How to make an edible cake for once?!

[whatshlsnameagain]

I'm rubbish at baking but we picked a load of fresh blackberries yesterday and my son really wants to make a cake. I've got self raising flour, eggs, milk, castor sugar, butter and I couldn't find vanilla essence so got the same bottle but in Sicilian lemon. Now how do I turn this into something edible?

Turn most of the blackberries into jam. Make a lemon song. Sandwich together with the jam, lemon glacé icing or lemon buttercream on top, decorate with remaining fresh blackberries.

Or a lemon sponge, even... 😏

I have never used vanilla in my cakes. I would personally either do a plain sponge with the berries dropped into the batter (wash and dry as much as you can and not to many as may make the cake too wet.

Or do plain sponge and squash the berries in the buttercream and spread in the middle of the cake or on top as a topping

Weigh your eggs, then use the same weight of butter, sugar and flour. Add a pinch of salt and a couple of teaspoons of your lemon essence. That’s your base. I would blitz 150g ish of fruit and stir it through the cake mix at the end.
so cream the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. (Spreadable butter will give you a lighter cake). Add eggs and flour, salt and essence. Add fruit.
if making cupcakes then put in oven:
5 mins at 220°c then 15 mins at 180°c
if making a big cake, then probably in for 30-40 mins at 180°c
eat and enjoy!

Mix 4oz sugar with 4 Oz butter until light and fluffy. Crack 2 eggs into a separate bowl then add to the mix. Then add in 4oz flour.
Bung in cake tin, bung in oven. No idea re temp, maybe 180 fan for 20 mins ish?
To make 2 double recipe.
Turn berries into jam as per pp. Stick in middle of the cakes, with whipped cream if fancy it.

I did this and the cake mix is now purple. I've done this wrong haven't I 😂

I pictured a golden sponge with bits of fruit in 😂

That looks too wet op! Add some more flour and half a teaspoon of baking powder and bung it in the oven. Buns would probably be easier than a cake

I would have done the same as you then realised my mistake 🤣

Next time you can poke the blackberries into the batter in the tin or you can embrace the natural food colouring.

I always do the same as @doodlejump1980 but I never blitz fruit, just stick it in at the end. Berries, chunks of apple or pear, anything really. For a wet fruit I tend to put an extra spoonful of flour in just to stiffen the mixture. Sprinkle brown sugar on the top before baking.

I mean it's baked and not fallen apart so that's something just put the other half in

Attempted to make icing with castor sugar in a blend and currently have a granulated sludge

Looks good to me!

I wouldn’t mix blitzed berries into it, I’d do a normal plain sponge with the whole berries folded in, so you get little pockets of flavour in it and it looks nice. You don’t need vanilla, but you also can’t really substitute in lemon stuff that just comes in a similar bottle 🙂 I’d go for real lemon zest if you wanted a lemon flavour.