Sunday mornings are not usually a good time to bake leisurely breakfasts at our home. There are errands to run, calls to be made to family overseas, people to catch up with and chores to catch up to. But when the promise of sweet vanilla is in the air, combined with the flap-flap of a pretty, yellow cornmeal batter in the stand mixer bowl and the jewel hues of fresh berries waiting to be scattered over the top of a crust that’ll bake into pure gold… who would not want to make the time? While this cake makes the perfect dessert, if my mom were here, I’d bake it for her for breakfast or brunch this Mother’s Day. The cake is sweetly beautiful and meltingly tender. It truly dissolves in your mouth, and makes you wonder what – or who? – turned you into such a fine cook. The cake recipe can be a blank canvas for your wildest culinary imaginings. You can top it with berries, as I did, or use another fruit – pears or apples would be great. Slice ’em and then layer ’em on top of the batter in a decorative pattern. You could also make this a citrusy skillet cornbread cake by adding a tablespoon of orange zest and replacing the nondairy milk with orange juice. My favorite thing about this cake, besides the deliciousness, is that it is not impossibly, cloyingly sweet. It’s just perfectly so, and with the wholegrain corn and the gluten-free flour and fruit, you have a recipe you can even pass off as healthy. Ish. Check to get new recipe updates by email.
The three of us polished off the whole thing within minutes. After washing the skillet I was heating it on the stove before putting it away, and a mild fragrance of vanilla wafted up from the cast iron and floated around the kitchen, making me wish I had more.
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