather than disruptive, and especially in summer, the sound of the river and the smell of the grass on a hot, humid late-summer day is perfect. Also, the persistent lackluster cell-signal and wifi make it a super relaxing place to visit!

We packed a lot in three days, trying a new-to-us restaurant, The Palisades, one town over, that I had randomly heard about from my friend Susan’s mom. It was definitely a nice change from Applebee's or Olive Garden, with great pizza, but was admittedly a little too loud, with an original tin roof and brick walls that echo the volume of the dining room into a decibel level that drowned out all table conversation.  The restaurant is in a converted general store, and my Grandma thinks it looks like “a dump” and I thought it was the cutest restaurant I’d seen in a while, so maybe it was just too millennial? We had a nice meal, regardless.

On Saturday, we did a little fishing until we got rained out of the river, and then on Sunday we drove over for brunch at Mountain Lake, a resort best known as the filming location for Dirty Dancing and where the lake has shockingly all but disappeared. Where would Baby practice her lifts now?

But my favorite meal was on Saturday night, when Claire and I shooed our Grandparents out of the kitchen and fried up a feast of fish and chips, coleslaw, and hushpuppies. Grandpa called us "surgical" in our precise planning of the meal, so I think it's safe to say we impressed them! 

However, I wasn't about to fry up any hushpuppies without instructions from the master. To me, hushpuppies are a must with a fish fry, and my Grandpa's hushpuppies are hands down my favorite. But whenever he writes a recipe down for me, it never comes out the same. Maybe it's that food just tastes better when someone makes it for you, but I have a sneaking suspicion he leaves something out, something indefinable, the way my Great-Grandmother used to mix her biscuits until they "just feel right". That's hard to capture in writing. So, I brought him into the kitchen to show me how it's done, and paid close attention as he poured, stirred, and spooned the batter into hot oil. 

This past weekend, I successfully re-created the hushpuppies in my own kitchen, so I think it worked! But also, I think the key here is full faithfulness to the original recipe, which means using self-rising flour and something that is hard to find outside of the south, self-rising cornmeal mix. Those aren't commonly used ingredients in my pantry, but self-rising flours and mixes are a staple in southern baking, so you just have to go with it.

I added some jalapenos to half of mine, which give the hushpuppies a little kick and pair extremely well with the maple butter I spread on the split hushpuppies. But if you don't want to go making them spicy, the original recipe is just fine: crunchy outside, creamy inside, and full of delicious cornbread flavor! They are incredibly difficult to stop eating. 

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Hushpuppies

This is the way my Grandpa makes these. He uses a fry baby that only has one temperature setting, and he told me to heat the oil until it’s boiling. I interpreted that to mean 375 degrees and it worked perfectly.

•  1 Cup self-rising cornmeal mix

• 1/4 cup self-rising flour

• 3/4 cup buttermilk

• 2 tbs butter, melted

• 1 egg

Maple Butter:

• 2 tbs salted butter

• 1 tsp maple syrup

1. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another small bowl, whisk together wet ingredients and then whisk into dry mixture. Let sit for at least 10 minutes.

2. Add 3 inches of cooking oil in a large pot and heat to 375 degrees. Gently drop the batter into the hot oil by large spoonfuls and fry until they have flip themselves over and are evenly golden on all sides.

3. Vigorously stir butter and maple syrup together until light and whipped consistency. Serve with hot hushpuppies.

Notes:

• You can spice these up a little by adding a jalapeno. Just seed and finely dice, then stir into the batter.

Spicy Avocado Hummus

We are definitely at peak avocado, right? It's that moment just before everyone declares they are OVER IT and we move onto the next trendy ingredient. What are we going to blame next for Millennial debt?*

Until we all collectively decide that avocado was the Quiche of the Twenty-Tens, we still have to deal with the prices. Sometimes my Whole Foods will run deals on avocados, but usually they fall somewhere between $1-$2 each. This is fine if I'm buying an avocado to garnish my nachos or my grain bowl, but if it's going to be the star of the show, like say, in a guacamole, that high price tag starts to hurt a little more. And then there is also the part where apparently our avo obsessions are driving the Monarch butterflies to extinction. More food guilt, yay.

Have you met my friend the chickpea, though? He's truly a wonder: full of protein, fiber, and vitamins, and running at the low, low cost of less than $2 per pound. 

And, a new superpower I recently discovered is the chickpea's ability to seamlessly blend in with a couple of avocados to create a smooth, creamy, hummus/guac hybrid dip that is only made better with the addition of roasted jalapeno. 

So, if you generally like having money in your wallet and pretty butterflies, can I recommend a cheaper, spicy, avocado-full crowd pleaser that you could serve at your next Summer party? It's amazing on your standard hummus friends like carrots and celery, and equally tasty on some homemade tortillas lightly fried into chips.

Ok, that last combo is actually incredibly addictive, so proceed with caution.

*Just FYI, take a look at my avocado expenditures and compare them to my rent expenditures and my student loan payments, and I promise you, the reason I can't afford to buy a home has nothing to do with my snack choices.

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Spicy Avocado Hummus

• 1 cup dried chickpeas
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 clove garlic, grated (about 1/2 tsp)
• 2 tsp kosher salt + more to taste
• 2 avocados, halved and pitted
• 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 jalapeno, roasted and peeled
• 1 tbs cilantro

1. Soak chickpeas for at least 4 hours or overnight, with 1 tsp of the baking soda and enough water to cover.
2. Drain the chickpeas, then transfer to a large pot and cook with remaining 1 tsp baking soda and enough water to cover the chickpeas by 4 inches. Cook at a simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until chickpeas are very soft. Drain and cool.
3. Blend all remaining ingredients in the bowl of a food processor until creamy. Add chickpeas and pulse until fully blended. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve with assorted veggies and chips for dipping!