Berry Good Summer Day

Whenever we have a beautiful summer day with nothing on our schedules, Mary and I love coming up with fun summer adventures to make the most of the long days in our short summer. While we've been on many summer adventures this season from days at the lake to city trips to afternoons at the pool, we realized we were missing out on one classic summer activity― berry picking. While we missed our opportunity for strawberry picking in June, we discovered that now is the perfect time for picking raspberries. After finding a berry farm about an hour away (Stade's Farm and Market in McHenry, IL), we embarked on our adventure and ended up choosing a berry good day for picking with our friends!

While the weather was very hot and many of the bushes were growing wild (and were quite prickly!), the raspberry picking conditions were excellent and we all ended up with overflowing baskets of beautiful berries. Everyone had such a great time digging through the bushes and hunting for only the best berries. It was so fun to watch the kids yell in excitement as they disappeared amongst the wild bushes and emerged with a handful of perfect berries. While we all ended up covered in raspberries and had one or two scratches from the prickly thorns, we had the best time laughing and enjoying our berry picking adventure.  

Hunting for the best berries!

Of course, coming home with a pint of gorgeous, fresh-picked raspberries meant we would surely be making a delicious raspberry dessert. After looking at all kinds of recipes from bars to crisps to cupcakes to crumbles, we decided on a new recipe― a raspberry buckle.

A buckle is like an inverted crisp or cobbler, where the fruit is baked on top, rather than underneath the topping. Once the buckle goes into the oven, the cake bakes up around the raspberries, trapping the tartness of the fresh berries in the sweet cake of the buckle.

The buckle batter is made with often on-hand ingredients, and is so quick and easy to whip up. After you make the batter and cover the top with a pint of fresh berries, the rest of the magic happens in the oven.

After the buckle is finished baking, you can see how the berries become hidden inside the sweet cake, resulting in bites of tart raspberry surprises. There is a perfect balance between sweet and tart, and the buckle really showcases the flavor of the fresh berries. We used this great recipe adapted from Martha Stewart. 

Raspberry Buckle

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 pint raspberries
• Confectioner's sugar for dusting, optional

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart oval or square baking dish. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder; with mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture until incorporated.
2. Spread batter in baking dish. Scatter raspberries on top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean and top is golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool 20 minutes; dust with confectioners' sugar, if desired. With a large spoon, scoop out onto serving plates; serve with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

If you're looking for a fun summer day trip, berry picking is such a fun activity, and can give you an excuse to whip up a delicious fruit dessert! We hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!