Huckleberry Maple Breakfast Cake

This breakfast cake is divine. It is not decadent or rich, sugary or intensely flavored. It won't lie to you.
Instead, it is moist with a spongy crumb, balanced sweet and tart with a buzzing maple flavor in the background. The berries won't let you down, and should you find it in need of dressing up, the possibilities are quite endless. Syrup drizzled atop, honeyed Greek yogurt, vanilla bean cream cheese, perhaps a side of sweet tangerines. I however ate mine entirely plain and wouldn't have it any other way.

So it's not berry season, not even close, but: the beauty of having a food-and-hiking-loving mother on the mountainous side of the state and a freezer here at home means I can savor the wild flavors of Eastern Washington August in Western Washington January. I'm thankful.
You can find the frozen berries in many freezer sections. An easy substitution would be wild blueberries, which are small and juicy. I understand that either may be somewhat pricier than other frozen fruits, which is precisely why I wanted to let the berry flavor stand out.



All types of frozen fruit are ideal for baking. In this case, I left the berries slightly frozen (very cold and slightly icy) as insurance against burning, as they are added only to the top of the cake. If yours are thawed, consider putting the cake on the lowest rack in your oven.
It's a rather simple recipe. I assembled the dry and the wet the night before and just popped them together and into the oven for a Sunday brunch. Pretty easy to sip on some tea and lounge in slippers while the oven does the work, don't you think?
The whole wheat pastry flour is, as I've mentioned before, made from soft white wheat is is finer textured with much less bran and significantly less gluten. If you must, substitute half and half whole wheat and unbleached AP. The oat flour makes the texture unique and I wouldn't suggest leaving it out. You can easily make oat flour by throwing some oats in your food processor or blender until fine.
Don't be tempted to skip the sifting step. Clumps of unreacted but cooked baking soda are very bitter and unattractive.
If you happen to have berries on the tart side (taste them before using) or just enjoy a sweeter breakfast treat, consider adding 1-2 T. additional maple syrup. As it is, the cake will certainly not bring about a sugar rush, but it goes perfectly with milky coffee. Plus, who doesn't love the idea of eating cake for breakfast??

Tools recommended: a pie or cake pan and a sifter or sieve.

Huckleberry Maple Breakfast Cake

Recipe by Cowen Park Kitchen

A mildly sweet, berry-topped cake for a breakfast treat.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 1 cup cultured buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 2 T. melted butter
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 3 T. maple syrup
• 2/3 cup. slightly thawed frozen huckleberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Mix all wet ingredients except berries, whisking egg into buttermilk and being careful when adding hot butter not to curdle the egg.
4. When oven is hot, add dry to wet and mix thoroughly to eliminate dry clumps. Do not overmix.
5. Pour into buttered 9" round pie or cake pan.
6. Add berries to top of batter, distributing evenly.
7. Bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or chopstick comes out clean.
8. Cool briefly, then serve plain, with a drizzle of syrup, or alongside a honeyed yogurt or creme fraiche.
9. Keeps well if covered and left a room temperature.