Mixed Berry (Brown Sugar) Buckle

So, here’s the thing about this buckle: I actually developed the recipe, photographed the results, tweaked, and photographed again almost two months ago. That is why the photos are of a buckle filled with currants (as opposed to raspberries — which is what it’d be filled with had I developed the recipe a few days ago — or, blueberries — which is what you’d find if it had been developed a few weeks ago). Currants, I have to say, make for a super special buckle and one I would highly recommend trying out next time you find yourself facing currants in the market. With that said, you are in for a treat if you fill this buckle with just about any berry. When I say this buckle (in my opinion) is one of the lightest, moistest, and fluffiest, berry-laden, brown sugar breakfast cakes around, I’m not even exaggerating.
And I know buckles. The first buckle I ever had (and subsequently made) was my mother-in-law’s (aka “nonnie’s”) blueberry one. It is a childhood favorite of my fanatical blueberry-loving husband, and really is delish. So much so, that I developed a version of blueberry buckle  for matt and nato and in the process made (and enjoyed) many a buckle in the name of research. Earlier this summer, however, when staring down a ton of currants, buckle is not what I immediately imagined (it was ice cream, jam, and shortbread bars, if you must know). But my husband (the grower of currants) requested buckle, and I didn’t feel I had the right to say no.
Now funnily (or not so funnily) enough, after developing this recipe, but prior to posting it, I noticed kind-of-a-lot of very recent buckle recipes popping up in the food blogosphere, and I was both heartened (and annoyed) that the, ahem, competition and I were on the same tip. But like I said before, this cake is special. It is creamed for kind of an inordinate amount of time, making it super light and fluffy; has heavy cream and lots of brown sugar in the batter – making it uber-moist; and, like all good buckles, is filled with an extremely generous amount of berries. there’s a big glug of vanilla in there and the buttery crumb also calls for brown sugar (i’m into brown sugar – obvs). yes, you will find lots of yummy buckle recipes around this summer, and i encourage you to try them all. just start with this one, okay? you might just find yourself in fruit-laden brown sugar breakfast-cake heaven (aka enjoying the buckle to end all buckles).
[yumprint-recipe id=’64’]