Berry Cobbler Cake

We can’t get enough of berry season, and to celebrate Memorial Day on it’s way, I’ve created this Berry Cobbler Cake to celebrate!

With soft almond vanilla bean cake layers studded with pockets of fresh berries, a gorgeous berry compote filling, an oatmeal crumble layer baked right onto the cake and around the outside for garnish, vanilla bean buttercream with a touch of cinnamon, and a handful of fresh berries on top, this cake is certain to become one of your very favorites to make all summer long!

Memorial Day is usually the beginning of summer season for most, but around here the rain insists on sticking around. Although it definitely puts a damper on a lot of our outdoor plans this week, I just planted a lot of flowers and filled our garden boxes with plants, so they, as well as our grass, are loving all this extra rain this season.

We’ve been able to start working a bit more on our backyard area and I’ve been greatly anticipating outdoor BBQ’s and family gatherings under the bistro-light draped pergola. But with all this rain, it looks like we might be baking up our steaks in the oven, haha, at least for this weekend. We’ll see.

One thing that I know will for sure happen is some kind of cobbler – we love peach cobbler, strawberry peach cobbler, and especially berry cobbler. It’s hard to resist the warm soft cake layers slathered in berry filling, topped with lots of that heavenly oatmeal crumble, and don’t forget the vanilla bean ice cream to top it off! Whether you’re used using a dutch oven for this summer delicacy or tossing everything in the oven, it’s time to jump right into my cake version of this favorite berry treat! It has all the components of berry cobbler that I love, and I hope you catch that familiar splendor this cake will most certainly bring to your table.

First, I wanted to try my first layered cake that included fresh berries right in the batter. I knew having the berries be the filling wouldn’t be enough, well, berry! Using fresh berries was a no brainer for this recipe – they are easily available, so I knew we’d be off to a good start. I made a batch of my vanilla bean cake batter as my base (if you haven’t tried my vanilla cake, it’s hands down the very best), and then added a touch of almond extract for a little something extra. The vanilla beans lend to the “vanilla bean ice cream” taste you’ll love, and the almond is just for fun. You can find vanilla bean paste at any baking store, or I’ve even found it on Amazon. If you can’t find it, you can always just use vanilla extract, too. You won’t get those signature little flecks of black, but the flavors should be there. For the fresh berries, I used a mixture of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. They were ripe and ready to go! Instead of just tossing them into the batter, I made sure to toss them in a bit of flour beforehand – this makes sure the berries don’t spread and make the whole batter purple. I love purple, but purple cake isn’t really my thing, haha. Coat them in flour, then toss them into the batter for the last step (gently fold them in).

Hold on! Wait just one second – we can’t skip the best part!

Before putting your 3 6″ baking rounds filled with gorgeous vanilla bean cake with berries in the oven, there’s ONE more step that makes this cake truly something special – the crumble. The cobbler, the crumble, the crisp, it’s all mostly the same, right? No matter what it’s called, the granola-like texture is what brings us back for more, and also is a huge contrast to the softness of everything else. Instead of baking all that yummy cinnamon-y oatmeal crumble by itself, I added a thin layer of the crumble right on top of the cake batter. You want just enough, and not too much. Make sure it’s even, and that you save some of that crumble for later. Come to think of it, I don’t see why it would be a problem to layer the crumble in the bottom of the pan – just like a lot of my Cake Confidence Cookbook recipes. If you try it, tell me how it goes baking it on the bottom instead of sprinkling it on top!

With the rest of the crumble, you’re going to just bake it up on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper to get nice and toasty (like granola, really). Let it cool, and you can use it a garnish on the side and top of your cake.

Although this cake has berries in the batter and on top of the cake, I wanted to create a filling that would compliment the other textures, as well as echo that “mushed” berry part of berry cobbler. I made my filling on the stovetop with a little water, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch – very similar to my Peach Crisp Cupcakes from Cake Confidence. You can leave the berries chunky like I did for my compote, or you can always use an immersion blender to make the filling more uniform. It’s totally up to you! Don’t skip the filling, it’s really a yummy part of this cake! I usually make it the day before assembling, same day that I bake up my layers ahead of time, and let it sit in the fridge overnight covered in plastic wrap. Try your hardest to not slather it all over any bread in sight before putting it inside your cake. haha

Next, this buttercream is SO STINKING GOOD. It’s vanilla bean with a tiny touch of cinnamon. It’s thick, sweet, soft, and ties everything together beautifully. This is American buttercream, so we start off with the basics like unsalted butter, salt, vanilla, vanilla beans, powdered sugar, etc, and we whip it up on high speed until it’s light and fluffy. For this cake, I left the upper edges rough like we’ve seen in recent trends. I love how low-maintenance it was to create, and it made for almost a basket for the crumble and berries on top!

As always, I recommend separating this cake into different days – day one, buy the ingredients, day 2 make the cake and filling and crumble, day 3 make buttercream and assemble. I wouldn’t recommend adding on your berries until the day you’re serving it – why? You want your berries to look and taste their best, and also… you see my berries are a little frosted… this is because I had them in the freezer overnight before shooting this cake in my kitchen (the lighting wasn’t right when I finished the cake, so I saved it until the next day). It’s up to you, but that’s just my two cents.

As always to get the best slice possible, it’s important to have a VERY sharp knife and a cold cake. I love serving cake cold – the texture of the cake itself should be the same cold as it is room temperature (with the exception of the buttercream, which is yummy either way, but is admittedly more firm after refrigeration). The filling firms up quite a bit in the fridge, so if you want it to be more gooey, you can leave the cake out for a bit to return a bit closer to room temperature.

And that’s it! Hope you enjoy my Berry Cobbler Cake, and as always, make sure to tag your BwB creations with #bakingwithblondie & @bakingwithblondie on Instagram so I can see! I share your bakes on Sunday mornings – it’s a fun way to be inspired by others, but also to give you a little shoutout for your fun in the kitchen!

Here’s a little video of how I assembled everything for this cake:

Happy baking! xo – Mandy