Mulberry Sourdough Coffee Cake
Hello, dear readers! I hope that you have been enjoying this lovely summer. I apologize for being away for a while - I had a baby! Our daughter was born on June 8th, and we welcome her home with happy hearts. We named her Felicity Rose and everyone is completely smitten. Perhaps I will have time to share more on that at a later date!
While I spent the last few weeks regaining my strength, learning how to navigate our home life with three young children, and simply enjoying my family there was lots of time to meander about the farm. This summer we were pleasantly surprised to find that there is an abundance of mulberry trees growing all over the entire acreage! We had no idea until this year! It almost seems as if they sprung up just this year, as we had not seen hardly any berries over the last five year. Perhaps they were simply too young to produce the multitude of berries we now have that we just did not even notice they were there. Whatever the reason, we are overjoyed to see them and have a delicious fruit to forage right on our own land.
If you are unfamiliar, mulberries have about 16 species including black, red, and white mulberries. They grow naturally where we live, in Iowa. They are packed full of nutrition, and they are incredibly sweet. The kind that we have growing on the farm are black, so they easily stain your fingers and hands! This article is fun to read more facts about mulberries and identifying the plant yourself!
Now that they are beginning to ripen, the boys and I have spent the past several evenings out in the tree line picking berries to use for baked desserts, syrups, compotes, and jams. I look forward to doing this every year from now on!
ingredients & recipe:
makes one 9x13 cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sourdough starter discard
4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk, any kind works
1 tbsp vanilla extract
mulberry cinnamon filling
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup mulberries or other berries
cinnamon crumble topping
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup salted butter, melted
directions:
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9x13 cake pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, cream together the butter, sour cream, and sourdough starter. Whisk in the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon for the mulberry filling. Stir in the mulberries, gently, to coat them evenly.
Next, make the streusel. Mix together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter until pea sized crumbles form.
Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the mulberry filling over the top of the cake filling. Layer the remaining cake batter over the mulberry filling, spreading as evenly as possible across the top of the berry mixture. Cover the cake batter with the streusel topping.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve with a bit of simple powdered sugar icing.
This little coffee cake is so fun to make. The sourdough gives the cake a lovely flavor, and the mulberries have a unique texture and are delightful as a filling. If you do not have access to mulberries where you live, you can easily swap in any summer berry for the filling including raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries. I love making this cake in the middle of the week to enjoy either in the morning or with my afternoon cup of coffee or tea.
Let me know if you make this recipe! (:
xoxo Kayla
