Berry skillet cake
What if you could make a cake without the hassle of finding the exact right cake tin?? 'Spring form’ this… ‘bundt tin’ that… ‘square pan’ the other… pfftt. Sometimes it’s all too hard. At least it is in SOMEONE’S house, where the corner kitchen cupboard is the dark, cluttered place where baking gear goes to die. Removable bases go AWOL in there and entire loaf pans vaporise, we swear. It’s so frustrating when you’ve eyed up a particular cake, loaf or slice recipe and you don’t have quite the right tin for the job. Using one that’s too large results in a thin, miserly-looking and possibly over-cooked cake – using one that’s even a smidge too small means cake innards oozing and encrusting themselves all over your oven while the thing is trying to cook. Here’s our fix: use a frying pan! Having said that, the pan still needs to be ballpark the right size (although a cm either side will not be the end of the world and that can’t be said for most cake recipes). This is one of those easy melt-and-mix affairs too, making it simple and fast to whip up. You just stir everything together, dump it in the pan, smooth it over, scatter with berries… then bake. It’s great served warm as a dessert with lashings of custard, cream or ice cream; there’s no precise cake cutting required. We just carve it up using a big metal spoon and making loads of mess but hey, that’s just us. We can be a little gnarly around the edges.
MAKES 1 x 27cm CAKE
260g (1¾ cups) self-raising flour
50g (½ cup) almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
200g butter, melted
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
2 large eggs
125ml (½ cup) milk
1½ tsp vanilla extract
330g (2½ cups) mixed berries, either fresh or frozen
165g (½ cup) berry jam (optional)
vanilla ice cream, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and lightly flour the base and side of a 27cm (top measurement) frying pan with an ovenproof handle.
Combine the flour, almond meal and baking powder in a large bowl and whisk to combine well. Combine the butter, 165g (¾ cup) of the sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until mixed well and smooth. Add to the flour mixture in the bowl, then whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan, smoothing the top even, then scatter over the berries and remaining sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a cake tester withdraws clean when inserted in the middle.
Meanwhile, heat the jam, if you’re using it, in a small saucepan to melt. Pass it through a sieve to remove the seeds and any solids, then drizzle over the warm cake.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.