Fresh Berry Cake

This is a layered cake with berries on the bottom and cake batter on top. Fresh picked raspberries, everbearing strawberries and wild strawberries. The wild strawberries we were gifted from a friend on Lopez Island. For this recipe, I cut up each berry. You can use an 8 x 8 inch cake pan. I use a 2 quart Pyrex baking dish, 9 inches by 7 inches. This recipe is divided by ingredients for the berry layer and ingredients for the cake layer.

Ingredients

Berry layer ingredients

Butter, 4 tbsp

Sugar, ¼ cup

Honey, ¼ cup

Fresh berries, 2 cups

Cake ingredients

Butter, ½ cup, softened

Sugar, ¾ cup

Vanilla, 1 tsp

Eggs, 2 large

Milk, ½ cup

Baking powder, 1 tsp

Flour, 1 and ½ cups

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 F. Leave the butter for the batter at room temperature for at least 2 hours.

Next, I prepare the berry layer ingredients.

Melt butter in the microwave for 20 seconds.

Pour melted butter into your baking dish.

Using a pastry brush, totally cover the bottom and sides of your baking dish.

Next, in a small bowl, mix the sugar and honey until completely blended.

Spoon over the melted butter and gently spread around.

Wash and cut the berries.

You can leave the berries whole but cutting them allows the honey sugar mixture to sweeten more.

Add the berries to cover the sugar/honey layer.

Next prepare the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Cream the butter with sugar.

Add the vanilla and mix.

Add one egg at a time, using a wire whisk, beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mix.

Add the milk and mix thoroughly.

Stir in the flour and when almost mixed in, add the baking powder.

I continue to mix by hand 20 times.

Then use a large spoon, scoop and drop over the berries.

Smooth the top.

Bake 35 minutes.

Serve warm with whipped cream.