Old Fashioned Berry Layer Cake

berry cake4, originally uploaded by eat sleep knit.

I guess you could say I've been in some kind of funk lately. I haven't been able to make up my mind. Usually prior to a family gathering or holiday, I have something in mind to prepare. I have thought of a recipe or a theme months in advance. For whatever reason, this year has been quite different. I'm struggling to come up with something new.

Perhaps it's that I require that it be new...could it be that I've run out of ideas? No way...there are millions upon millions of recipes out there...surely I can't have made them all!

So for a Memorial Day gathering I settled upon the cover recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Book. It's a beautiful cake full of whipped cream and berries...who could resist?

The cake layers are something that resembles a genoise or sponge cake. You start off by beat eggs and sugar to the ribbon stage and lightly folding in flour, cornstarch and finally vegetable oil. The last part kind of threw me. I've not made a cake batter that comes together like this.

Bake in 9-inch round cake pans for about 30 minutes, rotating the pans once. I was a bit worried when I reached into the oven to rotate the pans because the batter had expanded over the top of the 2-inch high sides! That was about as high as the cake reached, thankfully. (I just cleaned the oven!)

The recipe instructs the baker to invert the cakes immediately out of the pan and re-invert to right-side up. Some of the cake tore in this process, but most of it was intact.

I baked the layers the night before the party and planned to assemble it on location.

The next day...
I whipped 4 quarts (!) of heavy cream with 1/2 cup powdered sugar and some vanilla. You slice the 2 layers in half to make 4. And you layer the cake with whipped cream and mixed berries.

The recipe calls for blackberries, blueberries, petite strawberries, raspberries and golden raspberries. My grocery store did not have petite strawberries or golden raspberries, but I think the cake still looks beautiful. The mint leaves add a punch of color to liven up the cake. I wish I would have photographed the final product on a darker counter top.

As far as the tasting is concerned...it was surprisingly light. I would probably sweeten the whipped cream a bit more. It seemed sweet enough before I started the assembly, but all together the sweetness was lost. The cake was very light. The berries were wonderfully tart, which is probably why I had wished the cream was a bit sweeter.

I had a few raspberries and strawberries left over...and I do wish I would have filled the cake in a bit more with the left over berries.

But it was yummy! The leftovers the next day were pretty good, too.