Bites of sweet summer fruit peak from the buttery Picnic Cake with Buttermilk and Summer Fruit. Picnic Cake with Buttermilk and Summer Fruit is a sweet way to use up leftovers from binge buying too much summer fruit.
“It’s a pleasant little stream that gurgles through the Alisal against the Gabilan Mountains on the east side of Salinas. The water bumbles over round stones and washes polished roots of the trees that hold it in. The smell of azaleas and the sleepy smell of sun working with chlorophyll filled the air. On the bank the Ford car sat, still breathing softly from its overheating. The back seat was filled with azalea branches.”
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Inspiration
Picnic Cake with Buttermilk and Summer Fruit announces summer to everyone who shares a slice. Bites of sweet summer fruit peak from a buttery, buttermilk laced cake lightened with whipped egg whites. This cake is a sweet way to use up the odds and ends leftover from binge buying too much summer fruit. This is a versatile cake recipe, adapted from a vintage church cookbook. Any type of stone fruit or cane berries can be used, apricots, plums, peaches or nectarines. Cherries and cane berries, whatever you would like to use.
Essentials
Picnic cake, snack cake or sheet cake, it’s all the same type of cake. Fill an oblong pan with cake batter, frost or not, slice and serve with enough to share. The term sheet cake is the current trendy term. I’m partial to Picnic Cake. It evokes summer with a setting, a place to relax and share. Pick the name that brings joy, and make Picnic Cake with Buttermilk and Summer Fruit.
