Lemon Berry Snack Cake

I love the whole idea of Snack Cake.

Are there rules about what can and can't be considered a "snack cake"? I don't know and I don't care.

As far as I'm concerned, the only criteria are that it's the kind of cake you want to snack on.

As in, "I'm not eating dessert before lunch. I just need a little snack." Or, "I just need a little snack before I can face that report/ email/ homework assignment/ household chore/ family member/ et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."

Cakes can be grand affairs, of course. A multi-layered cake is a labor of love and a beautiful way to celebrate special occasions. 

But, snack cake suggests something you can pick up with your fingers and eat while standing over the kitchen sink in the middle of the afternoon. It's the kind of cake that should bake up quickly and pick you up even on the dreariest of days.

Snack cake is the type of thing you can add to a lunch box or serve as an after-school treat. It's an unpretentious bake-sale-worthy casual affair, plate and fork not required.

And, whenever possible, there should be sprinkles.

Adapt This Cake to What You Have and What You Like

This recipe is quick and easy, as all snacking cakes should be, and easily adaptable to what you have on hand and what you like.

• Make it with fresh or frozen berries - any kind and combination
• Make it with no berries at all)
• Make it with or without the tart lemon icing
• Top the cake with Vanilla Icing instead of lemon
• Add some almond extract instead of the lemon zest
• Or replace the lemon zest with orange, lime, or grapefruit zest

I generally have some frozen berries in my freezer and lemons in my fruit drawer, so the lemon and berry flavors were an easy decision. But, fresh berries work just as well as frozen. Or, you can leave the berries out completely.

This is a snack cake. It's nothing to be too serious about. Do as you like.

How to Make a Light and Fluffy Cake

This recipe calls for separating the eggs (here's how to separate eggs) so that you can beat the egg whites separately and fold them into the batter right before baking.

Why? Because this simple technique is one of the best ways to bake a cake that's super soft and fluffy.

When you beat egg whites, you are actually creating a situation in which pockets of air are trapped within the strands of protein in the whites. The more you beat, the more bubbles of air you create, increasing the volume of the egg whites and changing their consistency.

There are three stages to beating egg whites: soft peak, medium peak, and stiff peak. This simply means that, if you lift the beater from the egg whites, they will either:

1. form a soft peak that collapses over onto itself
2. form a medium peak (sometimes called a firm peak) that mostly holds its shape, except for the tip, which will fold over onto itself
3. form a stiff peak, that will hold its shape from the base to the tip

When you fold beaten egg whites into cake batter, you are essentially incorporating all those pockets of air into the batter, creating a texture that is light and fluffy.

However.... this gets tricky if the cake batter is thick because as you fold in the egg whites, you're also smashing out a lot of the air you just beat into them.

Sugar Does More for This Cake Make It Sweet 

Beating a bit of sugar into the egg whites stabilizes their structure so all that air is more likely to stay trapped inside. Another huge bonus to beating in some sugar is that it will guard against overbeating.

Egg whites can go from "medium peak" to over-beaten, dry, and lumpy in a flash. A bit of sugar keeps this from happening.

It does matter WHEN you add the sugar.

#1. Beat the egg whites until they are frothy, with large air bubbles throughout

#2. While you continue to beat, slowly sprinkle in the sugar

#3. Keep beating until the egg whites are glossy and at the firm peak stage - they'll hold their shape, but the tip falls over onto itself when you lift the beater.

One final thing I want to say about beating egg whites.... One year for Christmas, my daughter got me this combination Immersion Hand Blender, Mixer, and Food Processor and it's fabulous.

It is absolutely perfect for quickly beating a few egg whites and allows me to leave the cake batter in the bowl of my stand mixer while beating up the egg whites in a separate bowl. 

How To Keep Berries From Sinking to the Bottom of the Cake

Anyone who's ever baked with fresh berries has probably had the experience of all the fruit sinking to the bottom while the cake bakes. Different recipes suggest different tips and tricks for preventing this from happening. Some work and some don't. 

For this cake, the thing that works the best is to toss the fruit with a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch. The cornstarch seems to give the berries something to adhere to, sticking them to the batter so they are less likely to sink while the cake bakes.

Mind you - some of the berries will sink to the bottom no matter what you do. This is fine. Don't stress about it.

You'll have some berries on the bottom of each slice, but you'll also have some in the middle and even at the top.

Why Does This Cake Include Butter AND Vegetable Shortening?

First off, let me say that if you'd like to use all butter or all vegetable shortening, go for it.

The main difference between the two (when it comes to baking) is that butter contains some water and vegetable shortening does not.

Because vegetable shortening is 100% fat, it adds more tenderness to cakes than butter does. Cakes made with shortening tend to be softer and lighter tasting than those made with butter. BUT (and this is a BIG but) - shortening has zero flavor.

Butter brings the flavor. Using half shortening and half butter creates a cake that takes advantage of the best parts of each - a fluffy, light crumb from the shortening and rich, buttery flavor from the butter. Win. Win.

Snack Cake is Delicious With or Without Icing

I love me a slice of cake with tart lemon icing. But, this cake is also delicious, and sometimes more convenient, without it. If, for example, you wanted to pack squares of cake into lunch boxes, I'd leave them un-iced.

Plain squares of cake are also more convenient on the go. And, I do love situations in which one has the option of heading out the door all in a rush to someplace or another with a piece of cake on a napkin to eat on the way. Who doesn't? 

More Simple Cake Recipes

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Scroll down to rate this recipe and leave a comment for me, or take a picture and tag it @ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!