When I was about five, I remember telling people I either wanted to be a policeman or a baker or a painter. Not necessarily in that order. I don’t remember what influenced me to choose those, other than I was easily influenced as a kid, but also with no follow through! These were very fleeting thoughts. Today, more than four decades later, I’m not any of those things, at least not professionally. There are elements of those professions that I still admire or desire to have. This cake made me think of the desire to be a painter, and not the artist type of painter. More like a house painter. Anyways…

I don’t know, I’m weird, but there’s something satisfying about painting a square cake with blackberry jam. (Just make sure to use a high quality pastry brush that doesn’t lose its bristles on the cake!)

I kinda went overboard buying blackberries these past couple of weeks so bare with me with the blackberry recipes!

BTW, buying the blackberry liqueur at my local grocery store was fun! My local grocery store is different than other stores in Seattle, in that they lock up the liqueur in cabinets and you have to request the liqueur from the cashier, who then walks with you to the cabinet, you point to the liqueur that you want, and the cashier gets it for you and you walk back to the cash register with the cashier and you buy it! Plus buying it at 8 AM on a Saturday gave me weird looks. Can’t they see I’m also buying baking supplies?! That I must be wanting to bake something? If I wanted to get drunk I’d buy whiskey or vodka, not some syrupy fruit-flavored brandy. Ha!

I guess they have to do it this way in my neighborhood…

It’s an 8-inch by 8-inch cake that you can whip up in a jiffy. If you like blackberries with chocolate flavor, this cake is for you! I’m caling it a brownie cake, because it’s almost a brownie recipe, but the other ingredes make it more cakey. The 1/2 cup of blackberry liqueur really helped. It turned out with great blackberry flavor that’s rivaling my top fruit, the cherry, in my head, in terms of all time favorite flavors! And I’m noticing the fruit flies in the kitchen compost really like it too!

Blackberry Chocolate Brownie Cake

ingredients

1 and 1/4 cup All-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 cup blackberry liqueur

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temp.

about 9 ounces of whole fresh blackberries, washed and dried

about 1/2 cup blackberry jam, optional

method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 8-inch by 8-inch square pan by spraying it with baking spray and lining the bottom and two sides with parchment paper and spraying again with baking spray. Set aside.

Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk thoroughly. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy, add vanilla, then the egg, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix thoroughly with a handheld beater. Gradually add the blackberry liqueur while mixing. Batter will be kinda separated, but don’t worry, it will come together.

Add a third of the flour mixture, mix, then half the buttermilk, then mix again, then the second third of the flour mixture, mix again, scraping sides as needed, then the final half of the buttermilk, mix, followed by the last third of the flour mixture and finally mixing again until thoroughly combined. Mix on low speed the whole time and be careful not to overmix.

Pour into prepared square pan and level the top with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula. Top with blackberries evenly throughout surface of cake.

Bake for about 50-55 minutes on 350 degrees oven in middle rack. Ovens vary so start checking at 45 minutes, but try not to check too many times. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before carefully taking out of pan and reinverting on wire rack. Brush tops and sides with blackberry jam, if desired.