Spring Brunch Menu: Buttermilk Pudding Cakes

Daytime dessert is one of life’s little indulgences, mostly appropriate at brunch or a long lunch with a great aunt you admire but rarely get to see because she lives someplace fabulous, like  London or Schenectady. These little cakes are rather unexpected. Their texture is almost custard-like, curdish, curdled – it’s the buttermilk, I suppose. They are not so sweet but so, so addictive. I think they will be a lovely finish to this spring brunch menu. I topped mine with strawberries, because they taste green, like the earth, redolent of summer sun and all things growing. But any favorite fruit will do!

Buttermilk Pudding Cakes
Adapted from a recipe in The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced
• Whipped cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F with rack positioned in the top third of the oven. Sift together flour and baking powder in a large bowl. In another large bowl whisk eggs, pour in buttermilk, vanilla, 5 tablespoons plus one teaspoon sugar, and butter. Slowly stir in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and well-combined. Prepare your baking gear  – muffin tins or mini bundt pants – and fill the cups 3/4 full with batter. Bake for nine minutes. Check the edges for an even doneness. Check every minute after until the sides of the cakes are nicely browned. (Mine took eleven minutes). Combine sliced strawberries with one tablespoon of sugar. Once the cakes are cooled, invert them onto plates, top with berries and cream.

Make this special menu this Sunday for the wonderful mothers in your life. Happy weekend.

Spring Brunch Menu

Asparagus Soup
Spinach and Gruyere Strata
Buttermilk Pudding Cakes

Tagged as: berries, cake, dessert, vegetarian

About the Author: Jillian Bedell

Jillian grew up in Connecticut, went to university in Boston, college in New Haven, did some post-grad soul searching in New York, exiled herself to Mexico, married her longtime sweetheart, and lived in a house on the ocean. She suspected Maine might be the perfect place to raise a family, so she came back home to New England two years ago. Now a mom to Violet Maeve and living in Rockland, where she hopes to settle for a good, long while, Jillian reads, writes, walks, and practices Nia, when not watching Malcolm photograph sandwiches.