Blackberry Mini Cakes

May went by without cake. I mean, not that I didn't eat any cake - I just didn't bake one. My daughter keeps me busy. Still (who would have thought that I would be saying this someday) being a mom is the single most wonderful "job" I've ever had. Getting to know my little girl better brings me such joy. And now that she is almost three months old, she's making progress almost every day. She's discovering her world with her beautiful curious eyes and she's laughing and babbling. Of course, she can also express her needs or discomfort by crying at quite a volume… Well, no doubt she must have inherited her voice from her mother. But overall, we're having a really good time.

I made these mini cakes today because I wanted to use up some leftover blackberries before they would go bad. I'm quite happy with the result. Nothing too fancy, just simple and straightforward - a nice summer treat. You could use any kind of berries you like. Adding some white chocolate chunks would probably be a nice idea, I thought, but I had none at home and there was no time for shopping. Why don't you add some chocolate chunks to your batter or some nuts to give those cakes a crunch.

Recipe
(slightly adapted from Leila Lindholm's Piece of Cake)

100g butter
200ml milk
1 lemon, grated zest
2 eggs
120g sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar or one teaspoon vanilla extract
240g flour
2tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 or 2 tablespoons creme fraiche
200g blackberries
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a muffin tray with paper cases or prepare your mini cake paper cases.

Melt butter, add milk and lemon zest. In another bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until pale and foamy. Mix egg batter with milk batter. Mix flour, baking powder and salt and mix with the liquid batter. Add creme fraiche and mix. Add blackberries and fold in carefully with a ladle. Fill your mixture into the prepared paper cases.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Test whether your cakes are done with a wooden skewer. No cake batter should stick to the wooden skewer.