Barley, Butter and Berries Cake

It's late "winter" in Northern California and there's clear evidence of its tenure in my kitchen. Despite my earnest intentions to venture out into society, I find myself gravitating most weekend afternoons toward the sweet bakes and the slow stews, a long stream of podcast chatter swirling in the background, the cat encouraging a nap. I still crave the late-season snowstorms of the mid-atlantic which (while muck-making and hassle prone) provide a courteous excuse to stay inside, snuggle things, shun the concept of seize-the-day in favor of savoring it. Since my move West, I've turned to baking projects as a stand-in for snow-days in the perennially temperate climate of San Francisco. Because who can feel guilty about not leaving the house when there's a stick of butter in need of encouragement up to room temperature on the counter-top?

This infinitely variable, two-bowl, fuss-less cake has punctuated the impromptu garden parties and casual Sunday dinners of my adult life. It's so easy it hardly earns its "cake" category, and yet it delivers all of the moist, buttery decadence you want from the term while looking like a snapshot from Bring this to a pot luck and you'll piss off anyone else who brought a dessert. The batter doesn't need its hand held and you can adorn it with almost anything you'd like. When the season encourages it: ripe strawberries. For an elegant spin: halved fresh cherries and a bit of almond extract. Today, my market had a bounty of raspberries and so here we have it, in all of it's jammy-puddled glory.

Ingredients

1 stick (8 Tblsp) Butter, at room temp
1 cup white sugar + 2 Tbsp (reserved)
1 egg
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tsp vanilla (may sub 1 tsp with the extract of your choice)
3/4 cup (75 grams) barley flour
3/4 cup (94 grams) AP flour*
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1lb berry of your choice
Optional: powdered sugar for an elegant dusting once cake has cooled and heavy cream for whipping (unsweetened) into soft peaks to serve alongside.

*AP Flour is heavier than barley flour. Feel free to use all AP flour if it's what you have. If you do, use 1.5 cups AP (188g). The barley imparts a nice nuttiness and texture, but the cake will still be delicious without it.

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F and use 1 tbsp of your butter to liberally grease a deep 9 or 10 inch circular pan (a spring form will yield a shorter cake, 9 inch cake pan a taller one) .
In a medium bowl, combine your flour(s), baking soda and salt and whisk well. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer and with the paddle attachment, combine 7 tblsp of softened butter with 1 cup of sugar and beat until creamed and fluffy (about 3 minutes). If you do not have an electric mixer, don't panic. It helps but isn't 100% essential. Get busy employing some elbow grease to beat these magic compounds together until they look like a fluffy white cloud.
Slowly add the milk, egg and extracts to the creamed butter mixture. The butter will seize up once the cool liquids hit it and no matter how much you mix, you will not get a cohesive blend. Don't worry! Once you add your dry ingredients, this will sort itself out.
Add your dry mix to the party and give it a few gentle folds until the flour has just disappeared and the mixture comes together. As with all batters, don't over mix! The tenderness of your cake depends on it.
Plop your batter into your pan (it will be much thicker than pancake batter, thick enough that it needs schmearing). An offset spatula works beautifully for this, but the back of a spoon dipped in water will do. Smooth the batter so it evenly covers the pan. Then, in whatever style suits you push the berries down into the batter in a single layer so that about 3/4 of their height is submerged. You'll have to cram them pretty close together to get em all in, but it's for the best.
Sprinkle your reserved 2 Tblsp of sugar atop the surface and plop that puppy in the oven. After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 325. Let bake for 50-60 minutes more until a cake-tester comes out clean.