Hi everyone, I’m back from my trip to Sicily! First off, thanks to everyone for leaving such kind wishes for a fun vacation – and fun it was indeed. I’m still daydreaming about the beautiful light, colors, smells, and of course flavors of the island, but before I share pictures and impressions from Sicily, I wanted to put up a quick post.

I still have mountains of laundry and other enchanting tasks to take care off. Just so I don’t forget I’m back in reality!

My parents have two giant blackberry bushes in their yard, which produce the most magnificent fruit every year. They are best eaten right off the vine when they are still warm from the sun.

The day we returned, my parents dropped off a container of freshly picked blackberries – the perfect excuse to bake a cake! I made a simple cake base with ground almonds and vanilla, and topped it off with fresh berries and chopped almonds. If you don’t have blackberries at hand, you can use apricots, blueberries (they go great together!), nectarines, or raspberries instead. The batter is enough for a 26cm round cake pan.

Blackberry Almond Cake

125g soft butter

100g sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

grated peel of 1/2 lemon

3 eggs

150 g flour

40g ground almonds

blackberries

40g whole blanched almonds, roughly chopped

pinch of salt

1. Cream butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon peel and pinch of salt.

2. Separate eggs and mix yolks into batter one at a time. Mix until well incorporated.

3. Add flour and ground almonds.

4. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

5. Gently fold egg whites into batter.

6. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly.

7. Sprinkle blackberries on top of batter.

8. Sprinkle with chopped almonds.

9. Bake in preheated oven at 180C/350F for about 30 minutes or until golden.

10. Let cool on cake rack before unmolding.

Enjoy!

I’m looking forward to checking out what everyone has been cooking while I was gone! Stay tuned for a post on Sicily coming up next.