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Such an elegant cake! I actually made this for a birthday event ✨

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✨✨ INGREDIENTS ✨✨

✨ Cake ✨

½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 oz full fat cream cheese (block style), softened to room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
½ tsp Celtic sea salt
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cardamom
⅔ cup whole milk
1 tsp lemon juice
5 oz fresh blackberries (about 1 cup)

✨ Buttercream ✨

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
¼ cup seedless blackberry jam, divided
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

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✨✨ INSTRUCTIONS ✨✨

✨Cake ✨

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of three 6-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray. (For best results, also line the bottoms of the pans with circles of parchment paper.)

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar on medium speed (#4-6 on a Kitchen Aid mixer) for 7 minutes. Scrape the bowl down several times while mixing.

Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating in each egg on medium speed for 1 full minute before adding the next egg. Add the vanilla.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cardamom.

In a separate glass measuring cup, combine the milk with the lemon juice.

With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour.

Increase speed to medium and beat for 15 seconds. Gently fold in the blackberries with a spatula.

TIP: If your blackberries are large, cut them in half, or even in fourths, so they're more evenly dispersed throughout the cake batter.

Divide the cake batter between the pans, and smooth out the top.

Bake for about 25-28 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Set the pans on a cooling rack, covered loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before assembling and frosting with the buttercream.

✨ Buttercream ✨

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with 3 tablespoons of the blackberry jam, until smooth.

With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined but clumpy. Add the vanilla.

Increase speed to medium, and beat for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to stir, and mix for 1 minute.

Stack, fill and frost the cooled cakes with the buttercream. Frost all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, then frost with a final coat of buttercream.

For the streaky look on today's cake, take the last tablespoon of jam, randomly dab it on the sides of the cake, then smooth and blend it into the buttercream with a bench scraper.

Decorate the top of the cake with fresh blackberries and clean, edible or non-toxic flowers.

Mine didn't turn out exactly like the picture because I overmixed and it didn't turn out nice, but still tasted great. I traveled a long road before I finally learned to make good cake, lol. I decorated with edible glitter, saffron, rose petals, and blackberries ✨