When you move to New York, one unexpected consequence is that you start carrying your life in bags of all sizes. Grocery bags, gym bags, purses and, sometimes, a backpack for longer excursions — you need many options to haul your belongings.
One of my seasonal challenges is making baked goods that travel well to outdoor gatherings. It may sound trivial, but getting something tasty to a park picnic or summer BBQ without a proper carrier takes planning.
If I’m headed to a summer BBQ that requires a train ride, a walk, or a bike trip, what dessert is practical to bring?
Cupcakes? Usually not. I don’t own a cupcake carrier, so I only make them when I’m hosting or I have a spare shoebox on hand.
A fruit crisp is a summer favorite and travels well in an 8×8 dish, but eating it in the park without plates and utensils can be awkward. Sometimes even a single paper plate and fork feel like too much to carry, so crisps are often ruled out.
All of these considerations inspired me to create the cobbler cake.
It might sound exaggerated, but this cake truly tastes like a cobbler while looking like a cake. It’s a delightful culinary mash-up: moist and tender like a cake, with the fruity, comforting flavors of a cobbler.
This dessert is ideal for anyone who must travel by public transit to a BBQ with a dessert in hand. It’s also perfectly suitable for carrying to a backyard gathering or even stepping out onto your own deck — whatever your summer setup.
This recipe is also called an “any summer fruit” cake because you can use whatever fruit is ripe: berries, peaches, nectarines, apricots or a mix. With raspberries it’s bright and tart; with nectarines it’s juicy and sweet — both are lovely. Use whatever you would put in a cobbler and fold it into this batter.
Any Summer Fruit Cobbler Cake
Makes one 8×8 cake
1 cup (236 ml) milk
one lemon
2 cups (250 grams) flour
1/3 cup (71 grams) sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 1/2 teaspoons (6 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of nutmeg
6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla
about 1 1/2 cups of any summer fruit or berries, chopped if whole (two nectarines were used for the photos)
Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter and flour an 8×8 inch square pan and set aside.
Zest the lemon into a medium bowl. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice into a liquid measuring cup, remove any seeds, then top with milk to reach one cup of liquid. Stir briefly — this is a quick homemade buttermilk substitute.
In a separate bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, baking soda and a pinch of nutmeg. Whisk to combine. Add the cold butter pieces to the flour mixture, toss to coat, and then work the butter in with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Toss the fruit with the flour mixture so each piece is coated. Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk, then quickly add the liquid to the flour and fruit. Gently fold with a spatula just until combined — avoid overmixing.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with about a tablespoon of sugar. Bake for 30 minutes. The cake will remain fairly light in color but is done when a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool, slice and serve.