Blackberries remind me of summer. Summers spent as a young kid, playing in the backyard down on the island. Mom would put the sprinkle on and we would run through it squealing with little girl delight. On to the swing set or the little rickety metal slide.

The entire back length of our yard was blackberry bushes. We would play, eat, play, eat, play, and eat all summer long. I can only imagine how stained our little hands and feet were at the end of a long summer day.

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In a vain attempt to ward off the impending autumn, I find myself craving blackberries. Blackberry oatmeal in the morning, grilled chicken and blackberry vinaigrette salad for lunch, and most certainly some sort of blackberry sweet treat for dessert.

It only seems natural to make a blackberry inspired cake. A sweet dairy-free whipped blackberry buttercream envelopes layers of honey cake speckled with mini dark chocolate chips served with a side of blackberry curd. A summer cake full of fresh blackberry flavour.

Honey: Mother Nature’s Sugar

The honey cake layers were taken from my go-to vanilla cake recipe with creamed honey in place of the granulated white sugar. Have you tried creamed honey before?! It’s an absolute must. It’s called BeeMaid, they’re Western-Canadian Beekeepers, and I find it at Costco. Confession: I will often dip a saltine cracker right in it as a quick salty/sweet snack.

But back to the cake…here’s a quick tip for when mixing add-ins to cake batter. Toss whatever it is, mini dark chocolate chips in this case, with a tablespoon or two of all-purpose flour. This is going to make sure the add-ins stay suspended in the batter and don’t float down to the bottom of the pan when baking.

The Star of the Show: Blackberry Curd

Curd filling is life. Like I don’t want to live in a world where’s there is no curd filling to my cake. And blackberry curd should be your top curd priority. The tricky part about this particular cake and this particular day it was made…it was smokin’ hot.

I already knew my buttercream was going to be on the soft side so I decided against actually filling my cake with it and serving it on the side instead. Just as yummy and gave me peace of mind that my cake would not topple over.

But on the actual making of the curd…don’t get intimidated, it’s quite easy and worth the effort. First, remember that slow and steady wins the curd race. Take your time cooking the curd on medium-low heat. After the blackberry curd was cooked, I sieved the seeds out. This is a personal choice so feel free to skip this step if you aren’t bothered by the seeds in the curd.

Now for that Blackberry Buttercream

For the buttercream, I used Crofter’s organic seedless blackberry jam. This jam is on repeat in my house as my girls are pb&j aficionados and I love that it is reduced sugar without any reduced flavour. I made the buttercream vegan for my dairy sensitive family but I’ll give you the recipe at the bottom both ways.

The jam packs all the blackberry flavour needed for this cake and colours the buttercream a gorgeous light pink. Feel free to add a drop of two of food gel colour to bump up the colour if you want it a touch intenser. I prefer to use Chef Master food gel colours as they are highly saturated and come in an array of gorgeous tones.

Lastly, I topped this cake off with all the blackberries I could get my blackberry loving hands on, a little splash of Sprinkle Pop “Drenched in Diamonds” glittery sugar for a dash of sparkle, and some fresh-picked garden flowers because well it’s summer and flowers are oh so summer. Hope you love this Honey Blackberry cake as much as I did!

If you are craving a sweet summer-inspired cake, check out my Lemon Cake recipe!

Honey Blackberry Cake

Author: Katie
Total Time: 2 Hours 25 Mins
Yield: 10 Slices 1x
Diet: Low Lactose

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Description

Soft honey cake layers loaded with mini chocolate chips. This light summer cake is filled with homemade blackberry curd and covered in a sweet whipped blackberry frosting.

Ingredients

Scale

Honey Cake

⅓ cup dairy-free salted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups Beemaid creamed honey
4 large egg whites, room temperature
¼ cup dairy-free yogurt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups cake flour, sifted
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
⅔ cup dairy-free milk, room temperature
1 cup dairy-free mini dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Blackberry Curd

1 ½ cups blackberries, fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons dairy-free salted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, slightly beaten

Blackberry Buttercream

2 cups dairy-free salted butter, room temperature
6 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup blackberry jam
optional: Chef Master gel colour
optional: fresh blackberries for decor
optional: Sprinkle Pop “Drenched in Diamonds” glittery sugar

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Instructions

Honey Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray and parchment paper.
Toss the mini chocolate chips with 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and set them aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter and honey on high for 2 minutes with the whisk attachment.
Add in the egg whites and mix on high for 2 minutes.
Add the yogurt and vanilla extract and mix on high for 2 minutes.
Combine all the dry ingredients into the mixer and mix on low
While the mixer is on low slowly pour in the milk and mix until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
With a spatula, fold the mini chocolate chips from step 2 into the batter.
Divide batter between pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes and then invert on a cooling rack to fully cool.

Blackberry Curd

In a medium pot bring blackberries, lemon juice, sugar, and butter to a boil over medium-low heat and let simmer for 10 minutes or until the juice is released from the blackberries.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the beaten eggs.
Place back onto the heat and allow to cook until the blackberry curd begins to thicken and can coat the back of a spoon.
Remove from heat and strain out the blackberry seeds if desired.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the curd and allow it to fully cool before filling the cake.

Blackberry Buttercream

In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter on high speed with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Add the icing sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and blackberry jam and mix on low until combined.
Turn the mixer up to medium and let mix for 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl when necessary.

Cake Assembly

Place one leveled layer of honey cake on a cake board or plate. Top with approximately 1 cup of buttercream.
Pipe a buttercream border along the edges and fill with ½ cup of blackberry curd.
Repeat with the remaining layers and apply a thin coat of buttercream all over the cake. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Cover the cake with another layer of buttercream and smooth sides.
Decorate as you please. I smoothed the sides of the cake with my Wilton cake smoother and left the top edge unfinished. Decorated one side of the cake top with fresh blackberries, garden-picked flowers, and Sprinkle Pop “Drenched in Diamonds” glittery sugar. Enjoy.